Quote: roofaldo2 "But then that's 4 games less in terms of income too. And THAT, imo, is where the main issue with the game in this country lays. There's no money in RL at any real level and this is because the RFL are too willing to give away the TV rights to the whole UK game for peanuts and have nothing in place to ensure that it isn't just SL games that get shown. If the TV deal included a requirement for games from below SL to be shown on a regular basis, it would help those clubs outside the top table as they'd get exposure as well as be able to get a better deal from sponsors because of that exposure. And thus more money comes into the game. More money means that clubs can be in a stronger position and so can actually push for the opportunity of promotion from their current league because at the moment, there's plenty of clubs for whom promotion would actually be a bad thing as their current revenue streams would not be able to support the additional expenditure required'"
Agreed the SL clubs get 4 games less money, but the remaining Championship clubs benefit from two more teams with big followings bringing crowds. We also get a more marketable Championship as half of it would be a standard previously only seen in SL (e.g Widnes, Leigh, Hull KR, London and Toronto), maybe enough to tempt someone to pay for TV rights for that division and bring more cash in that way.