Are we likely to move to two groups of 10 in 2015 and do you agree ?

From the rumours and ideas that have been floated around it appears that we could have;

SL 1 with a bigger cap
SL 2 with a bigger cap than the current Championship
Promotion and relegation, perhaps with play-offs
Toulouse admitted to SL 2

Possible advantages;
Smaller financial gap between 1 2 could make it easier for clubs to move up without crippling themselves
Tighter, more competitive matches in SL 1
TV rights more saleable for SL 2
French TV companies interested
Championship supporters have a genuine interest in promotion rather than the opaque licensing rules

How would you fund the loss of four home games per club?

Say an average of 10K speccies at £15 per head.

That's £600K

Don't know, but possibles would be

Bottom clubs play off to see who drops out would generate games
Top clubs playing Oz clubs in a restructured WCC
More cash from Skye in 2015
Cash from French tv
Top 10 clubs accepting some loss of revenue
Higher attendances from more competitive games


And perhaps the master stroke; re-introduce the Regal Trophy !!

Bring back the Lancashire Cup

Crowds may increase if matches are closer and more meaningful - perhaps one relegation place and a 5 team playoff
Clubs may charge (slightly) more per game which would still see cheaper season tickets than present
Club sponsorship may increase if sponsors felt higher numbers would be at games
RFL and SL need to bust a gut to bring a new blue chip sponsor on board

Easy!

I still haven't made my mind up on all this yet, I would have to see some concrete proposals as based on what Peacock likes to propose I think it would be a bit of a disaster. There isn't the money in the game to have 20 full time clubs, and I don't think it would attract more money.

I fear something has to be done though, before the Championship dies a slow and sorry death. But what the answer is, I do not know.

I like the idea, and would probably go with playing each other 3 times to get to 27 fixtures. It's not ideal, but no structure will be at this stage IMO.

I think it would be dependant on a significant increase in Sky funding however , as well as a French TV deal. To allow for the increased SC spend in the Championship..... Possibly SL1 on a Fri & Sat and SL2 on a Sunday?

I guess Leigh, Halifax, featherstone and Sheffield would come up from the Championship, as well as Toulouse, with 4 current SL clubs taking the number to 9, is there another club ready for that step up...?

I think Batley would be able to, and knowing Keighey they wont want to miss that second bite at the cherry, I think missing out on SL the first time is still very raw!

Ouch that's one heck of a lot of money to lose.

I wouldn't rule out NWcru for 2015.

Also it seems if sl is reduced it will only be by two clubs,the below is what Martin Sadler posted on TRL.


Just to clarify this, the Super League clubs meet next Wednesday and there will be a presentation to them discussing a range of options.

But this isn't being driven by Sky, although it's worth bearing in mind that the Sky contract does specify a minimum of 12 clubs and 24 weeks of competition, so the ten-team scenario seems highly unlikely.

In my view the Super League clubs would be remarkably stupid to reduce the size of the competition. In doing so they would not be addressing the main issue which, as I said on the programme, is the game's apparent inability to generate commercial income. Reducing the footprint of the competition would only make that job even harder.

Charge double.

Wasn't aware if the clause which meant no less than 12 clubs - however for this to work I believe Sky would need to agree to a funding increase so as long as they saw some benefit to them it may not be an issue - although I am sceptical they would buy in to it.

IMO whilst commercial revenue from sponsorships is obviously important, the tv deal is where the real money is.

When the TV money is divided between fewer clubs, each club will get more and as for losing income from gate receipts from the extra games, if the clubs that were removed from SL were London, Castleford, Widnes etc would it really be THAT massive?

In a break with tradition, Sadler almost has a point. However, it only works if we suddenly CAN generate commercial income. To use an extreme example, if we generated a £1billion commercial revenue, we could keep all 14 clubs, double the salary cap over night and enter into a bidding war for the worlds top stars. Brilliant. The trick is generating that commercial revenue.

If we CANNOT generate increased commercial income to any signifcant degree then there is no point raising the cap. It will mean that Wigan, Warrington and Leeds will streak away re spending. Salford, if Mr Koukash backs up any of his talk with pound notes, may join in but what about the rest? Saints presumably would be up for it too. Huddersfield? Maybe. Other than that? It's a two tier comp now. We have a much lower cap and it STILL doesn't stop clubs slitting their own throats to survive.

The sport is at a crossroads. The current custodians have a lot of responsibility of their shoulders - not sure a Scouse Nookie The Bear doppleganger like Barwick is the main to lead us...

It's not just the tickets, its people sat in hospitality, advertisement boards around the ground, shirt sponsors, kiosk food, etc etc. Non starter for me I think.