Is that any different to other sports?

Big part of it for sure. A huge element of the previous regime's failure. A little over 40 the first year in the Championship. Almost 50 last year. Bloody ridiculous, particularly considering the number that never pulled on the shirt.

We might have got three more years out of it without that. If we'd gone up, as was the goal of that squad, we'd have collapsed under the weight of avoiding relegation.

The systemic problem is Odsal. It will drag us under again and again. It was the reason for the long decline even in SL, even in 2003 and all the "well, not as good as last year but close" seasons that followed and still brought the crowds in. It dragged us down, and it is still dragging.

Anyone who wants to know where the money from the success years went I would hope it is obvious: on slowing the rate of decline. And now there's none left. It'll only get worse.

I think if they finished top 4 (very possible) and made it to million pound game (less likely), you might find they have some desire to play in super league.

In my oinion all down to poor business management.
Did thes clubs have proper business plans or they have a policy on the hoof plan they they made up as they went along?

How can you have a proper business plan, when you don't know how much revenue your going to have until the last minute. The central funding money clubs receive will form the main part of their revenue.

I agree. They've made assumptions about winning. The Bulls banked on getting into SL 2015 and failed, at that point they should have gone part time- they didn't-they banked in doing it again 2016 they then failed to even make the top4 in 2016- they had probably factored in prize money and gambled badly.

They know what central funding they're going to get at the end of each season don't they? Isn't it pretty much dependent on finishing position in the Championship?


And your last sentence is the real problem with many RL clubs. The central funding is too high a proportion of their income. They need to generate income from other sources.

Now I get that's not always very easy, especially when many clubs sold all their assets decades ago.

For instance I would guess at a club like Widnes (and others, I'm not just singling out Widnes) the central funding will be around 50%, if not more, of their income.

With the increase in central funding for SL last time, it neatly covers the maximum salary cap, which is usually the main expense.

With regards to the championship, I think the RFL stumbled into it as a Plan D sort of thing. Reducing the SL to 12 clubs, they suddenly found 4 FT clubs in the championship and decided to (back of a Greggs wrapper planning) make increasing the number of FT teams and creating an SL1 & SL2, each of 12 clubs. Obviously need a plan E now.....

It feels to me like we are well on our way to splitting the championship further, into those that can run full time (by whatever means) and could be a genuine addition to super league, and those who cannot and would offer very little to the top flight. That my be deemed elitist, but isn't promotion and relegation very much elitist.

With that in mind I don't think the championship as it is will remain a viable, competitive completion, we would as others have said, be better served with a franchising structure, where SL isn't closed off, but teams have to meet a set criteria to be in (this includes current super league clubs) this could then eventually lead to expansanion of SL both in terms of Team numbers and geography, and allow teams time to build, rather than the mad scramble P and R seems to have created.

Been there done that , didn't work

You either have an on field system of promotion and relegation or you scrap the lot and start again , 2 Yorkshire clubs , 2 Lancashire clubs , various others around the country

All current clubs play in Championship feeding into those clubs

OK so Bradford 2015 don't go in to SL. They go part-time. Cut their wages bill by 600/700k. Then what? They lose 2k fans per week? Over 13 games that's what 390k in ticket sales? Plus another 100/150k in match day sales. So that's 540k in income they have lost. Then there are sponsors, hugely profitable corporate sales are harder to make, less merchandise is sold. Then less prize money a drop of what 500k?

So Bradford's 'cutting their cloth' and removing 700k from their wages bill loses them 1m in income plus lower merchandise sales, corporate sales and sponsorship.

You mean like last season, when they made the middle 8's.
There is certainly a difference in how certain clubs approached the Middle 8's.
Leigh threw all they had at getting promoted and it worked but, for the other Championship clubs, it was more a case of trying to win as many games as they could but, not risking everything in trying to get promoted.
In the previous season, Bradford "had" to succeed and fell at the last hurdle and Leigh also threw plenty at the Qualifiers and failed spectacularly.
Having said that, Leigh clearly learned from the experience.
In the coming season, one would expect KR to throw the kitchen sink at making a quick return and with the commitment shown by the club, the players and the fans, they will be serious contenders to bounce straight back and this time around, Toulouse may be up there, along with Fev, London and Fax.
The top half of the Championship will be really tough but, should provide plenty of decent games.

I am to a certain extent, suggesting you 'scrap the lot' all current SL teams would be forced to resubmit their application of membership, and would be held to the same standard as those currently outside the top flight wanting in..

If this means going down to less teams in the short term, it might be what is needed, and at least everyone would know we mean business. Would take some balls though.

In terms of lesser teams working as feeder clubs I've long been an advocate, it should run like the NRL run there's. To a certain extent I think we attempted this, Leeds even had some success out of it with the likes of Keinhorst, but as usual some clubs suggest there heels in, others half a*sed it and it largely has been forgotten.

Just out of interest, what do you think the make up of this league may look like and if you think that maybe Toulouse and a couple of North American clubs may make the grade, what then.

I've been banging on for some time now that our sport should have a medium and long term plan as to where the sport should be aiming and the bottom line in (a bit like Brexit ), there is no plan.
At least no plan means that we can not fail but, not failing is a long way, in the wrong direction, to succeeding.

IF there was a magic wand there would be a couple of clubs in each county in England, together with a Scottish, Irish and Welsh League plus a strong independent competition n France and North America (plu, every other nation in the world.

However, that is clearly not going to happen.

Therefore we are left with trying to spread the game from it's roots (in the North of England) but, there is no real desire for this to happen.
If there was, London would be "made" successful, with dispensation on the cap and financial support and we would possible have helped the liks of Sheffield and maybe Nottingham plus of course, The Crusaders, all of whom are now barely surviving in the lower leagues or, in the case of Nottingham, not at all .

This seems to demonstrate, that we dont want this to happen and that expansion and success will just happen by itself, which, clearly, it wont.

Good post that.