With the league structure for 2019 and beyond still up in the air with no agreement in sight, I think we should go with the following as a compromise.

Super League 14 clubs, 27 rounds home + away and magic
Top 4 play off
Bottom 2 form middle 4 comp with with top 2 of Championship

Championship 14 clubs, 27 rounds home + away and bash
Top 2 form middle 4 Comp with bottom 2 of Super League

Middle 4 comp games as follows

13 SL 2 home 1 away
14 SL 1 home 2 away
1 CH 2 home 1 away
2 CH 1 home 2 away

Should go with the exact same next year as it’s too late now and have the system for 2020 decided on before the end of this year.

So who are the extra 4 teams we're adding into the league structure? If they're from League 1, what happens to the other 10 teams there?

L1 becomes an open league. Pay your players or don't.

I'd go:

SL - 14 teams (One club relegated, Toronto, Tolouse and London come in). Home and away, 6 team play offs. Bottom club plays the Championship winner over two legs (home and away), winner gets the remaining SL spot. When you come up, you get one years' exemption from relegation to allow teams to plan for long term life in SL rather than just signing aging mercenaries to avoid the drop.

Championship - 12 teams (Bradford and York come in to backfill). Home and away then six extra fixtures based on league standings at that point, odds play evens (so if you're 1st at that point, your six extra fixtures are against whoever is 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th at that point). 4 team play offs (1 v 2, winner in final, loser plays winner of 3 v 4 for the other final spot). Bottom of Champ plays top of League 1 over two legs for final Champ spot. Again, one years' exemption from relegation if you come up.

League 1 - 10 teams (the remaining teams minus Hemel and West Wales), play each other three times. Top 3 play offs (i.e top v 2nd/3rd). I'd send Hemel and West Wales to play in the NCL division 2 where they will be more competitive. I don't think them getting hammered every week helps anyone. Let them re-apply to go into League 1 once they have earned promotion to NCL Premier.

Wow. What an inspiration for those clubs and players. Why didn't you suggest binning it off completely?

For the sport to really spread you need to encourage the lower leagues to be more professional and give them support rather than your suggestion of devaluing them. And yes, I know, there are no easy answers to this, but yours seems quite condecending.

FWIW I reckon the RFL tends to make it up as they go along. I doubt it will happen but it still wouldn't suprise me if we move to 14 teams in SL starting next season, but only if Toronto and either Toulouse or London were the extra 2. It wouldn't actually surprise me if they went to 13 teams either and would be a typically weird thing for them to choose. 13 or 14 is especially likely if Toronto fail to get promoted or Leeds find themselves relegated.

Basically, forget next year and just play things as they are now (and hope my team avoids relegation). Whatever happens close season is nothing any of us can influence anyway.

Odd number cancels Magic weekend

Nope, just means one team gets a week off every round. And yes, its the sort of daft thing the RFL would try and would herald it as 'forward thinking' and 'doing it for player welfare' and any other such nonsensical statements in order to convince nobody that it would be a great decision.

Yes, one club gets Magic Weekend off.

Personally, I think it should move towards a conference system of 24 teams. Tell Sky we want money to cover all 24 sides and have a division underneath, which play each other home and away with the carrot of promotion still in place.

6 groups of 4 conferences.

Play own conference home and away (6 games)
Play every other team once (20 games)
Random Magic draw (1 game)

Top team from each conference go through to play offs along with highest placed 2nd teams.

Completely franchised.

Current 12 SL sides
Heritage teams: Leigh, Halifax, Bradford, Whitehaven, Doncaster
Expansion Teams: Toronto, London, Toulouse, York, Coventry, Newcastle, Sheffield

We're going to have to do something drastic and allowing city based clubs the Super League cash is the way to wider interest. All clubs given 3 year grace period from 2018-2021 to grow their business and put in place and then from 2021 bottom two worst performing teams each season play-off against top two community clubs to retain their place as it is now. Each newly promoted team gets one season's grace exemption from relegation.

Salary cap for both leagues to be the same across the board (£2.5m) to avoid the issue of a competitive edge and to allow new teams/potential franchises to start from the bottom a la Toronto and come into the game. Also means, there's an open door so teams like Featherstone can still get into the elite.

