Exactly. This is what's happened in Halifax, new fans graduated towards the Bulls because Fax were no longer in the top league. Same applies with Fev and Wakey, new fans went to watch Wakey play the likes of Leeds, Wigan and Saints. That's how Wakey grew their crowd. If Fev had been in SL or if we still had the old system some of those fans would be at P O Road. And it is about replenishing the crowd, replacing those who for whatever reason no longer come to games - they die, they can no longer get to games because of illness or family commitments.

Well thank you very much


But if I'm wrong, then did the big gap, that most people admit exists between SL and the CC, only appear during 3 and a half years of licensing?

Hope this helps.

1. Finance- Its a fair gamble that a more intense SL Premiership consisting of the top 10 teams would generate bigger gates and increased sponsorship/corporate to offset any reduction in Sky revenues, it is also likely this would be far higher profile for the armchair fans and have a positive effect on the next deal.
The SL Championship would be competitive week in week out with the promotion prize to win at the end of the season, again this would impact positively on gates with the GF being the biggest game of the season in its own right.
Sky pay £18m pa until 2016, if we took 10 clubs on £1.1m and 10 on £700k (1.2 + .6 also viable) we finance two full time divisions.
Premiership must spend full cap and Championship £1m, clubs unable to do so shouldn't be in the set up

2. League Structures - Four current SL clubs to move down, Bradford plus 3 imo. Bring in Toulouse and the top 4 championship clubs who meet criteria imo Fax, Fev, Leigh and Sheffield/Batley. We may take a gamble with South Wales or a Cumbrian club - Barrow being the strongest at present.
Twenty seven league games, with a top 6 play off, 3v6 & 4v5 - W1, 1v2 & winners from W1 - W2, Loser from 1v2 plays winner of other game in W2 -W3, GF -W4
Bottom of Premiership relegated, winner of Championship GF promoted with ground caveat.

3. Starting 17 - Max 3 overseas in Premiership and 1 in the Championship

4. Future - 2016 we need to look at viability of 12/12, 10/12 or no change. Sky deal will dictate numbers, assuming no change then the Championship clubs would be reapplying to remain in based upon results, crowds, finances etc. The weakest business case would be replaced by the strongest, and this process to take place every 2 years.

I heard a radio interview a few months ago with Jeremy Wray, Chairman of Swindon Town FC. He was discussing the interview with Paolo Di Canio shortly before he was appointed as team manager. Di Canio asked Wray what were the club's aspirations and Wray answered with suprising candour: "Given our demographics and the finances of the club and the financial situation of the area we cover, the best we could realistically aspire to would be the top end of Coca Cola Championship". It was the chairman's honesty that attracted Di Canio to accept the job. Basically he said "if Wray hod told me Swindon were aiming for Premier League and eventually European Champions League football, he'd now he was dealing with a bull[is[/ihitter and would've walked away".

I'm still surprised by some fans and Chairmen's reluctance to accept the current situation they are in, in favour of living on past "glories", whatever they may perceive them to be.

NOt for another 4 years it wont.
You mean like the 10+ years we had of exactly the same which didnt bring huge new income streams.
No, sky pay for SL. They pay £18m for a 14 team SL. They pay the money to the RFL to distribute to SL clubs for playing in SL. If we were to cut the league by 4, Sky would expect the SC to go up. They will not accept paying money to SL for a league they don’t have the rights to and don’t want to screen.

That’s even jumping passed the question of why SL (Europe) is going to give money owed to them, to the lower leagues?


So they same as we had for the firt 10+ years of SL which proved so unsuccessful.

Where are these players of sufficient quality going to come from? especially when you are mortgaging the future on the increase in quality resulting in an increase in TV revenues in 4 years time.
Sky have dictated the numbers, they dont want a second league.

hope that helps.

If for one minute you believe this will move forward without Sky then you are deluded. If Sky feel they will benefit then it will happen, if the top 10 clubs feel they will benefit they will vote for it. SL is less than 20 years old, it will evolve just as our sport evolved in its infancy from 15 to 13 players etc irrespective how much the Luddites like yourself kick scream and throw their toys out.

I don’t believe it will move forward without Sky, that’s why I don’t believe it will move forward.

Sky don’t want to broadcast a second tier. They certainly don’t want to pay for it, and they especially don’t want to pay for it and not broadcast it.

And you aren’t proposing evolution, you are proposing going backwards at a rate of knots but pretending we aren’t by calling it by a new name.

My post was answering a question posed by tb, are you one and the same?

Assuming you agree the current reality isn't working then what would you propose for the future of our sport, indeed you may think all is wonderful and state so.

I look forward to your reply.

There is a private message function for you to use if that’s what you want to do,

I don’t assume the current system, by and large isn’t working. Of the three clubs who have gone bust, one was a risk, a risk we were all aware of but a risk all the same. Doesn’t make it wrong to try but we were all aware it could fail. The other 2, in Wakefield and Bradford, are both clubs who everyone was aware werent being run very well for a matter of years. P+R or any other system you care to think of would make no difference at all to those situations. They would in fact exacerbate them.

Completely agree. Whilst it is correct that the RFL should review P+R in light of recent events, it would be a knee jerk reaction to have a massive change (yet again).

What RL in whole needs is stability, not changing everything every few years (including the actual rules of the game).

I believe new fans are put off because we can't stick to a set of rules for longer than a few years. Make minor amendments, yes, but not wholesale changes.

as an additional point:

I am only aware of three sports that have introduced P&R between separate pro and semi pro comps: football in the mid 80s; RU and RL in the mid 90s when the introduced fully/ openly pro comps in the mid 90s.

The two that have stuck with it (though there are perennial mutterings in RU about moving to a license system) are those that introduced it when they became awash with the lind of money RL can only dream of.