Credit crunch?

I am fortunate, I can afford the extra games, but in the present climate there are plenty that can't. I was surprised at the low attendance at the DW, but I don't think our 10,000 was that bad. I remember being a bit gutted that we didn't finish in the top eight in 2009. The eight team format does keep the interest up for some of the lower teams. It's easy for us now We're Not W***** Anymore, to say that that those teams shouldn't be in, but how do you raise standards? It hasn't worked this year, games have been predictable, but it may do next year. One of the teams lower down could win a play off game, and kick on from there. It may give the fans some hope.

Did this happen to us?

And, I don't think constantly comparing ourselves to the NRL is a good thing either.

Given the gates this year, really cheap tickets for season ticket holders ought to be considered (maybe £5 a ticket?). If you want crowds above all else, you could extend the same deal to the away fans as well? That certainly would help at the bigger grounds.

Having done some work for sporting teams I can tell you that season ticket holders are massively more important to any team than casual fans. The money they provide is what the club can use for budgeting, paying upfront for one-off expenses, borrowing (including credit from suppliers) and unforeseen expenses. Since nobody can genuinely predict how many casual fans will turn up (and even when they do it comes one game at a time), nobody outside a club will use the revenue they generate as any form of guarantee.

Even though a season ticket holder gets discounts on entrance over a year, every sporting club's financial ideal would be to sell out the ground to season ticket holders and have no casual spectators at all. That's why, for all the laughter it seemed to cause, Bradford's idea of selling very cheap season tickets was not a bad one at all if they felt that otherwise they'd sell hardly any.

Spot on. I'd do it the old 1 v 8, 2 v 7 and so on. You lose, you're out. home field advantage throughout the playoffs for the winner.

The consolation at that game though was that the pies were excellent

There has only been one playoff game worth watching so far IMO and that was Wigan v Saints in round 1. The rest of the games have been dull to say the least.
It seems that some of the players dont have the appetite for the playoffs nevermind the fans.

If you look at the competition as a whole there have been far too many one sided games in SL this year and the competition is as uneven as its ever been. The salary cap isn't working and neither is the structure of the game.

Mick Monaghan got it bang on a few months back when he said there were too many teams in SL and too many fixtures. The league should be limited to 10-12 teams with relegation and promotion re instated. There is not enough playing talent in the UK to have anywhere near 14 quality teams in SL. And you have to ask about the wisdom of the restrictions on overseas players aswell because in the last couple of years as the restrictions have kicked in the SL product has dropped noticably in terms of quality, Surely no coincidence.

Time will tell whether the England national team will benefit from the overseas restrictions but my guess is that it will make very little difference.

How many SL teams have very average english players on their books when in reality they could get better overseas players for the same cost?
IMO id rather be watching better quality overseas players ply their trade in SL rather than average english joes. If english players are good enough they will come through the ranks whether there are overseas players or not.

The counter argument to the "too many teams for the available talent pool" stance is that maybe, just maybe, Rugby League should be concentrating it's efforts on producing players who are "good enough" in larger volumes, as opposed to reducing the number of participating top level teams thus giving fewer places for young players to aspire to. Just a thought.

The UK doesn't have a large enough population to produce the numbers required especially not for a minority sport such as RL.

You might not like that but its the reality of the situation.

The Australians have both the population and also the fact that RL is there number one sport in their favour. Again we might not like it but its reality.

The England international team will always be in the shadows of Australia and NZ no matter what initiatives the RFL come up with.

IMO i would prefer to be watching a superb SL product with exciting games and good players rather than the absolute rubbish ive witnessed this season.

The RFL are strangling the game in a failed attempt to work miracles with the International team. If they are not careful skys viewing figures will fall and sky will pull the plug which will leave the game back in the mess from where it came not so long ago.

How many SL matches have been worth watching this season? Probably a very small percentage in truth.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the points you're making and it's an undisputed fact that, right now, there are fewer English qualified players than we would like who are above a certain bar in terms of quality. I do personally feel though that reducing the number of teams by 2 will have very little impact on the quality of the competition, people are suggesting reducing the number of teams will have an enormous impact and it quite simply won't, we currently have 14 teams, back in 2002 however we had 12 teams and we were having the same arguments and pointing to blow out score lines, one team dominating, etc.

It will make no difference at all. It is just populism. As you say there are plenty of average English joes hanging around and so it begs the question if there are some real talented stars beneath the surface why are the average English players getting chances ahead of them....?

The England team will be no better off as a result of overseas restrictions but it allows the RFL to make some popular statements about developing our own game and also it allows Eddie and Phil Clarke the chance to tell us all how great the English players are.

The Aussies will still whip our butts but we can use other excuses - the coach wasn't up to standard, like Tony Smith, Brian Noble and David Waite.

I also think it should be top 4

but,

1st straight into GF

2nd - first week off.

