Given that their business plan for growing the game consists of bullying lower league clubs into voting for less cash. I’d suggest sky will be ing themselves.

I can understand the thinking moving away from the 8's, but is the best we can come up with? Loop fixtures? what a load of baloney.

What an ideal time to go to 14 teams, it didn't have to be toulouse & toronto - but the top 6 from the middle 8's move up. If that becomes London then so be it, or all 3 with widnes dropping out.

This in essence will kill the championship competetion, and if we have teams ready to take the next step up we won't have have the foresight to increase the league size. Greed, incompetence or a mixture of both really have ensured we have the 12 teams at the top table and not much changing year on year. We needed to be bold, look to grow the game and our audience. Poor decision to stay at 12 imo

Very well said

The reluctance to go to 14 clubs perhaps just shows that, despite the hype and rhetoric, how little interest there is from Sky to include Toronto and Toulouse in SL.
The sad thing is that Toronto will get there anyway, assuming that their backers dont get cold feet and/or run out of money.

Perhaps some of their cheer leaders can explain why their inclusion isnt worthy of re negotiating the current TV deal.

Thanks for that,much appreciated.

14 team franchised league with a requirement to have reserves, youth tied into community clubs, decent ground..........

P&R is bust and boom. If we must have it protect the promoted side for 12 months to allow them to build.

does anyone know, or would like to hazard a guess as to how the last 6 fixtures of the regular season will be decided - last years finishing positions? local derbies to improves attendances? random draw?. will these all be decided before the season kicks off? a system where the last few fixtures are arrived on halfway through the season has proved to be detrimental to fans - aka the super 8s.

That i agree with.

So, it's all been 'sorted out'. Not for some it isn't.
What about marketing, profile, youth development, reserve grades, a coherent international strategy, future finances, future tv deals - in fact any thing that improves the future of the game at all.

I'd hope odds vs evens based on previous years' finishing position, so that, in theory, you get a fairly balanced fixture list. Probably not though

Tbf, Elstone has indicated that this means the pressure is now on him and SL to deliver.

We’ve avoided a catastrophic rupture... for now. Which is nice. Hopefully we’ll start to see progress on all the things you mention, now the threat of self-immolation has receded.

The middle 8's is over half-way through it's current life cycle, and to go to 14 teams now (without an MPG) would mean ripping apart the conditions on which the 8 teams started the competition. It's Ok going to 14 teams, but not 3 matches from the end of the season.

14 in SL is fine, but we need to plan for it, and the incumbent clubs need to accept and prepare for the reduced income that comes from that.

How many times does it need spelling out? The SL clubs cannot afford to take the cut in funding (of £264k pa) for the next 2 years that would result from increasing to 14 - quite a few would be going 'pop'