and in the championship in footy, you could come 3rd by 12 points and end up in a playoff, while the team in 6th with 25 points less eventually gets promoted.

Not fair no, but its the rules and the footy playoffs have made a very dull end tot he season exciting.

I agree the situation you have said may not seem fair, but its will help put some life into a sport which has been dull for years. come the 23rd game there may be 4 teams able to secure 7/8 place. All with an hell of a lot more incentive to get there.

and how knackered are the players going to be after 22 rounds, then 8 intense round robin games, then playoff games, then potentially a Grand Final and international fixtures!

Well somebody has to finish in the bottom four, does that mean they haven’t given their all?

BTW, regarding those pasting’s they have received, they will get their own back in the “own fault” league.

I'll give it 2-3 years before it's changed again.

Is there another competition in any sport that successfully uses this formula?

If the answer's no there's probably a reason.

Im quite certain I didn't say they wouldn't give their all, but for once in a long time some of those players who run out game 1 will in the back of their mind know they need to perform unless they want to be playing on the slope at Fev or at the LSV.

As a Rugby League fan do you not think 22 rounds of high intensity Super League games with meaningful outcomes might just be the slightest bit exciting for the fans?

Don't forget the "booby prize" is coming to play at Leigh???

So the bottom line is that the players will play more games for the same money, and fans will have to shell out for a lot more games outside of their season tickets.

This is a terrible decision. Another case of Chairman who want to keep being big fish in a small pond doing what is best for their club, at the detriment of the whole game.

'We need 13 home games a year' is bonkers when there are not 13 sustainably run clubs to finance the game. This proposal does nothing to sort out the real problem (i.e. clubs such as Cas who are never, ever going to be sustainable as a top-level club in the fully professional era), introduces vastly more risk to sustainable clubs (what with the loss of any ability to make plans beyond one season, due to the potential falling off a cliff and loss of SKY money if relegated), and creates a joke competition for crap teams (the bottom of the table playoffs).

The RFL need to take a long, hard look at themselves. Teams in towns of 50,000 people are not going to work as businesses, and there needs to be an acceptance of that. Clubs that cannot work must be merged, or kicked out permanently. Only once we develop a strong core of competitve, well-run clubs can we think of having a league in which promotion and relegation become viable. At the moment, we're asking a handful of the best to subsidise the impossible dreams of a morass of near-enough village teams.

Madness

why would they be bothered about playing at leigh or featherstone? If anything it just gives them an easier time rather than playing clubs who are closer to their standard. For example in a traditional relegation method London would be more bothered about playing bradford for a relegation match than leigh or featherstone. another failed scenario a long with the "lower teams should win more games so more fans will show up".

I was really pleased when I heard that promotion / relegation was going to return, it gives fans of all clubs their chance to dream.

But if supporters of clubs from outside S.L think this gimmick is manna from heaven, think again.

It’s like the drawbridge has been lowered, only to be slaughtered at the gate.

Will the games really be that exciting. We still have the top 8 so which was the half the reason we had none games. My biggest worry is long term, finances and attendances.

That's the gist of it, but to be fair to those involved, they've said that the aim is to get clubs more money from the start

I've probably missed this and am being too lazy to read the entire thread, but have I understood this correctly...after the split to 8s you all start with zero points again? Hope not, that's ridiculous.

Not in the top 8,

Do we know if the playoff games are included in the season tickets? Instead of getting 27 games we will now only get 23 games. A lot of difference really for the average paying fan.

A Widnes season ticket cost me 167 pound this year. Lets say next year we avoid the drop and the price is the same, potentially we could be forking out 167 pound plus:

3/4 extra home games at 20 pound a go.

(Cannot type the pound sign, using a foreign keyboard)

Also, just to clarify, what is the point of the bottom league of 8? If you win you dont win the championship league but nothing has been mentioned on relegation.

Ah, OK, thanks. That makes a bit more sense at least.