Completely random Conference Draw made in October straight after Grand Final, fixtures announced in November. Magic Weekend draw also random and takes place in October. Two separate Magic Weekends in the calendar 6 games one weekend in one venue + 1 from division below, 6 games on another weekend + 1 from division below.

Playoffs

Best performing v Wildcard 2
Second best v Wildcard 1
Third Best v Sixth Best
Fourth Best v Fifth Best

Double Header Neutral Venue

Winner Game 1 v Winner Game 4
Winner Game v Winner Game 3

Grand Final

Only in RL can the league structure still be up in the air for the following season when we are only 6 months from the start of the next season. I'm not happy with things as they are but i really don't see how things can change for 2019 at this point, whatever is decided needs to be for 2020.

The alternative is that someone is going to have to be really brave and say that because we're so localised we're stifling the game and that rugby league would be better served like cricket by moving to a county/regional game with a local club game underneath to support it and provide the foundations.

Yorkshire (underpinned by all Yorkshire clubs)
Lancashire (underpinned by all Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Saints)
Cumbria (Whitehaven, Workington, Barrow)
Catalan Dragons
Toulouse
Coventry (Midlanders?)
Newcastle (North East)
Wales (underpinned by both Welsh clubs)
Toronto
London


10 Team Elite Comp with larger audience pull, most fans could go support the regional team as well as their club team. Don't have to drop affinity. Meaningful French derby, clear Welsh pathway. Actual Cumbrian presence.

Teams could have their HQ ground along with grounds they play at occasionally to give an event feel and attract new/local spectators.

Yorkshire - main ground Headingley with supporting games across Doncaster, Hull, York, Bradford, Huddersfield for example.

Lancashire - based at Wigan but could play at St Helens, Warrington, Leigh, Salford

Cumbria - based at Whitehaven let's say but could play at Carlisle, Workington, Barrow

Catalan- all played at Perpignan with games at Limoux, Barcelona, Girona

Toulouse - all played at Toulouse with games at Carcassone and the Aude region

Coventry (Midlanders?) - games played in Coventry along with other midland areas such as Wolverhampton, Birmingham, West Bromwich

Newcastle - games played at Newcastle. I think tribalism would stop anything else and I don't think they identified as being proud of being from Tyne and Wear with Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough on the same side

Wales - main games played in Newport or wherever they play now with games at Cardiff, Swansea etc

Toronto - games across Ontario

London - play across London based at Trailfinders at the moment but need to grow (Emirates, Olympic Stadium, New White Hart Lane, The Valley)

Whole point of this is that we don't want 10 clubs averaging 1500 each for the sport, we need 10 strong clubs spending loads of money and attracting the world's best players playing in front of 25000, 30000 fans each week.

County teams have always been a bit of a representative value at the side of SL but never the major focus. By making them the major focus you reduce the risk on clubs and poor crowds, you increase the affinity in the game and if someone in Cornwall wants to set up a Cornish side underpinned and backed by people with money then they can do.

You cannot have an odd number of teams and an odd number of matches , I've been through this several times on here , it doesn't work

Fully you have come up with some of the most ridiculous, pie in the sky rubbish, that has ever been posted on RLfans.

can't believe you took time out to post that

I did say it was going to have to take a brave person but the alternative is a sport with the same old, same old dwindling attendances, less Sky money and shrinking across the board.

We need someone with a vision, ambition and a clear strategy. Something that is going to enthuse the sport and create larger popularity and attraction.

If you think 5,000 at Wakefield, 3,000 at Widnes and 2,000 at Salford, plus 1500 and less at Championship/L1 clubs is an attractive proposition then we are heading into a car crash.

Union only survives because it’s in the money areas and propped up by a successful international game. Football exists on a local level because it has the fanbase to support it.

Cricket operates on a county level and would you say that’s catastrophic? I don’t. People love the county level and it’s fundamentally about targeting the biggest possible audience from the start. It’s also about putting rugby league on the maps of people across a bigger area. Cumbrian rugby league can be much stronger but they aren’t going to merge. So the best alternative is a Cumbrian team that plays across the whole region. Ditto Wales, London, and Coventry. It also opens the door for people in cities like Sheffield and York the chance to experience elite top level rugby league.

If people can support a Roses derby in cricket why can’t they support it in rugby league at an elite level with lots of money.

You can call it pie in the eye but we need to think bigger and larger than small pit villages.

