That would be make for a crazy first league table...a Champ 1 side could beat all the other former Champ 1 sides and lose against all the Championship sides, yet finish above a Championship side who lost a few matches against Championship opponents..

However, this may then be evened out, when teams from France, the North East, London, etc. are awarded 'special dispensation' points, when playing against 'heartland' teams, and by a 'sliding' bonus point scheme, depending on geographical location and margin of defeat! Also, as there would be no P&R, all teams could then take place in the end-of-season play off, (with a non-seeded draw, of course) to decide who appears in the Grand Final!

An East and West division with play offs makes good sense. Smaller clubs get the benefit of a good following from larger clubs (which in C1 they generally miss out on), and the larger clubs still get games other larger clubs.

Oldham for example will take just as many if not more to Widnes than Sheffield would, whilst York may take more to Halifax than Barrow would.

Every week is full of local derbies which are often a lot more competitive, which can create a bit more regional interest than the currrent format of say Blackpool v York in front of 300.

Get Starbugs 'free away travel' going, local clubs working in partnership with each other, and regional businesses getting more involved with a regional product, and its a winner.

A large RFL ' Roadshow ' calling in at a couple of towns every week with loads of freebie hand outs and free tickets [ money covered by the RFL ] would help as well

The East/West Divisions sounds a bit like the North American format for baseball, NFL, basketball etc - that I have become very familiar with. The difference here is that you still play teams from other divisions..but the points totals are compared only against other teams in that division.

So that would really defeat the purpose of what we are trying to achieve here - in terms of local derbies.

What you have to be careful of is getting the right balance. In baseball, Toronto are stuck in a division with Boston and New York Yankees, which makes it extremely difficult to make the playoffs (being crap doesn't help either).

As long as the play-offs themselves are open and not geographically based then in theory the best teams will emerge from each division to face each other.

Does anyone have enough time on their hands to propose who would be in the 2 divisions? I am not sure the teams split as neatly as we would like once you throw Cumbria, London, Gateshead, Toulouse into the mix.

Slow news day.......

Bowes.......re Bramley, I put them in becuase they appear to have the same potential as half of the C1 clubs and it evened the numbers up. Tolouse and London ended up in the West group again to even the numbers up between the two, no other reason. Besides, Toulouse in May is quite apealling to me

What I was getting at is that with the current format certain teams in Champ 1 realistically has no chance of promotion to the Championship and suffer gate wise from not playing any of the top championship sides................ maybe the East V West divisions would be better at putting money through current Championship 1 sides gates.

Bigger crowds for them = more money to compete for better players signatures and will make the lower leagues more competitive...... makes sense and have a end of season play offs involving the top 4 finishing teams from both divisions.

not the Rfl,send it to the club chairmen if they think its a good idea they can show some balls and demand it

I have to say the east west division idea is one that would appeal to all the clubs, fans included. Local derbies spell bigger crowds and that means more money for clubs.

I understand what your saying but I don't think its as simple as people seem to think because as I see it the season appears to finish on completion of the GF. And from that date Leigh were officially relegated, before Gateshead issues/voluntary relegation (if that's happened}.

Would we be the most appropriate club? yes
Would it make sense? yes
Would I like it to happen? Yes

But how do the RFL justify picking us from all the other clubs in our league? Look how we felt when Celtic were picked above us, how will Swinton/York/ etc feel? They'll probably have been rubbing their hands at the potential of a big pay day when Leigh visit.

The RFL have a very difficult choice, reforming of the leagues is a good option.

Why Leigh ?

the difference between Championship and Champ 1 is as wide as Championship and Non relegation league.

I was at the Grand Finals.

Our next seasons squad would win Champ 1 at a canter.