As if life isn't hard enough in the lower leagues the RFL Fixture planners seem to be doing their best to send clubs to financial ruin by having a stop start season with massive gaps in it at the time of year most suited to open rugby and decent crowds. What a joke, many clubs having 3 weeks without a game and Blckpool having a full 5 weeks without a game. It's laughable. The season kicks off far too early and then has 2 months of next to no fixtures, the RFL are an utter joke!

Today was our last home game for a month

it gives you a month to turn things around.

3 months of the season to go and we only have 3 home games left.

Part of the reason Doncaster have found themselves in so much trouble is because they have 3 consecutive blank weekends where no monies are coming in.
Batley have a trip to Tolouse in between two blank weekends which isn't going to help their finances.
Why the RFL decided their would be a 3 month gap between rounds of the Northern Rail cup then we'd have 2 rounds in 3 week is ludicrous as is their decision to have an odd amout of teams in the league.
The lower leagues fixture list is becoming more and more farcical eac season

The fixture list is helping kill lower league teams off, as if things arn't hard enough the massive gaps and a stop start season don't let any momentum build up for teams and fans can't get in a regular habit of going to games.

Play better,, simples.

If they had played better they would have a game next week

The RFL consulted me over the fixtures in pre season. We are only doing what’s best for the game!

The fixtures are always rubbish. In Super League last season 10 of our 27 matches were against the eventual top 3! Also the year we stayed up in 2006 there were plenty of reasons why we lost 15 of our opening 17 league games but it didn't help that only 6 games came at home. We ended up with 8 home games in our last 12 fixtures and that was massive in our survival. Oh and the fact we blatantly cheated.

The problem for Championship 1 is that the season is 18 rounds, whereas the Championship season is 22 rounds (albeit two are byes), so with planning round the Championship for the NRC and the Challenge Cup (both of which Championship clubs tend to get further in anyway), with the NRC games being reduced to suit the Championship clubs, it explains why the Championship 1 has so many weeks off. More teams would be the ideal solution, but other than reducing the Championship to 10, I'm not sure where they'd get them from, although combined with more NRC fixtures that could work, though maybe they should just play each other thrice or something

There needs to be 12 teams in the Championship next season and possibly a new team in Championship 1.

Yes the small number of teams in both The Championship and Championship 1 makes it very hard to make a club viable. Can't see any new clubs coming on board next season though. Hemel maybe in the medium term, possibly Bramley. Who else?? Carlisle??

The rlScottish RLrl are bidding for a Championship 1 side.

Note that it appears to be on the back of a new Sponsorship Deal, so there appears to be some substance to this.

I'm moving to Edinburgh soon and I'm hoping to see Town play up there in 2010.

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