Coming from the King.
[url=http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/william_power2/media/IMG_0489_zps7cdhxwnw.gif.html[/url

It is possible to have a Magic Weekend event in a league with an odd number of teams if it is not an extra tagged on game for each team but one of their regular round robin fixtures (ie it takes the place of a home fixture for half of the teams competing). In an odd numbered league one team has a bye each round, each team will have 2 byes over the course of the season with one team having one of those at MW. With it not being an extra game as now the team with the bye at MW would not be disadvantaged by not being able to earn points at MW (or given an advantage if a bye was to see 2 points being awarded).

Someone found some magic mushrooms? Next season will have the same structure as this one, it's too late to start messing about with it now. All of this expansion and mergers might have some legs if RL was already a major sport in the UK, but it isn't, and condemning the bulk of existing teams to the bin and replacing with "regional" teams would kill the game overnight. You'd be relying mainly on "new" supporters, or maybe the support of the team where the games are played. If Yorkshire played at Headingley, how soon would it be before they become the Yorkshire Rhinos? Well done, you've just lost the supporters from every other current Yorkshire club. Ditto for the other side of the Pennines.

Can honestly say that I'd rather go and watch Hull City at the KCOM then watch rugby league again if this were to happen. Bonkers

People are saying its to late to alter next years game if I remember it right it was done years ago when my team finished in the lower league when they decided to alter it and not tell us till near the end of season just can’t remember what year it was

1996/1997 when we moved to summer?

Stop Press: Toronto and Toulouse gain promotion to Super League, only to have their hopes dashed as the RFL announce an 11th hour league structure of 2 * 10 team leagues. They will both start next season in the Championship alongside Salford and Widnes.

Christ what a mess. I don't mean the situation, I mean the mindset of RL fans. Over-complex highly convoluted structures do nothing for anyone.

Does no-one recall the pre-GF days, when the table-toppers were named champions? When every game meant something because EVERY point was crucial. When you HAD to win against your challengers and a point dropped against 'lower' opposition was a disaster? When a table-topping game was often in effect a 4-pointer and could decide your entire season? Massive games, massive occasion.

I accept the GF cannot be lost and it is indeed a wonderful occasion. But ffs keep it simple. My ideal scenario would be:

League champions straight into GF. A nice cash prize and increased takings from the GF. This massively incentivises teams to aim for top spot. And let's not avoid the fact play-off attendances tend to be poor, so keep them short and sweet:

Week 1 : 2 vs 3.


Ok, I accept that's a bit hollow, so let's go for:
Week 1: 3 vs 4. Week 2: 2 vs Wk1 winner.
- or at very most -
Week 1: 1 vs 4 & 3 vs 2. Week 2: winners play-off for GF.

This smaller structure incentivises teams to push for a top 3 or 4 spot. Right now half the teams in SL know they'll be in the play-offs at the end of the year. They're essentially just bickering over home games. Hardly riveting is it?

Relegation: top up, bottom down. Offers Champ clubs a real opportunity and incentive.
2nd bottom SL and 2nd finishing Champ play off for second SL spot at SL home ground.

As for an influx of expansion sides, chucking London, Toulouse, Catalans, Toronto in right now would be a disaster. That's 4 games of guaranteed zero atmosphere. Some clubs may not bring huge numbers, but nearly all of them contribute to the atmosphere. Even as a season ticket holder I was never bothered when London or Catalans came to town, because I knew it would probably be pretty dull.

Expansionists may mock, but you need fans to WANT to go to games. We all talk about the matchday occasion. Well, a huge part of that is a vibrant game atmosphere: cheers, boos, songs, banter, flags and the thrill of the 'enemy' nearby. It attracts and retains fans. Forget that at our peril. None of us can afford to risk attendances - which are dropping.

Expansion is great but we can't drive forward until we're stronger at home or we risk diluting the game entirely, and destroying irreplaceable heritage. It's a tough juggle: protect the core game while driving expansion. We need a stable structure which incentivises true competition throughout the season and affords opportunity at both ends of the table which in turn builds interest and passion for the game.

12 x super league for me

top 5 play off system after 23 rounds to allow extra mid season internationals

bottom team relegated and replaced by championship champions, 11th place SL team play off v 2nd championship team, home and away, aggregate score to make it fair!

cant see it happening as clubs will lose income with loss of fixtures so will no doubt see those added games again randomly