It's all just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

The game is heading for a semi-pro future anyway. People need to realise that and either start preparing for it and get used to the idea of a competition similar in standard and profile to the French domestic league or address the really big issue facing the game which is the appalling financial management at club level and the totally ineffective regulation of the game by the RFL.

Promotion and relegation is a sideshow. In fact, I suspect it has been raised as an issue by the authorities to distract people from talking more about the Bulls failure and the serious financial problems at Salford. You've been had, I'm afraid.

That's a ridiculous, defeatist attitude IMO. 14 clubs in the current format isn't sustainable, that's obvious. But there are well run clubs with owners who are good businessmen who, under the correct format can provide a competitive, professional division. Some bad decisions have been made by both the RFL and the clubs. We need the RFL to have a team to closely scrutinise all aspects of the game and come up with a better league/season format ASAP. Sponsors and TV deals must be improved also.

We have teams with 15/16 k average gates, get 75k+ at Wembley for CC Finals and a full house at Old Trafford for the GF, plus high viewing figures on SKY every week. The game in this country is at a very important crossroads and some big, potentially difficult decisions need to be made. The sport will survive though, I have every confidence in that.

Defeatist? Possibly, but I think that I'm being realistic, rather than ridiculous.

Here is a fact that cannot be denied, which tells us a great deal about the health of RL: the salary cap has not been raised since it was brought in.

In real terms the value of the salary cap has been eroded by over a third. If this continues for another 10 or 20 years the irrestible force of inflation will ensure that the game becomes semi-professional. Many players will be able to earn more in other careers (not merely other sports) and will not play top level RL. As wages drop further players who want to play RL will have to get a job to get by.

Only radical change can avoid this future for the sport. I'd like to say I hope that will happen but I doubt the RFL and the clubs have the will or the capability to turn this around.

In essence what we need is a league in between what SL and NL currently are, the gulf is currently too big.

Where did I say I would drop the French? Catalans would be one of the first 5 teams on my list

We kind of already have it.

Wigan
Warrington
Saints
Leeds
Catalans
Hull FC
Huddersfield
Hull KR
Widnes
London (need to shape up quickly though).



Then:

Bradford
Salford
Wakefield
Cas
+
Leigh
Halifax
Fev
Sheffield
Barrow
Workington

Somehow from the above, I'd have two leagues of ten and I'd bring back the Lancashire / Yorkshire Cup's early on in the season (in a league format) to play on free weekends and midweek in the later stages, which would be seeded so to allow the bigger SL clubs to get around the Championship & Championship1 grounds giving them much needed revenue.

The salary cap hasn't been increased because there's been little/no need for it, outside at best 6/7 teams. When David Gallop visited a few years ago he reported that a number of clubs were only spending 30-40% of the cap. That's the problem - massive inequality between top and bottom (I think in the NRL the lowest spend was something more like 70-80%). It also goes a long way to explaining league positions every year, and why the RFL simply cannot treat Bradford in the same way as Wakey. The only solution is to try to increase revenues across the board - e.g. from internationals.

BTW anybody suggesting reducing the number of teams would have to talk to Sky first. They may want London to be included at all costs, and if their opening position wasn't that any reduction in the number of teams would see a proportionate reduction in revenue to the game (i.e. drop one club, lose 1/14th of your revenue), then I'd be stunned. That's where I'd start from.

Just on that, I do think that Sky could get more actively involved. Whilst they seem to hold all the cards (where else would we get that kind of money from?), I'd argue RL in the UK is a good programme filler, particularly when football is off season. On London, for example, I'd seriously pose the question that if Sky want them to stay, they should underwrite them (or part own them), as is the case with the Storm here in Aus.

The salary cap hasn't been increased because the financial position of the clubs has worsened significantly since the cap was brought in. In financial terms the last 15 years have been really bad for RL. The lack of financial controls on clubs (other than the counterproductive SC), the abject failure of the licensing process and the inability to achieve good TV deals and sponsorship for a sport which delivers Sky Sports its second biggest audience are astonishing. Or rather they would be astonishing if this were any sport other than RL.

We have always had amateurs running a professional game and nothing has changed in recent years, if anything the situation is worse.

P&R is a sideshow. And the authorities would much rather you talked about it than discuss the real issues.

Catalans and London in the Lancs and Workington and Barrow in the Yorks?

It'd be a bit like the Johnstones Paint Southern section match a few years ago between Gillingham and Notts Forest.

If we have less clubs in SL what happens to expansion? Who’s chucked out? and as I've said before, the loss of matches, how is that made up? If we let Sky have a say it would mean more Derbies, and if you don’t have extra games and drop two clubs from the league, that’s four less matches. Not a happy prospect for me. If you fill the void with meaningless internationals and friendlies you just run the risk of injuries to more top players from the best sides, and as we know from this season the fans will hate that.

You didn't & I wasn't implying you did. But by contracting to 10 teams you'd have to concentrate on the so-called heartlands. Which means dropping everyone (& preventing anyone new joining from) outside the M62, plus two more.

Also, I'm still to be persuaded that a SL(1) and SL(2) structure would work as there aren't enough full-time teams. You'd have to recruit at least 8 more (assuming two leagues of 12) and there would have to be some cross-league games to make the season worthwhile: set the bottom 6 of SL(1) against the top 6 of SL(2) with the top of SL(1) aiming for Trafford Rangers' ground & the bottom of SL(2) scrapping to stay up (and buying in NRL pensioners).

We in RL are at a low point in the numbers that would be considered SL calibre players.
For 100 years until 1995/6 we had Union players coming into League by the dozen each year. That source dried up with pro Union.
We then brought over NRL players with a great exchange rate against the AUD$. They had 14 teams and competiton for places in the NRL was intense. Lucrative deals could be had here with all the tax breaks etc.
Now the £ has be devalued, tax breaks gone and the NRL has a 16 team league plus a massive tv deal that we can't compete with. That source has largely dried up. It's only 4 or 5 years ago that overseas players comprised almost 50% of the playing roster in SL.

SL clubs will to be challenged whether they can recruit, train and maintain a playing squad of SL calibre players over the next few years. As soon as the easy options are no longer available then they want to reduce the numbers playing in SL.
I'd stick with 16 and ask each club to provide details of their local plans to enlarge the number of schools playing RL in their area. What they are doing to train up coaches in the schools and how they will run the structure from schools to first team. We should from 8 club trained players in the 25 man squad to 8 players in the first 17 as soon as possible.
If or when they go to 10 or 12 clubs someone will be bottom, struggling for crowds, have difficulty with recruitment and have financial problems that come with being bottom of the League.
Stop complaining about a lack of talent and produce it!

hen

I agree.