I think the games decision makers are looking for something else than levellers. I take your point, the quality of SL probably won't improve. But, by introducing a bit of jeopardy and pazzazz into the mix they're hoping to breathe life into the bottom-half of the competition.

Hopefully a strong team given time, if they can finish in the top four, then hang in there for a few years.

It’s a tough task, but at least it’s better than six years in the wilderness surely?

Does it explain anywhere how people get into SL2 in the new structure? Is it normal 2 up 2 down from 3rd tier?

Even though i don't agree with the structure i wouldn't have a problem with all of it if they could financially afford it but they just can't and clubs are going to over stretch them selves in hope of making it big or avoid playing lower leagues.

That's only half the story. We can see that promoted teams just panic-buy the same second-rate players that have been from club-to-club through their careers. Players who usually started off at a big club but didn't make the grade and get moved on. All that happens is that most young players are blocked from being promoted into the first team and never progress.

Then again, with the imbecilic decision to abandon the universal Academy system, it's probably just as well.

This game is the best in the world... for shooting itself in the foot.

There's only enough cash within the game to keep around a dozen full time teams, and we need a marquee competition to act as the publicity vehicle for the sport. That competition is the SuperLeague and, whilst this may seem harsh, SuperLeague needs to be run with this mindset to produce the best entertainment spectacle in order to attract the most TV viewers, in order to maximise its income from both TV rights and corporate sponsorship. This allows SL clubs to bring together the best talent to make the spectacle even better, whilst making the sport of RL financially attractive for young sports people.

There should be a second tier of teams who operate generally on a semi-pro basis. And it'd be the challenge of these clubs and the wider RFL to promote this competition as a viable alternative to SL.

In time, SL would expand on a franchise basis - but these new measures just scream 'impatience'

But we all the know how clubs get to that point now,

1.Strong academy (not sure if that will matter as much from 2015 onwards)
2.Good fan base (not saying those loyal fans to championship clubs aren't good fans there just isn't enough of them)
3.Good Administration (they obviously do have that because its not easy to run a rugby club on a shoe string which they have)
4.Good back room team
5.Mix of good quality imports

But you don't get them all with out having enough money and there just isn't enough money.

Taken from the policy review in September

I assume "central distributions" include tv money and any sponsorship deals involved

I did say it would be a tough task, probably insurmountable, but look how happy fans from below the SL are atm.

At least give them a weekend before crushing their dreams .

More genius. Tell me how Bradford have not been reliant on RFL (Sky) funding for the last decade and more, plus being bent over backwards for to keep them afloat.

And the old chestnut about average attendances. How many would Bradford get after a decade playing Dewsbury, York and Doncaster? How many would Leigh get after a decade of playing in SL? Who knows but I bet the gap would be closer.

Whichever 12 teams are in SL you will have 6 strong ones and 6 "mediocre" ones. Why should those mediocre teams not be Leigh, Fax or Fev rather than Cas, Wakey or London?

where have i said they haven't? difference being there that is one team and not a potential 4 teams and there is a good chance they can be turned around and get back to be the strong bradford that super league needs.

just look at the catchment area bradford being a city and leigh being a small borough.

Because Cas and Wakey have more fans simple as that and London is a team in an expansion area (i still don't agree with them but its not going to change anytime soon).

In an ideal world cas and wakey would merge but the fans will have none of it and London would be run like Melbourne Storm.

When Widnes was in the championship what was the average attendance?

How is replacing one mediocre team with another any sort of progression? If, the sum total of the aspirations of clubs outside of the super league is to "do as well as Bradford are currently" where's the point of interchanging them?

I disagree, we were getting to a point where by we had a very strong league with 9 - 10 teams challenging for a playoff place. 2 teams slowly building towards being competitive sustainably and the remaining 2 - 3 who should of been kicked out.

The biggest losers in this in my opinion are Widnes. You can see that they're not just frantically rushing to becoming a play off team, they're slowly building, working on their youth teams and development (there's one or two looking promising already - Lawton(?) springs to mind) to be sustainable quality team for the competition, hull kr seem to have done so quite successfully, and the path castleford have started to take - now there going to have to throw all that out, desperately throw everything into becoming a top 8 side so they can grab the biggest slice of the pie, else be left behind, and all for what? So a team in the championship can aspire to be as mediocre and bad as a team that should of been kicked out in the first place?

Well said

To quote mr bob Dylan " the times they are a changing"
So either shape up or ship out this is gonna sort out the argument who should be in and who shouldn't once and for all and some great games along the way.
Bring it on I can't wait .

Totally agree, we will all have to put up with this for a few years. However it should prove once and forever that in order to grow we should ditch little village teams so clubs with realistic potential can take the game forward

Who said owt bout ditching the village teams?
Many are run better than the so called big boys.
Let's see how it goes, from what I'm reading on forums one club is making more noise about been unhappy with it than any other because they know they wIll struggle.
Guess who?