It would be a big gamble if Salford etc had a lot of fans to lose. They don't. Even if 80% of them walked away, I'd argue that a brand new heartlands club in a big city could still reasonably expect to attract better crowds and sponsorship than what Salford get, as well as more away fans if the ground was more conveniently situated (as Manchester Regional Arena is, for example). It's easy for me to say, but if Wigan had 3k crowds every week and were in dire straights, I'd still support them if they moved to Manchester to make it work (not Liverpool though *spits*)

The old top 5 format was the best play off series that we've had and did, quite rightly, favour those sides finishing in 1st & 2nd (until Leeds trashed the party).
This will mean that the remaining 5 (or more if we increase the numbers) wont have any further games but, this was a better system which, quite rightly, put the emphasis on the run in to the grand final.
One major issue with this would be fewer games for Sky, which could be a huge stumbling block.
Maybe all the sides that dont qualify for the play offs could have a new end of season cup competition, which would give them something to play for and give sky some additional matches to fill our screens.

That’s why we should have 14 teams in Super League

Which requires the acceptance of Sky, as their current contract specifies the league set-up, and this can't/won't happen before 2022 (next contract).

I too would like a 14 team SL, but the bigger division then needs 2up, 2 down = bottom down, top up, "MPG" between next to bottom and 2nd.

That would be fun.

For 11th upwards, that's still only 27 fixtures...a minimum of 3 more needed to sustain income.

Everybody hates repeat fixtures, except repeat fixtures against the bigger/better/more famous* clubs attract more fans than the first fixture against the smaller/worse/unattractive* clubs.


Change the structure again, why? It makes no difference if the clubs are poorly run and keep losing fans/revenue/good players* and there is no central funding/structure to get out into communities and get kids/more people playing the game in the long term and no plan to expand the international game, the only product that we could sell to a bigger/broader/richer audience in the short term.

*delete as appropriate.

14 Club SL, no auto promotion/relegation. Strictly down to criteria - finances, personnel, stadium, marketing plan, 5 years business plan etc. If clubs fail in these areas then no membership of SL end of! Too many lazy, poorly managed clubs in SL who lack true professionalism off the park!!