That's the thing. Can you honestly see Fev, Leigh, Fax, Sheff, Barrow & Toulouse being worth another £1M in TV revenue per year to fund a 20 team/2 tier SL from Sky?
Without serious competition from ESPN/Premier Sports I honestly can't.

"Turkeys voting for Christmas" by the 4 'relegated' teams? Presumably Mr Gatcliffe has a cunning plan

I agree Alf it was a 'tongue in cheek' number crunching excercise.

I don't know what the figures are, but, surely they are getting some TV cash which will reduce the net 'loss' or add into the SL pot whichever way you want to look at it. If for example the 6 'promoted' clubs 'throw' in £0.5m from their previous deals, then Charlies net loss of £330k is reduced by £150k per club still a lump I know....I''ll get my coat

No, no need to get your coat. I think between us we have come to the conclusion that the second group of 10 would have to be 'division 2' . But they would get a bit more money (as there are only 10 clubs in Div 1) and perhaps further TV money can be brought in by selling additional matches ?.

So financially, the second division could be better off than the current Championship, hence promotion to the top division would not be such a big jump (yo-yo effect reduced) ? Certainly the prospect of promotion would galvanise support at Championship level for this sort of plan, and similarly those SL clubs that were relegated would still have a chance to get back (voting for X-mas ameliorated). ????

It would have to be a two tier set-up, since dividing the top twenty teams along regional lines wouldn't work as there aren't enough clubs this side of the Pennines to make it feasible. Wire, Wigan, Saints, Salford, Widnes, add in London, Catalans & Leigh and you're still two short.
Plus how would a ten team division work anyway? Each other home and away is only 18 games - playing every other team once more makes 27, but means some teams would have 14 home games and others only 13

It should happen but it won't.

Two full time tiers with promotion/relegation. SL currently get 1.4m pa on an even split, SL2 would get £620k with the 4 dropping and the 100k from the championship clubs coming up, more if Sky will tip a bit more in for an extra game a week.
27 games with a play off for promotion, top 4. 1 v 2 winner to GF, 3 v 4 winner plays loser game 1 to make final. Could make 13 home and away and a 'magic' fixture
Increase intensity at top whilst expanding the FT player pool, remember Hill and Hardacre were playing Championship very recently.

its a great idea, obviously some teething problems to be sorted but lets face it sl as it is has some fairly long in the tooth problems anyway

teams from sl1 would get better crowds... if they did play everyone 3 times e.g. 13 home and away plus magic weekend we are probably cutting out our 4 lowest home gates of the year and replacing them with potentially an extra wigan at home, saints at home, leeds at home etc (exluding catalans)

teams in sl2 might lose a payday because they won't be visited by the teams that actually take a decent away crowd but perhaps actually competing for something might boost salford's, london's home support a bit as long as they publicised both the leagues well, i.e. better than they currently publicise sl please

There isn't enough players of sufficient quality to support a 14 team league, and I doubt whether there would be enough money to support 20 teams.


Would that be me?

Lose two teams and the magic weekend. 12 team league where everyone plays everyone else home and away (22 games) then each team keeps their points as the league is split into top 6 and bottom six where they play 10 more games (everyone in their 'half' home and away).

As I see it there is only two negatives. Firstly you could argue that the bottom six teams have nothing to play for in the last third of the season - but isn't that pretty much the case as it is now anyway (at least this way then towards the end of the season they are more likely to be playing teams of a similar standard each week = more competitive/interesting games for supporters). Secondly you would have to lose the playoffs unless you wanted a ridiculously long season.

The positives. Every club know before the season kicks off that they will play 32 league games, 16 of them at home. Sky can start their season end buildup from round 18 or so when they start their "will they or won't they" make the top six. The last 10 weeks of the season consist of 3 top games each week contested by the best 6 teams in the competition. Champions are champions because they are the best team over the course of the whole season, not just able to get 'up' for the really big games. Best teams generally are the best because they have the better players. Better players generally make up the bulk of the international side. Playing higher intensity games for 10 weeks out of 10 can only help to battle harden the players when it comes to playing the Aussies.

I love the idea of two leagues of ten - SL1 & 2. Nine home games, nine away games and choose a number of development area grounds for 9 'on the road' games which means each team plays each other 3 times - home, away, neutral. That gives newcomers a number of games to get to know the sport in their area. They could do cheap season tickets for those who want to watch all 9 on the road games.

Just make it one tier, and 10 teams.

It would be great to do this, if the money were available and the clubs outside the current 14 had the structures, market value and ability in the boardroom to make it work.

They don't and it won't. I fear the RFL might be convinced to try it by idealistic flatcappers who reflect on an era that never existed.

Not sure I understand. If you have a div 1 & 2, surely you have your 'one tier of 10' anyway ?

I imagine Sally was being sarcastic, but this is exactly what will happen - no bold talk of a 2-tier SL will change the fact that it will be the top league of 10 being SL and the next 10 will simply be the new Championship that Sky will not care about in the slightest. It's completely pointless. Reduce SL to 10 teams and we will only get the money for 10 teams, it's as simply as that.

Clearly the RFL clubs would need to sound out Sky about their thoughts on a 10 team SL. Would they reject it out of hand though ? If you had all teams playing each other 3 times, Sky would get the required number of matches and games such as Wire vs London or Cas would be replaced with rather more attractive games against Saints and Wigan.
If I was working for Sky, that would at the very least merit careful consideration.

As far as the second division are concerned, yes you could call it the Championship, but the important factor is that they would receive more money. That would make these clubs more viable and give them a better chance of building their club into a more robust, self sustaining business. At the moment I would suggest that the gap between SL and Championship is just too large to bridge, even with the licence period that they are granted.