Relegate them to the championship and simply dont replace them. give everyone a bye week

so somebody gets a nice rest before going into the play offs? notably Leeds, their opponents in round 24

luck of the drawer

Is that really true about the Aussie/Kiwi fans? It's the first time I've heard that factor mentioned. Fascinating if that happened.

yeh i suppose, but it does give unfair advantage to some teams. Dont forget, its not 1 bye week , its 2. Maybe some teams will be advantaged by having bye weeks before cup games?
Add the fact that fans who bought season tickets have paid to watch 13 home games and they would now only get 12?
Hardly a saving having a season ticket any more?

sorry..just not a fan of bye weeks, especially at what would be very short notice

Can't believe people are suggesting moving teams up from the Championship. Sad as the situation is, we have gone on for far too long with 14 teams and this is a blessing in disguise IMO - there aren't enough quality players to support a 14-team league and the amount of teams that have got into financial strife in the last few years completely contradicts one of the main reasons for licensing. Hopefully we will revert to a 12-team league with a 5-team playoff series and relegation before too long, it's the only way to ensure competitive fixtures throughout the season at both ends of the table.

smells a bit fishy this one, would the RFL had an inkling when they drew up the fixtures?

time for Wigan B

i agree but i dont think bringing a team up from the championship will work and its too late to relegate 1 team to take it back to 12 so if we have a 13 team league a bye week is the only way around the fixtures

We already have them. They go under the name of "Widnes".

Well precisely. Apparently they have been micro managing clubs to the detriment of marketing and other aspects of the game. Well that is what they said was a big reason why they needed the proposed restructure that has been on the table and 6 clubs objected to.

So if they have been micro-managing how come it has come to this?

It doesn't add up. The RFL will no doubt try and use London's demise as ammunition to justify their changes when in fact it's their slack regulation that has led to first Bradford and now London to this.

As to the viability of a club in London I still don't think this proves it is impossible. A big mistake has been all along IMO calling it London. It's never been London and as such I don't thinks its ever had an identity which was also not helped by its nomadic existence. Its needed roots in one place and stability. It's never had it IMO.

If we want a club in the Capital we need to invest as a sport in a ground that is good enough in an area given some thought. Not plonk it in RU territory or sharing with some unwilling landlord. I think we have for decades tried to do London on the cheap.

Agree with this DaveO.. And i too was completely staggered when they choose/decided, to play at the Stoop, what were they thinking.

That's more or less how the London experiment started, in the 1930's, when Wigan Highfield moved down there.