Gledders does mention IMG, and their involvement has now been officially announced.

Also mentioned was Sky’s dislike of arbitrary loop fixtures and of the Middle 8s. But it is hard to see how things would work without one or the other.

Two tiers of ten all of which play their nine immediate rivals once home, once away leads to just 18 games for each - too few in a season for financial sustainability.

But what if:

The TOP six in SL1 then have a home & away further round robin (previous points carried over) - making it 28 games,

The same happens with the BOTTOM six in SL2,

The other two sets of four teams play their own separate robins - taking them to 24 games apiece. The bottom two in SL1 and the top two in SL2 then h&a robin again (30 games) - top two are in the following season’s SL1.

AB Sundecks (or not) 1895 Cup reimagined for lower teams or whatever.

Discuss.

You lost me at "but what if".

It’s difficult to know how much truth there is in this with micks occasional use of hyperbole in his journalism , however there is a scenario where one of the more traditional clubs like a Bradford, Halifax and Widnes could get dragged into the non funded 3rd division which is slightly worrying.

The simplest way to handle 2x10s is to play each time three times. 27 games + Magic for a 28 game regular season, which is the same as it is now.

I know it makes the fixtures very slightly unbalanced with the fact that some clubs would have 14 home games and some would have 13. You could level that out over a two-year cycle.

Every other option I've seen is as complicated as Bongsters 'solution' (above) or even more so.

I'm agnostic over the tow 10s idea. All I would plead is that they set some proper minimum standards. If we are going with 20 'elite' clubs then make sure they are at least somewhat elite - stadium standards, requirement to have reserves and academy, minimum squad spend, and so on.

Basically it would be the current SL with the addition of Featherstone, Leigh. Halifax, Newcastle, Widnes, London, Sheffield, Batley, Barrow and ourselves. Something like that anyway- there'll be others who think they should be in, of course.

I assume the rest would be cast adrift...

Evening Paul, hope you are well. It has for years been a bugbear here that there isn't symmetry in the RL system. The most popular sport in this country and many others is Association Football. In the PL everybody plays everybody else once at home and once away and the team finishing top are the undisputed champions - no pi$hing about with Grand Finals and the like.

Yes, "The Bongs Option" borrows something from the SPL because of the sparsity of teams at a roughly competitive level.

Bongser accepts that Magic & Bash are popular for social reasons but they shouldn't be allowed to skew the symmetry. Whilst if League points were not on offer, yes clubs would field second strings, the events should be played for the celebration and for charity.

Maybe it's just a UK thing. The NRL fixtures are anything but symmetrical and their comp is doing just fine...

i'd run it as S1 and S2 for a few years let the gap between the old champ and SL teams lessen then let rip with a 20 team league, with current Grand final / Play off structure at the end of the year, Bottom team relegated top from new League 2 up.

What about the clubs that don't make the 20? Where do they go?

Nobody knows but I reckon they'll be cut adrift. Scandalous really. People talk about a reduction to two divisions of 10 like it's fair enough but it's just downsizing and doesn't solve any of the fundamental issues. At this rate in a decade or so it'll be just Saints, Wigan and Leeds playing each other forever.

I hope this new deal brings some much needed expertise to revitalise the game as a whole.

Our sport likes a spot of self-fulfilling contraction. I still feel angry god knows how many years later about the way the game told Nottingham and someone else to bugger off as they wanted a smaller division. I completely and utterly oppose that idea. What about the likes of Cornwall. Invited into the fold one minute, but surely destined to be kicked out after 2 minutes. Even as an expansionist at heart I think they are a very silly club indeed, but they don't deserve that. None of the people trying their best in the bottom half of L1 deserve to be unceremoniously ended.

I think Toulouse and Catalans should be binned to start with, then London... that's dangerously close to France. Then Newcastle as that's virtually Scotland...followed by York as they are over 20 miles from the M62.... as for Cumbria....

Gloucester were developing nicely. Never did dual reg with anyone. Then binned off. Complete wasted all that effort of spreading the game there.

It'll be interesting to see if IMG decide to pull up the drawbridge so that the SL clubs can have more money.

I'm not against a re-structure but I don't like the idea of binning clubs arbitrarily. If they did it now it would be curtains for Widnes, Newcastle, London, Whitehaven, Dewsbury and Workington along with the whole of League 1. That's madness.

