Big fan of Internationals, but wouldn't swap it for England 50+ point wins against France, Wales etc.

Roses clashes definitely if given the right marketing/importance

oofff..... They were terrible games when they ran them, the players had little enthusiasm... So the fans had no real entertainment.

The least bothered of the two teams always won the game







Nobody wanted to be injured unlike State of origin where winning is important to the players and crowds. If RL was split between London clubs and the M62 clubs maybe......

Historically I think North.v.South worked pre the 1896 split

Hence why they need to build it right.

Well I go right back, so I can easily recall the early 2000's.........

In the seasons 2003, 2004 and 2005 Bradford and Leeds played each other a tiresome 14 times



However the average attendance per game was 29,000

So if it's about bums on seats ...................... And it is................................

Unless that's skewed by CC Final or GF attendances too I very much doubt a 29k average for fixtures played at Headingly / Odsal, where they did get just over 20k for some of their games.

It's not "skewed" even though it does contain the cup finals.

The cup finals count because these repeat fixtures between these top clubs attracted big cup final crowds despite the same fixture being played again.

Cup finals are capable of low crowds as well, they certainly aren't sell outs as we saw with Calalans...........

The point stands that loop fixtures are in theory unattractive but not in practice when you see the third or fourth "derby" crowd

What do you think the average crowds would be if we added London and Toulouse to SL and removed he boring loop fixtures?

How??

That's for them to decide, but I would set out from the start that it's the trials for the England side similar to rep footy in Oz. Don't play in this and you don't get picked for England.

Players always seem to pull out of a mid-season international but are fit to play for their club in the game before and after. In Australia a handful of them back-up at the weekend. Why can't they do that here?

We need to make sure that the best 34 players are on show to start with. The rivalry between the counties should help to market things.

We then need to stick with it for more than 2 seasons.

Well answered..........

They need ditching and im not convinced they are the massive money spinner some think they are. A couple of years ago Hull played Wakefield twice in one month at home, with no disrespect to Wakefield that isn't a fixture to attract new fans or get the more casual fans into the ground. It just felt like season ticket holders and diehard away fans only in the ground.

I'd rather see games against Toulouse/London/Bradford etc to at least see some different players and hear some different songs from the away end.

Bang on.

The bottom line though is that, the current SL clubs dont want to "water down" their share of the sky monies and to the wider public, RL is becoming as much of a "draw" as curling and far from increasing the revenue from the TV deal, it looks like there will be a hefty cut.
Therefore, it's more likely that the bigger clubs will at some point be asking for a reduction in the number of SL clubs.

As you say, the loop fixtures are no great money spinner, other than providing clubs with an additional 2 home games (plus 2 away fixtures).
The revenue from these is certainly needed but, it would be preferable if there were 2 additional clubs in SL and a balanced
fixture list.
Maybe "magic" could be used for the 4th / 5th round of the cup (when the SL clubs join the fray) which may add some interest to the cup. - mind you, they may have to "warm" some of the balls when the draw is made, to ensure a couple of juicy fixtures

It's a great point that maybe most loop fixtures see little money handed over at the Turnstyles, but would less games affect season ticket prices that may have to adjust down?

Maybe the "Middle eights" for the MPG showed there arey always a couple of clubs in the Championship that could give SL clubs a game.

Maybe the number of applicants for 12th. spot showed clubs are ready and willing to make the league back up to 14

As we did have 14 club leagues for 26 regular games back in 2014 and well before that

Is the problem the top owners like to have their "third games" against big rivals like Hull/HKR Saints/Wigan than against London and Featherstone?

Anyway great post and 14 for me all day...........