Quote: Ronniequin "Thanks for the reply. My question is really - what if they don't want to continue? More likely, they'll stay with certain conditions. What if they don't want too many teams in Yorkshire for example, but want Birmingham, Bristol, another London side for example? Surely this has prompted the restructure of Championship one. I also think they'll set up a special competition pitching say Saracens against Wigan or Leicester against Leeds.
None of us can be sure, I just sense there needs to be major changes to the way the game is presented.'"
I think your post seems to have come through a wormhole and arrived from 1997.
Sky had an expansionist agenda in 1995 as did the RFL since then expansion clubs with the sole exception of Catalans have been a disaster. RL hasn't proven to be the game that it was hoped to be.
I cannot imagine why Sky would want poorly supported clubs in Birmingham, Bristol etc that moved grounds and changed names every 3-4 years.
The restructuring of CC1 isn't a new thing particularly, the RFL have wanted new blood in the then national leagues since National League three was introduced; we were supposed to have promotion and relegation betwwn NL2 and NL3 afterall. And they have always welcomed new sides whether in Blackpool, Gateshead, London, Wrexham or Bridgend.
There is no market for union vs league clashes because the union clubs would win under union rules and the league clubs would win under league. No third code is going to come into existence without the say so of countries like South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Argentina, France, New Zealand, Wales etc and in most of these countries league barely exists. Why would they agree to merged rules?