Anyway, if we're going to have to get into the top 8 next year we're going to need a top coach. We can't afford to take a punt on another McBanana type gamble if next year is make or break.

I still feel like the game started it’s slide when SL went from 14 to 12. I’m biased about Bradford, obviously but dropping 2x large city clubs at the same time seemed mad from a marketing & tv rights point of view. But there we go, 12 becomes 2x 10

I agree completely. Its back to the self-fulfilling prophecy that people claim there aren't enough top level players to go around X number of clubs. When you then reduce the number you cause the loss of pathways, shrink the wider appeal of the game, decrease the reach etc.

There not gonna do that , they’ll just recruit players from Bradfords academy and siddal to the places you mentioned and call it expansion .

It is baffling to think some people, actually high ranking officials in the game, can think that by binning off clubs we can somehow expand the game and make it stronger.

Utter madness. How can we discourage anyone from picking up a ball and playing the game.

SL1 will be reduced by 2 teams and SL2 will just be a rebranded championship. Everyone else cast into the cold to become amateur outfits?

As a forum idea its bonkers, never mind the fact its probably a reality

Bringing in external consultants, partners, whatever you want to call them is an admission of failure and should bring immediate resignation from the top strata of the RFL.

Rather than fixate over structure, and tell us that were we to have a league of French teams, cool middle class progressives would start watching the game, they need to find out why wealthy individuals are not prepared to invest in traditional rugby league clubs. Non league, lower division football attracts wealthy owners, similarly national hunt horse racing in the north. The stock car people clearly had more resources than the Bulls. You simply cannot give away rugby league clubs as Hudgell and I think Pearson have found out.

What is the structural reason, apparent across the whole game that turns wealthy individuals off? Is it the salary cap which stops a wealthy individual genuinely taking a mid level team to the point of deposing Saints? Or, in our case, a bizarre series of events which culminated in potential investors revealing that they had been turned away while the club was handed to a penniless man from New Zealand?

A good Giants team with an English coach took less than 2k to a CC final little more than 12 miles away. It's a death spiral.

I'll be controversial...

It's the same reason masses of people vote Tory. Most of the media is aimed that endeavour and it starts with making it aspirational 'ah you are one of us not one of them!'.

The number of folk at work who blindly follow Union because of a sponsorship deal is astronomical and when you tell them you don't watch it you watch League the 'Oh flat caps and whippets brigade' comes flying out of their mouth, regardless of the fact they've come from bloody Bradford!!!

Maybe over reacting but it's in most peoples psyche at the minute. No-ones happy with what they have and are constantly striving to make themselves look better than they are and League, I'm afraid, is working class, grimy and something quaint to laugh at...

I hope Nige and Co identified that John Kear wasn't the man to get us top 20, so have parted ways to give us time to bring in a new SL quality coach with time to do a 95 style Smith and Elliot rebuild.
while holding funding back this year in order to do so..
Imagine Professional Rugby League in Bradford coming to an end... wowsers.

An excellent analogy. People vote Tory because on the surface they appear to hate them marginally less than the modern Labour Party. Similarly British rugby league has so internalised whatever prejudice exists ( I suggest outright disinterest) and are so acutely embarrassed by itself and us (it's fanbase) it has brought in French teams from a moribund league to make it more palatable to people who historically loathe us. It actually means it's not about the game at all. It's pathetic and offensive in equal measure.

very silent on the new coach front, think they are leaving Dunning in Charge and see if anyone notices / cares anymore?

Someone at the game on Sunday mentioned to me that they heard from within the club It's Dunning for the rest of this season with Noble supporting.
They also said 99% sure it's Tony Smith next year(can't see it but we can hope)

Tony Smith would be a dream if he is given the resources he requires.
and The club changes its whole culture from top to bottom accordingly.

If I was them I would hurry up and announce something as it feels like the Bulls are on the way down the pan at the moment and the support is dying off quickly.

Indeed.

I did have a sinking feeling we would stick with Dunning at least until the end of the season and limp along under the excuse that most teams are ‘also rans’ this year. Fev and leigh still strengthening their squads only hammers that home.

However most teams are still putting up decent performances and trying to play rugby whereas we really seem to have grounded to a halt and it’s really hurting what’s left of the fan base.

If the plan really is to limp along with Dunning and get in Tony Smith for next year (unlikely IMO but I hope it’s true) then they really do need to announce it as soon as the deal is done or there might not be anything left for anyone to pick up next year