Actually, there's a shed load of stuff that's gone wrong over the last few years and I'd put Wakey's & Cas's problems down to simple mismanagement & poor book-keeping. The licensing principle has it's problems, but it's not to blame for everything you cite here, in fact you go a long way to bolstering my point via your "criminally wasted it" bit. I agree that they have wasted the opportunity but that cannot be put at the door of licensing.

The new system can work if there's more money from the broadcasters - perhaps they're hoping BT will wade in & start a bidding war - both tiers have to have similar amounts of cash or there's no point & the split to three groups becomes as meaningful as the stupid Club Call in the current play-offs & we can probably all have a good stab at which teams will be in which groups 5 years ahead.

it all sounds complicated to me. Am i missing something here?

12 team league = 22 fixtures, plus 1 if magic continues, thats 4 less than before, which means 4 more free weekends?
Start the season later, like early March ( it is summer rugby? ) , and go back to top 5.
Promotion/ relegation goes without saying..its a competitive sport, lets bring back the competitiveness/uncertainty, that P and R bring.

4 less games than before? No thanks! Bad for the clubs, bad for fans, bad for sponsors, I can't think of anyone who would want less games apart from maybe the older players. Say what you want about the new system but it should at least produce more competitive games of real importance. 2 league points mean almost nothing to the big sides under the current system sadly and it's good they're changing that

What an absolute load of tosh served up again by the RFL. I'm sure they go out of their way to make it as complicated as possible to justify their job roles. It's like the card game 'Go Johnny go, go, go, go' from 'League of Gentlemen' sketch.

Why not just go to 12 teams, top 5 play offs with the winner having a week off, 2v5, 3v4 then the week after the winner plays the lowest ranked winning side and if they win go to the GF along with the winner of the other game.

Winner of the Championship goes up automatically, no play offs.

Also bring back GB and proper tours.

That's a good point about the tv rights particularly for the middle 8 as it will affect the first season at least. You would hope that the RFL were speaking to both Sky and PS about that issue.

Re repeat fixtures you can't play anyone twice in the playoffs under the new structure as there are only semi finals and a grand final. Play a team once in the playoffs and one team is in the final and the other is out. You could play the same team six times (twice in first phase, once at MW, once in second phase, once in playoffs and once in cup) but that can also happen now (twice in league, once at MW, twice in playoffs and once in cup). While having 3 or 4 league fixtures may be a problem to market if fans aren't going to attend a playoff semi or GF or a knockout cup game then that is probably more to do with the fan themselves (interest in particular comp/ability or willingness to pay for outside of ST games) rather than the number of times the opponent has been faced already.

Teams split after the 23 games into the three 8's.

Taking the top 8, they play everyone else once, so the regular season is 23+7=30 games.

The play-offs then start for the top four which means two more games if you get to or win the Grand Final which is 32 in total as opposed to the current 31.

The more I read and understand the better it sounds to me.

It might be ok for us Wigan fans as we have a good club and a good team.
Those who finish in places 9-12 after 22 games then play Championship clubs.
What will happen to their crowds, increase, stay the same or decrease?
It's my bet that they'd decrease. So this plan will be financially damaging to the lower clubs.
For the last seven games (almost a quarter of the season) they'll be paying SL wages to players effectively playing in the Championship in front of Championship sized crowds. If these games are to be pay again and not in the season ticket then the attendances will really be adversly affected.
Wigan can go for the whole season with season tickets on the basis of finishing in the top four and getting four additional home games making 15. Even if they finished 5-8 then there's still 14 home games. Lower end clubs can't do this and they are the ones in financial difficulties now.
I do think that by the time the next broadcasting contract is due another new system will be introduced.
The vote for a reduction of SL down to 12 was unanimous. No wonder.
IL and his mates will probably have the majority when this happen as the two relegated will probably be from the Wood/Hetherington axis. The abstainer will probably come on board when this is voted, Saints may do as well.

At the minute the teams who will likely be finishing 9-12 are the teams who aren't currently reaching the POs, so they will be going from a guaranteed 13 home games to a guaranteed 14. It's not like all SL fixtures generate massive attendances, games like Featherstone v Castelford would get larger attendances than London v Cas, for example. There's no reason why the clubs can't provide STs that are valid right up to the end of the weekly rounds, so there's at least one extra fixture with walk-up attendances generating revenue that would not happen under the current system. A couple of those games would likely be against teams who were pushing for promotion so would likely bring a decent following. 2 of the "Championship teams" would likely be 2 teams that are currently in SL.

What would the attendance of Wakefield v Bradford be in August under the current system, with one team in 11th and the other in 12th, neither with anything to play for, for example? Would the figure be higher or lower if both were playing knowing that they could slip out of the top 4 of the middle tier and miss the cut for the following season's SL. It's all guesswork atm, but at least the new system ensures meaningful games for the majority of the 24 teams invloved for the full season. That's better than we have now.

If a team finishes 9-12 and incorporates all games in season tickets then fans are paying for 11 SL home games and 3 Championship home games at 14 SL game prices.
A Widnes fan told me there's no way their fans would buy a full price SL season ticket the following year on that basis when they've paid for a season of SL and then end up watching Championship rugby.
On the other hand, if they go for an 11 game SL season ticket and then pay on the day for the Championship games their crowds will drop massively. Also would they charge SL walk up prices or Championship prices.
The clubs who are 9-12 face a drop in crowds, a drop in price per supporter and revenue loss that might well be unsustainable given they are still running a SL club infrastructure.

A Widnes fan on the VT said he payed £167 for his season ticket,i think that works out at less than £13 a game.

is that really a good example?

I think the games after the split are going to be the big unknown as to what happens crowd wise.

It may be a top four club has secured it's top four slot before the split or a game into it. Equally a team placed 8th may not have a realistic chance of making the four. Unless these games are part of the season ticket for the entire league season I can't see how they are going to get the revenue they would otherwise.

I think there is a danger the games after the split end up as popular as the early rounds of the playoffs are at the moment.