[uIconic[/u curled-up-at-edges level playing field ?

They'd only be able to do that if they could carry on losing £500k a year. How is that "prospering"?

So which three clubs are fave for relegation over 2014&15?

I can see some serious player signings going on in next few months, salary cap breach anyone?

One can only hope one of the so called big clubs has a mare of a season, would be very funny to see the rfl sweating at the loss of a Wigan or Leeds!

More likely to be Saints at this time.

I'd say this is the signed death warrant for London. The only question is which of Salford, Wakefield or Castleford are also ejected. Salford's signings for next season should strengthen them, but it'll be a bear fight between those three. This might explain why Castleford are playing hard-to-get with Salford over Chase. He could be the difference between which of them are booted out next year.

Has it been confirmed that it will be the bottom two teams that go down?? 2014 will be the third year of the licence period, so effectively the promotion and relegation system won't be introduced until the following year. I'm not so sure that the teams in 13th and 14th will simply be the ones to be relegated. Looking at this from the RFL- www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/about_t ... reviewfaqs - which states, "The RFL Board will also determine which clubs participate in Super League and the mechanism by which clubs move from one competition to another." leads me to believe that who goes down next year might not be determined simply by on-field performance....

Has it been confirmed that it will be the bottom two teams that go down?? 2014 will be the third year of the licence period, so effectively the promotion and relegation system won't be introduced until the following year. I'm not so sure that the teams in 13th and 14th will simply be the ones to be relegated. Looking at this from the RFL- www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/about_t ... reviewfaqs - which states, "The RFL Board will also determine which clubs participate in Super League and the mechanism by which clubs move from one competition to another." leads me to believe that who goes down next year might not be determined simply by on-field performance....

Why have you not included Widnes here? Not saying they should be but curious as to why you think they are safe?

HKR Salford Widnes Cas london and Wakefield will be a great comp next year

London may be dead anyway.Watching the Tony Clubb interview on Boots 'n All was a singularly depressing experience - to hear the club captain effectively saying that it's time for the players to bail out on TV was incredible, but revealing as to how far we've sunk.

Quote ="Adamjk"Has it been confirmed that it will be the bottom two teams that go down?? 2014 will be the third year of the licence period, so effectively the promotion and relegation system won't be introduced until the following year. I'm not so sure that the teams in 13th and 14th will simply be the ones to be relegated. Looking at this from the RFL- www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/about_t ... reviewfaqs - which states, "The RFL Board will also determine which clubs participate in Super League and the mechanism by which clubs move from one competition to another." leads me to believe that who goes down next year might not be determined simply by on-field performance....'" This is what I was alluding to earlier when asking if anyone had seen a press release saying the bottom two in 2014 would be relegated. The only snippet I found is in the Hull Daily Mail which states… Quote ="HullDM" London Broncos are currently bottom of Super League and it has been confirmed that they would not be spared relegation if they finished in the bottom two in 2014, despite their special status as the only full-time club in the capital'" . Quote ="Ruggy"Only 1 other team has to worry anyway, seen as the other teams have refused to change their stance on the Bulls only getting half their Sky money next season, you can pretty much guarantee we'll be relegated due to being massively hamstrung. Hardly a level playing field is it?!'" How come Bradford aren’t in the bottom two this year then?

Quote ="Adamjk"Has it been confirmed that it will be the bottom two teams that go down?? 2014 will be the third year of the licence period, so effectively the promotion and relegation system won't be introduced until the following year. I'm not so sure that the teams in 13th and 14th will simply be the ones to be relegated. Looking at this from the RFL- www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/about_t ... reviewfaqs - which states, "The RFL Board will also determine which clubs participate in Super League and the mechanism by which clubs move from one competition to another." leads me to believe that who goes down next year might not be determined simply by on-field performance....'" This is what I was alluding to earlier when asking if anyone had seen a press release saying the bottom two in 2014 would be relegated. The only snippet I found is in the Hull Daily Mail which states… Quote ="HullDM" London Broncos are currently bottom of Super League and it has been confirmed that they would not be spared relegation if they finished in the bottom two in 2014, despite their special status as the only full-time club in the capital'" . Quote ="Ruggy"Only 1 other team has to worry anyway, seen as the other teams have refused to change their stance on the Bulls only getting half their Sky money next season, you can pretty much guarantee we'll be relegated due to being massively hamstrung. Hardly a level playing field is it?!'" How come Bradford aren’t in the bottom two this year then?

