[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22438732SPL clubs agree league reform[/url
Must be catching,




the SL team finishing bottom = Automatic relagation
the Championship Team finishing top = Automatic promotion
the SL team finishing 2nd from bottom join 2nd 3rd 4th ,championship sides in a play off , overall winner taking the other SL position

Agree, good post.

Two superleagues would struggle for funding IMO. If any additional funding is coming into superleague any time soon let's raise the salary cap and keep the structure we have.

Hock, mossop, graham, briscoe/tomkins possibly, 4 burgess brothers and more are getting lost to the NRL. Money speaks volumes aswell as the quality of their league however if we raised the cap we may have more of a chance of keeping our countries best players in this league.

Half way through our franchise and we are improving a lot IMO allowing youngsters to get more playing time which is invaluable.

We finished bottom last year and if it was p&r we would be in the championship. However the franchise has allowed us to build on last year and the evidence is there for all to see.
The franchise isn't the reasoning behind clubs going bust, it's the opposite IMO, the reason clubs go bust is because they are poorly managed. If we go back to promotion and relegation, that's what makes clubs overspend and panick buy so they can fight against relegation, this creates financial problems. Like somebody has covered already, I think your just swapping a weak superleague team for an even weaker team in the championship, who instead of having a few seasons to catch up to SL standard, they have 4/5 months.

Strangely I agree both with this and the above qoted post as well, ultimatly the structure will only achieve so much, how well the structures are managed both by the governing body and the clubs will have a much bigger bearing on their success

Although some clubs are contempt, do you not think the current qualifying for a franchise guidelines we have in place are good for the championship teams?

Stadium facilities the biggest one IMO. Needing to win a NRC final or achieving GF status also keeps the playing side of the competition healthy.

Also agree with the post you quoted in your post. Pick a structure and stick to it and give it a chance.

Agreed. The Giants did a bit of marketing for this weekends game and go 3000 more than their last home game against HKR. There are plenty of reasons for a bit of a boost, but not a 3000 increase.

The problems with the game lie primarily with the clubs not doing enough to get people through the gates and put bums on seats. Hull have tried it this season with the season pass promotion, but the general marketing philosophy within Super League seems to be "drop the prices by a few quid and they'll come"; which isn't enough for several reason.

The RFL aren't perfect and there are plenty of problems with their marketing - have a look on the Magic Weekend's website and find the fixtures for example, but the reason for a drop in crowds isn't because of promotion and relegation or licensing, and if it is then get these people back through the gates.

I assume you mean ' content ' , franchising Qualification is irrelivant as long as the Championship clubs are so far behind SL standard, unfortunatly nobody including the RFL has a clue how to improve the Championships or the clubs in it, they are starting to suffer now and it isnt going to get any better

I personally think that rugby union has the right set-up. P&R but only if the club to be promoted is suitable in terms of stadium etc.

From my personal experience and championship our club as a whole, facilities, academy and finances grew slowly in our six years in the championship

Albeit however not everybody's as fortunate as some clubs with finances. I.e. us with ste oconnor

The idea has grown on me all day but what to do with points in the 2nd half of the season.

I`d be inclined to halve them in all the leagues but especially in the middle league rather than put them to zero in that one.

This still rewards the effort of the first half of the season and give the original championship clubs a small advantage against the 4 relegated.

For me though we also need to seriously look how we pack the grounds across the game rather than milk loyal fans.

We need to get tickets prices down - right down.

Too long we've hitched ourselves to football and ticket inflation.

We`re a northern sport and we are hurting much more in the recession than the south east.

2 hours minimum wage - 12.38 is where we need to be getting a majority of our tickets priced.

That's going to be close to how much you could spend on a few pints in the pub watching it on telly.

Money and lack of it, is at the root of many of the problems within the game at present.

I also think its wrong for fans to blame the RFL for THEIR clubs inability to generate income.
The money distributed by the RFL be it TV money or other income should be the icing on the cake, not clubs main source of income.

Sadly the sport of RL has become a sport with a few self sufficient clubs, and a large number of clubs surviving off RFL benefits. A few of these benefit clubs are wanting to move off their addiction, but for the vast majority, their appears to be little desire to progress.