Quality post,quite a lot of it harsh but true

As you have brought the premier league, and how it gives clubs 'something to play for' a total of 45 clubs have played in the premier league, 12 have never been relegated, 33 have, at some point been relegated from the premier league.

Of the 33 clubs who have been in the PL, and relegated from it, of those 11 went in to administration one or more times within a few years of relegation, 6 had severe financial difficulties, and 1 doesn’t exist anymore.

But hey, at least they ‘had something to play for’.

In hindsight, perhaps the directors of such clubs wished they had spent their substantial 'parachute' payments more wisely.

There is a balance needed, there would always be a balance needed. But what you are proposing is to create a bottleneck, that isn’t needed.

We have only just expanded the league, this drop in quality was always going to happen. It has to happen when we expand the league. The clubs joining cannot have an SL standard production line when they aren’t in SL, and even if they did those youngsters need experience to get up to pace. The question isn’t is there enough players for 14 teams right now, but can there be in the near future. If this country cannot produce 260 SL level players then the problem isn’t the size of the league, it’s the youth development structures and player pathways we have. 260 isnt a lot.

Cutting the size of the leagues is treating a symptom and not the cause,

Perhaps they wish they hadn’t been relegated at all.

Look, having a closed shop of the same old teams in Super League is killing rugby league in this country from the top down. People get bored and fed up, visting same old away grounds time after time etc. The number of young athletes who want to go into rugby league is decreasing year-on-year; unless they are one of the lucky few who are invited in by a top Super League club, they are disenchanted.

The proposal for a Super League 1 and Super League 2 with automatic one-up, one-down promotion and relegation is a proposal to reinvigorate the game.

It's a good job, with your views, you are not a director of a rugby league club (or, if you are, that's part of our problem).

No. Wrong again. If there had been no automatic promotion and relegation between the leagues, they wouldn't have have had the chance to play in the top division in the first place.

Ok, so where is your evidence for this? Using either the 4 years of franchising we have had, or from the multitude of other sports around the world which don’t have promotion and relegation please provide us with the evidence that led you to this conclusion. Is it? more people are playing than before, im not sure why we would assume that less of them would want a career in the game?
No it isnt, its a proposal to take some money from some clubs in SL and give it to some clubs in the championship.

Sorry about that; won't do it again.

I was simply wishing to agree with you 100%.

It was another poster who referred to "full" or "part time" leagues.

Why do you assume that? Some of the clubs in those figures were never promoted to the PL, they were in it at its creation.

And why do you assume that removing automatic relegation means there could be no structure for promotion?

Since automatic promotion and relegation between the leagues was abolished by the RFL, the average crowds at clubs in the professional (i.e. non communuty) game have gone down.

Quite alright

It's just that when you pose questions under a quoted post from someone, it looks like you are talking to them.

All the clubs relegated from Soccer's top division since it became the 'Premier League' were promoted to it (even if that was before it was called the Premier League).



Because if a team got promoted each year and nobody ever got relegated, the league would get too big.

There needs to be a happy medium between P&R under the old system (which did promote an unsustainable boom and bust scenario that did the game no good whatsoever) and the current franchise system which in my opinion is only working for a select few.

The main point seem to ignore (apogies if you have elsewhere) to relates the number of SL clubs chasing a salary cap that they cannot afford without third party funding beit Sky or rich benefactor, and even with it are suffering serious financial trauma.

There are too many clubs who can barely open the front door let alone balance the books when relying upon income via first and secondary spend.

How can that be good for anyone?

There is little point them having a 3/5/10 year plan under the current format because the way they are heading there is a grave danger some of them won't be around (in their current format) in 3/5/10 years time if they continue as they are.

It would be fantastic if every club could aim for the highest common denominator but as things stand there isn't enough money or interest in the game to fund that. We dont want to drop to the lowest common demoninator either.

What's needed is a happy medium whereby an 'average to good' sized club (lets say Cas for arguments sake, it could easily be Wakey, HKR, Salford etc) does not have to spend beyond it's means (as they currently are) trying to hang on to the coat tails of an elite 5 or 6 clubs but can at the very least provide a sustainable business platform to grow from.

You may say the current set up provides that. The number of clubs continually struggling to makes ends meet says otherwise, and its a struggle not created by a short term blip either, it's a worrying trend that was always there under P&R but shows no sign of restraint during the current system either.