Crickey Charlie, why not look at it as 6 teams get 'promoted'? Could perhaps work if the 20 teams all benefit from regular Sky payments and the difference is made up from additional performance related pay...prize money. get promoted to SL1 have a boost. Get relegated to SL2 your basic money is safe. What did they do in Cricket?

Not sure how play offs will work depends on number of rounds, could trhe winner of SL2 play the bottom of SL1 in a play off. hasnt Thelonius Monk previously advocated split leagues and a spiced up play off system?

There's all sorts of possibilities, at least he recognises that there are problems that need to be addressed? We need to keep the game interesting without being so radical it becomes a joke.

Anyway get back to your decorating ha ha

Slowly coming around to two leagues of 10 with the top two playing off in Semi finals and a final. Each team plays the teams in their league home and away (18 games) and teams from the other league once either home (5) or away (5) making 28 games in total.

It's the only way to make playoffs more acceptable

Ahh do you see it as two 'equal' leagues? If this is so how do you balance the leagues to start with and doesn't that rule our P&R, , or am I missing the point?

Agree with a reduced play off structure no matter what

I am having a comfort break from my painting. Or, to be really honest, the wife has gone out shopping and left me unsupervised.

At the moment, I think each SL club gets 1.1M. If we have 20 clubs all in SL but split into two divisions, it would mean each club got 330k less. And the changes to the youth system were primarily implemented to save clubs like Cas 100k. So the loss of 330k would be a big blow for a lot of clubs. At the moment, I can not get my head around where this ££ will come from ? I mean all 20 clubs would need to field SL standard players in order to compete surely ?, so the wage bill for clubs like Leigh, Fax, Fev and Barrow will have to be paid from where ? Or have I misunderstood. Has the paint solvent addled my brain.

We can't afford to support 14 SL teams so move to 20 SL teams over 2 leagues? I'm baffled. Have I missed some extra revenue stream here?

Or is Gatcliffe trying to reduce "top tier Super League" so we get bigger dividends and just basically relegating 4 teams to a re-named Championship? But then why P&R as the gap would still be too big causing the same yo-yo effect as last time? Confused.

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.