Quote Donnyman="Donnyman"1.The TV company, and the club chairmen have very recently sat down and discussed what they want for the game. How come you missed that?
2. Going to 2x10 has been favoured by the big clubs in the lead up to and after the talks with SKY .
SKY like to show the big games amongst the big clubs and fans do respond as well and will turn out for 3 league matches against each opponent.
SKY get nothing much out of the French clubs who bring nothing much to Superleague
So it's obvious that what SKY, the top English clubs and their fans want.
Wigan Leigh
Leeds Bradford
Saints Wigan
Hull HKR
Cas Wakey
5 major derbies three times a year, higher average crowds. plenty for SKY to show it's subscribers, and the ten clubs get a bigger share of a smaller TV deal to mitigate losses.
That's glaringly the best deal that can be done given the size of the playing pool and the limited fan base. You got something better??
As for the idea of going down to 8 you made that up??'"
Hw close do you think you are with this prophecy ??
As for going down to 8, it would be the obvious next move.
After all, we've gone from a 16 club first division, down to 14, down to 12 and there is now plenty of talk of dropping to 10
16,14,12,10...................... its no exactly a wild stretch of imagination to work out the next move.
Much of the reduction has been brought about on the back of "not having enough players" to make up the previous number of clubs.
Jamie Peacock was a strong advocate of dropping to 10 whilst at Leeds, although he quickly changed his mind when he moved to KR.
It's got little to do with the player pool or Sky, the reduction of clubs in the top flight is to ensure that the big 4/5 maintain the size of their TV handout.
Yes, it's always wrapped up in talk of "more competitive games" etc but, the reality is that, the big 4/5 are protecting themselves and not improving the future of the game as a whole.
Has anyone noticed an improvement in "quality" with any of the reductions ?
Btw, who will be your "target" if Catalan (and Toulouse) are jettisoned from the comp ?