All well and good, but who pays?

I agree with the Superleague show whoever produces that needs shooting, it's akin to watching Breakfast with Frost when your aged 10, bores the life out of me, needs re-vamping big time but that's the BBC for you.

Ideally we need a 5 to 10 year plan of getting RL higher up in the estimation of RL fans and the general British public e.g.

Firstly as a quick fix but not affecting the game itself we could as follows:

We need more bums on seats, give away free tickets to schools and RL clubs, you get a kid with a free ticket and their parent has to pay and then food and drinks on top plus it looks good when televised. If a ground holds 24,000 and the average for a certain game is 14,000 give away 4000 tickets 4 weeks previous to the game in the areas of the ground that struggle to fill.

Simple things like not having Hull FC or Hull KR play teams on this side of the Penines on a Friday night so more fans will go.

Have the big teams play away at Catalans and London in the warmer months to attract the fans and do a day out package and start banning the idiots who have no interest in watching RL just want to get bladdered and make a show of themselves as this stops some families going.

Make it a proper day out not just RL orientated and think big (not just face painting), have muscle cars/monster trucks outside the ground, have fly pasts by the RAF/ have Merlin helicopter deliver match ball, fire breathers on the side of the pitch and fire works, make a mobile fan zone outside the grounds selling ale and showing classic games on TVs whilst having a proper DJ blasting out good tunes (not Wish FM BTW, XFM or Real XS and get them involved for free advertising and prizes)

Which doesn't suit Sky, they want to make it difficult so that you DON'T go, that way you watch it on Sky and also all those fancy adverts they show too.

Neither does changing the current playoff format.

Top 8 give more gives more games and more advertising revenue (i would presume) than a top 5 regardless of the quality of the product.

I do wonder if Sky give a monkeys about the decline in attendances for playoff games, when they may be raking it in regardless with increased numbers viewing from home.

the game desperately needs mergers. Unfortunately with towns their size, the likes of Wakefield, Widnes, Halifax and Castleford are never going to be able to support a side that could win the title without the aid of a sugar daddy. Basic maths says that you need to combine some teams to make them viable as businesses. A smaller Super League, with franchised teams, all competitve, and a professional league of associated feeder clubs below that. You end up with a competition looking like this: (combined average attendance 2012 in brackets)

Wigan (16,043)
St Helens (14,088)
Bradford (11,761)
Leeds (14,948)
Catalans (9,383)
Warrington-Widnes (17,372)
Wakefield-Castleford-Featherstone (17,088)
Hull United (19,671)
Huddersfield-Halifax (9931)
Leigh-Salford (7714)

Also it's likely the number of fans drawn from Halifax & Leigh would go up if they had a SL franchise based there, probably enough to push Huddersfax over 10k, and Leigh-Salford over 8k. It's only with attendances like those as a base that clubs will be viable as businesses, rather than the plaything of the local Mr Big.

The RFL can then pick clubs for expansion, and give them extra room in the Salary Cap, a direct grant, and licence to sign outside the quota limits to boost their success. Immediate places to start would be a Cumbria team based in Barrow & Carlisle, supporting London for their expansion, and seeking to bring another French team into the league.

Also, before anyone says 'but all the fans will go away', it's worth remembering that the Wakelford Rovers team that'd go out into the next SL season would be something like:

Richie Mathers, Lee Smith, Michael Shenton, Jake Webster, Ben Cockayne, Tim Smith, Rangi Chase, Justin Poore, Daryl Clark, Craig Huby, Andy Raleigh, Ali Lauitiiti, Danny Washbrook. R: Keith Mason, Jacob Emmitt, Danny Kirkmond, Jordan Tansey.

Which, one would think, would at least give the top sides a run for their money most of the time, as well as freeing up a large group of players to strengthen other sides.

Lastly, in terms of TV, I'd really like something like this 'dream team'

BBC
Presenters: Claire Balding, Brian Noble, Iestyn Harris
Commentators: Dave Woods & Robbie Hunter-Paul

Sky
Presenters: Brian Carney, Shaun McRae, Martin Offiah,
Commentators: Bill Arthur, Terry O'Connor

Mergers will never happen unfortunately.

What needs to happen is the RFL need to firstly grow some balls and tell the lazy, small, 'let someone else do it' clubs to shape up or sh*t out. Then they need to learn how to market the product to get a substantial sponsor and TV deal to support a two tier league.

Warrington-Widnes..........yeah right

I thought that. Why would they put a big club like Widnes with Warrington

:bpj7lwcj