I'm a bit new to RL- didn't it used to be played in May (as I believe it was before they changed winter to summer). Why was it moved to August again?

for me Challenge cup should be played on the last weekend of every month. That way youd keep momentum and interest and it would be a natural lift to the cup weekend at the end of the month.

End April/ May b/h - millenium magic....all fixtures played in cardiff to get the cup going with a festival of RL for all clubs not just SL.

16 games sounds stupid but could easily be done in cardiff. Say reduced ticket prices for all S/T holders £5-10 tickets or alternatively build it into the season ticket price.

Say £10 on each season ticket....approx 70k SL Season ticket holders, say 10k National league...thats £800,000 straight away, plus any walk ups and welsh fans which must be more revenue than the current magic weekend brings in and probably equal or more to what the round brings in now?

Play the games involving soley NL clubs in the smaller staduim - say for example 3 games/ sat 3 games sun / 4 games mon. And the bigger games in the MM (roof off) 3 games sat / 3 games sun.

So this years draw would have gone something like this....... and for me would be far more appertising for the average RL fan than MM with a chance to pick what games you wanted to see from whatever level.

KO every hour on the sat and sun so fans could even attend second halfs etc. and watch the bits of each game fans wanted to... and a true festival of RL and a chance for all fans to integrate and celebrate our great game together and have a chat and banter with all those fans you usually dont

On this years draw for example you could have..........

SATURDAY

[uSmall Ground [/u
Featherstone V Wath Brow - 2pm
Sheffield V Dewsbury - 4pm
Swinton V Rochdale - 6pm

[uMillenium[/u
Hull Kr V Celtic - 3pm
Barrow V Wigan - 5pm
St Helens V Leeds - 7pm

SUNDAY

[uSmall ground[/u
Oldham V Lezigan - 1pm
Doncaster V Gateshead - 3pm
Batley V Hunslet - 5pm

[uMillenium[/u
Hallfax V Widnes - 2pm
Catalan V Bradford - 4pm
Hull V Salford - 6pm

MONDAY

[uSmall Ground[/u

Warrington V York - 12pm
Wakefield V Leigh - 2pm
Keighley V Castleford - 4pm
Harlequins V Huddersfield - 6pm

How about that to KO your Challenge Cup........Far better than the current SL farce we have with 30 k fans attending....and what better way to promote the oldest cup competition and lead other sports once again?


End May - 5th Round
End June - Quarters
End July - Semis (both as a double header at a largish venue -ie/ COM, Elland Road, Anfield etc)
End Aug - Challenge Cup final

So basically you've renamed the SL play-offs to the Challenge Cup, and the Challenge Cup to the Northern Rail Cup.

Why not just rename the SL play-offs the Northern Rail Cup?

Or why not just leave it as it is as you've not really made any difference?!

Could change it to a group format.

8 groups of 4 (that's 32 teams for those who can't be bothered to work it out!).
All SL teams + Championship GF-ists enter automatically.

BARLA and RLC teams enter at Qualifying Rnd 1.
Championship teams enter at Qualifying Rnd 3. (16 go through)

QR3 is seeded, so that all Championship sides + top 7 Ch1 sides (those that got to the play-offs basically) go into pot 1 and the rest into pot 2.

16 losers from QR3 enter Challenge Plate group stages (4 groups of 4).

Top two from CC group stages progress to Rnd 2 of CC.
Top two from CP group stages progress to Rnd 2 of CP.
Third in CC group stages moves to Rnd 2 of the CP (like they used to do in the Champions League and UEFA Cup).
Fourth in CC group stages are out.

Both competitions played on the same weekends throughout the season.
Semi-Finals played as double headers on same weekend (CC DH played on Saturday at Villa Park, CP DH played at Walsall FC on Sunday, both in Birmingham area).
CC Final played as usual at Wembley on BH weekend.
CP Final played day after at Wembley on BH weekend (only bottom tier open).

Benefits:
More fixtures between SL and lower league clubs will help close the gap in standards (to be the best you gotta play the best, etc) and bring in more money for lower league clubs.
Same applied for the gap between lower league and conference clubs.
Guaranteed group fixtures you can put on the season ticket, meaning bigger crowds.
Plate competition (which would basically replace the NRC, which you could still effectively call the NRC if need be) can run in parallel with the CC which the NRC in its current format cannot due to clubs being involved in both competitions. This means fixture lists will be easier to produce.
RFL will have more power over BARLA teams due to attraction of a lucrative competition that could bring them in more money, which could be used to tempt clubs to switch to the RFL.

Drawbacks:
SL fixture list would have to be reduced by 5 games to accommodate 6 CC group games (4th round of current CC would be the 6th fixture). Doubtful this will happen.
Are there enough clubs at BARLA/RLC level that could fulfill 6 group game fixtures?

None of this could happen without a good TV deal (to replace the money lost by reducing SL season by 5 rounds).

Im really liking a couple of your ideas re the stages,
Im not sold on the CP idea though.

Play it as a doubleheader before the GF, and have it tour grounds around the country to help spread RL