I fail to see how reducing super league to twelve clubs will improve anything.The clubs near the bottom will still be struggling to compete with the wealthier 'elite' clubs that are at the top of the league every year.It seems to me to be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Less poor teams? Means less one sided boring pastings, more intensity due to higher level of opposition. Threat of relegation brings interest and also intensity, so every game means something.

The fact a proposal to return to a system we know doesn't work concerns me, if you are going to have P+R you need a bigger super league 14 teams 1 up 1 down 15/16 team super league 2 up 2 down so the gap between bottom and top is not too big a gulf to breach.
As for the 2 divisions splitting into 3, how does that work commercially?
you are either in the top fight fighting for trophy's getting on tv getting huge crowds increasing sponsorship or your not, how do you budget for which league your going to be in?

It's a fair point, and the honest answer is I simply forgot about Widnes. But yes, they're in that mix for the second spot in the bowl, waiting for the flush.

there is no second spot as there has to be 3 teams relegated next year to allow a championship side to come upmy info is that the widnes chairman was against this and voted against and warend that the teams that were cast aside would more than likely end up finished as a pro club the championship teams have bleated about this since day one but thats all they have done widnes invested in thr youth got everything in place to be a good pro club and now just before it finely bears fruit the could end up ditched so satisfiy one of the yo yo clubs who want a bit of cash for one season just to keep going P&R didnt work before a 12 team league did not work before so why should it work again maybe we should go back to winter rugby as well while we are at it

What does this do to solve any of the major issues which the game over here has? Seems to me the call for promotion and relegation got loud enough and now there has been a reaction to that.

My hairdresser, who's had a lot more experience of life than me, said last week that we're a poor country now, but we won't accept it, we just keep borrowing. What do we produce? There is only one answer in my opinion, and that's an United States of Europe, which is what most of the world want. Maybe that's why this is happening. That'll be good for RL, as no more 6 Nations RU. But they do say, "plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose", so it might not be that beneficial to RL, but surely it won't hurt, especially if we go to a Team Europe, instead of the silly stuff of playing as England, France, Scotland etc. as we are doing.

Under franchising we'd be quite safe in that company. But in actual promotion and relegation you're right, it's going to be a bumfight.

You said bumfight!

Did you mean bunfight?

The SL clubs voted to increase the League from 12 to 14 way back as the 11 home games didn't produce enough revenue to sustain most clubs. Now they have voted to go back to an unsustainable system.
P & R was abolished as it couldn't work due to a full time League and a part time League being incompatible. Now they have voted to restore a system which will bankrupt clubs who won't be able to find buyers.
Awful, just awful!

I reckon bumfight sums it up far better

Woah there mate, this isnt being done to satisfy the non SL clubs, this is a SL clubs decision, blame your SL buddies, not us lot down here

This whole thread (in the main, there are some sensible comments in amongst), is so, so funny. The SL chairmen have decided that a change of the league structure to 2x12 in the top two divisions is the right thing to do, which seems to have resulted in (some of) the current SL team fans starting to panic that their "hallowed" position in the top tier is now under threat.

Bring it on - P&R is at the heart of British sport. Agreed, we need to sort out salary caps and Sky and Premier Sports funding (rewind, the Championship clubs don't get anything from Premier...), but the proposal (I personally favour a straight P&R between 2 leagues of 12) IMHO is the way to go for a more vibrant and exciting competition from top to bottom.

I think the new concept would be 11 home games and an additional 3 or 4 when the 8/8/8 split comes into play.

I wonder what will happen when they next sit down with Sky and are told: "There you go, here's 6/7ths of your previous package". How will they divvy the money up then?

I understand this format was driven by Sky due to the number of meaningless games and the viewing figures associated with them