Licensing could work.

The licensing SL had, had two main problems imo.

1. It wasn’t honest and the Bradford situation exposed that.

2. It was very prescriptive. People who believed that some things ‘stand to reason’ and so don’t need any further thought decided that they could write a set of flat-pack instructions that would work for all clubs, whatever their circumstances.

The issue really is the sudden drop-off in revenue and with a full-time top division that has to fall... somewhere. They tried to smooth it out a bit in the 8s system, but it really just moved to midway down the Championship.

When there is no relegation, the bottom clubs have nothing to play for,hence meaningless games,hence poor attendances. Atm it is all to play for,so this structure is proving to be working nicely.

How come that doesn’t happen in the NRL though?

There are plenty of clubs who can’t make the playoffs in the NRL yet they don’t get meaningless games.

As for attendances are they higher now than under licensing?

What actually happens when there is no relegation is that it gives clubs towards the bottom of the table the opportunity to plan and to grow instead of constant panic short term decisions to avoid relegation.

The sport isn’t big enough for P&R. We have what, 14? fully professional clubs? And even then whilst the players might be fully professional the clubs themselves are not in a good position with low crowds, poor facilities and very poor infrastructures.
We have probably 5 or 6 clubs in anything like a position that’s comfortable off the pitch.

That does NOT lend itself to a P&R system. To constantly weaken and hinder the development of already weak clubs is not healthy for a sport in our position.

P&R would only work if we had 20 ish clubs that are fully professional both on and off the pitch.
It works in football because they have 90 clubs that are full time.
If you compare RL to football it would be akin to being relegated from the Championship and going straight to the Conference and a Conference team being promoted to the Championship. It’s massively destabilising for both the clubs relegated and those not relegated but involved in the relegation fight.

Most RL fans cry out for the sport to put some medium and long term plans in place. And then demand a system that ONLY allows short term planning.

Widnes are a club who relied on the handout. Would they warrant a licence considering they’re clearly no were near self sufficient (not saying all clubs are like). I’m all for relegation. It’s exciting, nerve wracking and what sport is all about.

Problem we have is every system we’ve tried has its flaws and after 2/3 years of it fans focus and complain about the cons instead of the pros. Whatever we try next (and let’s be honest we’ll probably have something new within 3/4 years) will be the exact same.

It's an entertainment industry. The relegation battle is 10 times more exciting than the top this year. If you take away relegation we are left with a much less interesting package.

They can get second jobs, their wives can work it's not 1950!

The NRL is more entertaining and doesn’t have relegation.

Relegation is forced entertainment and worse than that it actively degrades the quality of the clubs involved in it.

You can't change culture and traditions with a gimmick. The NRL is born out of a different sporting set up.

The NFL has a different system again.

As does baseball and basketball and ice hockey.

All those systems work because that is the tradition of those sporting competition.

I think for rl the NFL league structure would work best, but it does not mean the UK sporting public would agree and that is who we are selling this product to.

If you took away relegation, 75% of the games would have no meaning or appeal, the top few teams would run up cricket scores. The outcome will be dire for one team but some of the better games to watch recently have been relegation battles.

Yet no-one can explain why this doesn’t happen in the NRL.

Or any other sport without P&R.

Because it's a mentality thing.

Take basketball. You are EXPECTED to score when you have the ball. When you fail to score in posession it's massive. This is obviously a completely different thing but it shows mentality in different sports is varied.

The other thing is that nearly all sports in this country have P and R, other countries didn't. The psychological thing of losing something you always had is quite influencing. That's why certain gameshows are tense to keep your money rather than gain a bigger prize. It plays on human mentality.

The lower divisions could be seen to be losing out on a chance they've always had - that's why it wrankles.

And even though I hate being down there it is definitely tense and entertaining just for the fear of LOSING something. There is less tension in failing to gain something.

And yes, it is still exciting to try and win something - its just there is no jeopardy if you don't.

What? Blow out scores and meaningless matches? This happens in the NRL every year.

I was just as interested in the top two clash last night as I have been with the relegation battle. You’re not a Leeds fan by chance are you?

Of course there are blow out scores and meaningless matches. There are under any system. P&R doesn’t guarantee no meaningless matches.

But the NRL is seen as both higher quality and more entertaining.
Just because the relegation battle is interesting doesn’t mean it’s good for the sport. It’s manifestly not.

As I said, RL fans consistently call for the sport to plan for the medium and long term. Yet insist on a system that ONLY allows for short term decision making and actively destabilises at least 20% of its professional clubs every season.

I am a Leeds fan. That’s pretty easy to check. A Leeds fan who has called for no P&R for at least 15 years. When Leeds were winning 3 in a row, winning the treble etc I was calling for no P&R. Leeds are probably the most well placed club to survive relegation.

I can only speak for myself but I'd have been utterly bored by the fare Leeds have served up this year, were it not for the threat of relegation. As it stands, the games matter. I can accept P&R may not be in the best interests of the game though I reckon it's one that was born to struggle whatever its systems, hence franchising might not achieve a right lot more.