3rd, v 4th. (winner of that vs 2nd to go to GF)

I think Rugby League is in danger of becoming like sports such as F1 where they keep changing the rules to try and appeal to more fans, but ultimately end up ruining the sport.

The top of the table in Superleague is still very competitive i.e. Wolves, Saints, Wigan, Leeds.
The bottom of the league is not competitive because there is no relegation.
The middle of the league will always be boring come the end of the season and as soon as the powers that be accept that the better it will be.

Lets look at football for a second, as that is the most successful sport in this country in terms of attracting fans to the grounds and as TV viewers.
The English Premiership has 20 teams and they have had 1 team dominate for pretty much 20 years in Manchester United.
During them 20 years, they have had competition from Newcastle, Blackburn, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and now Manchester City, but each season only one of them teams have provided any competition.

Over the past few years it has become a 3 team league with United, Chelsea and Arsenal and then a little competition for the final Champions League spot.

Scotland has only 12 teams (I think) in the top flight and that is even worse. Only 2 possible teams to win the league every year and the rest play for what??

The English Premiership have an exciting finish to the league most years between 2 teams and an exciting finish in the relegation battle, but the majority of the teams are languishing in mid table and have nothing really to play for come the last 2 months of the season.

This has never been a problem for Sky or for the fans, as they enjoy the excitement of the top 2 teams battling for the league and the bottom however many battling to avoid relegation.

In Rugby League (and this is just my opinion) the main problem is that there is not enough emphasis on the league title.
So come the end of the season there just isn't the same excitment as there is in the Premiership, because in football winning the Premiership is the top domestic trophy, and in Rugby, winning the league gives you the club call in the playoffs!!!!

This year could not have been scripted better in terms of the league title battle. It came down to Warrington and Wigan who played each other in the second to last game.
This is the kind of finish that Sky dream of for the premiership and yet in Superleague it was exciting for the Wire and Wigan fans but there wasn't the same build up to the game than if it was the Premiership.
You can imagine if it was the Premiership can't you. All week in the build up to the game it would have been dubbed "The Game of Games" or something like that and we would have seen nothing but slowmotion montages to powerful music all week during every advert.

You can't do that in Superleague though because everyone knows that it wouldn't make that much of a difference who won that game because in reality winning the League Leaders Shield is not seen as very important with it being overshadowed by the Grand Final.

So what do you do?
Well why can't both exist and both be made into a massive deal?

Create a new impressive Superleague Trophy that the winners of the league get and make a big fuss about it.
When you win the title, you get the trophy that game and not the week after during a playoff game.

The Grand Final could still exist as a champions league style thing immediately after the season.
So there are 3 big competitions.
The Challenge Cup
The Superleague Title
The Grand Final Winners

We need to stop worrying about the middle of the table having nothing to play for as this is the same in every sport all over the world.
You will always have a battle at the top and a battle at the bottom and nothing in the middle.

So a bit long winded really (sorry) but basically, stop worrying about how to keep all teams in the mix all season. Bring back relegation and put a huge emphasis on winning the league.

A huge emphasis on winning the league will also allow the Grand Final to become a straight knockout format as well.
At the moment I think the top 4 get a second chance as it is the only real benefit of finishing at the top.
Saints beating Wigan the other week was a massive result but the gloss is knocked off the victory because Wigan now get a second bite this weekend.

I have bought tickets for the Grand Final for me and my dad (I'm a wire fan and my dad is a Saints fan) and we are taking my brother along who has never seen a Rugby League game in his life. He has been taking notice this last few weeks trying to understand it before Old Trafford and as a non rugby league fan his view of the playoffs with the second chance system is that it is ridiculous.
How is the sport expecting to attract new fans if the playoff system, which is the pinnacle of the season is seen as a joke by non RL fans (and no doubt by a number of RL fans).

Spot on.

Great post that.

Some good posts and ideas on here.

Unfortunately, even thoughthe majority want and know that the team at the top after 27 games and 8 months derserve to be Champions, the RFL will never go back to it.

So its the playoffs and i think the best idea would be to reduce the amount of teams to 4, and for the time being have a simple staright knock out. 1 v 4, 2 v 3.
OK,. No 2nd chances for the team that finishes top but its only the same now for you lot if you lose Friday. This seasons scenario would have led to
Wire v Hudds
Wigan v Saints
and imo both would have sold out for a one off game knowing that there is not a potential for 2 extra games before a final.
Also give it 2 weeks from the last game of the regular season to the semi finals to make sure everything one is buzzing for the games. Then we would have had a 13,000 sell out for the sky cameras on a Friday night, then 24,000 sell out on the Saturday. The viewers would see packed stadiums, and the other 10 clubs would be looking on hoping to get a home semi the year after into their grounds.
ATM 8 clubs is making it too easy, especially for coaches from average clubs who aim 'to make the 8' I mean its hardly an achievement is it out of 14 teams!

Come on RFL, sort it out!

If the play-offs are here to stay, which it would seem they are, I'd prefer the old top five system used in the early years of Superleague.