As with any system, there are flaws. Who gets 2 home games? How can a club budget? Super 8s they at least know they're going to be guaranteed games against some combination of Wigan/Wire/Saints/Hull at some point and possibly Leeds (before last year). Then 2 of the rest.
Similarly, they know they're going to play against 4 Champ sides consisting of Hull KR, and three potential others likely to include Fev, Fax, Batley, London and possibly Toulouse.
I actually like the Champions League format but for me it needs to incorporate Magic Weekend format as 'Event Days' split across the year around the country. We've seen a few cities trying to bid for it so by doing this we can generate income by having host cities each year.
For me, I'd split the season a follows
22 league games
*11 Home and Away games each
* League Leaders Shield awarded for top
* Bottom two relegation playoffs vs top two Champ sides - victors in SL
* Top 2 SL sides compete in Grand Final at Old Trafford
Challenge Cup
* As per current format (Max 5 games for bottom 4 SL sides, 4 for top
Newly-created On the Road Cup (Min 3 games, max 5 games)
*Played at host cities across the season
Rnd 1 - Etihad Stadium Manchester (Easter); Round 2; Newcastle (May); Round 3 Coventry Ricoh Arena (August); Semi-Finals: Olympic Stadium: Final: Anfield
*Played between 12 SL clubs and top 4 Championship teams
* 4 Groups of 4, top 1 from each league go through (or top 2 if we can increase the amount of money we get and create QFs)
*Each host city pays a financial amount to have it hosted in their city
*New main sponsor
*RFL to subsidise coach travel a la Thurs night games or to work with transport partners
*TV rights sold separately to Super League deal with payment for TV rights split across SL teams and SL Europe. TV rights cover cost of ticket revenue lost by clubs (and more if the rights are sold for a suitable price)
*Prize money for victors of each round to incentivise teams to cover lost ticket revenue (could even be a bonus payment direct to the players taking part to incentivise them)
Prize money as follows: (Group game - each Round 10k to victors, Semi-Final, £15k, Final £20k - minimum RFL need to secure in total from sponsors and partners for the event is £230k). Clubs making it to the final earn max £65k
*ST holders can get discounted tickets a la Magic Weekend
As the TV revenue will pay for the lost ticket sales from STs (let's say max £60 per ST sold for around circa 70000 fans, which is £4.2m, plus gate revenue from say 1200 fans for 4 home games (£1.5m). You're looking at needing to raise a minimum £6m+ from a TV deal covering 27 games (£222k per game). Sky are currently paying more per game for that (they'd need to show 163 games across SL, Champ, International, Challenge Cup per season) so it wouldn't be too expensive.
I'm sure Sky would have a say with a reduction in the available games and the play-offs but it's something worth bearing in mind for the next round of TV rights, which I believe are being looked at in the coming months.
So we'll be cutting down the season from between 31 games and 38 games for teams to a max of 33 games (23 SL games, 5 CC games, 5 OTR Cup) and a minimum 26. That means five free weekends for international games/tournaments, which I'd build in and offer to Sky to help build a strong international calendar.
