I'm gutted we've missed the playoffs even though we had little hope of progressing very far.

I'm struggling to work out how to politely express just what a stupid non sequitur this is.

Perhaps I can put it simply: Association Football is NOT so popular in the UK because of a recent change of system in RL. And to even pretend that the changes in RL have somehow stopped RL challenging the popularity of Association Football (because it was on the cusp of so doing until those changes) is just delusional idiocy.

And, as has been pointed out, plenty of Association Football teams have spent chunks of a season with little to play for. But don't let facts get in the way.

i don't think that was the point he was really making, more that the pyramid structure of association football is a factor in its huge success(not the only one obviously), the fact that the little clubs have a clear path to the top and something to aim for keeps people turning up week in week out because as clubs like wigan athletic proved, with the right ambition and a bit of luck you can make it all the way from bottom to top. Put it this way, if when the premier league was formed they'd said 'we're shutting up shop' and took away promotion, do you think the game would be just as strong now?
Its not that what RL does affects football, rather that football has shown the way in how to be really successful and we should be looking at this if we have any ambition to really, properly grow the game here. Its no use pointing to leagues such as the NFL and NRL because its a different culture here and the benchmark has been set for what people want, it really couldn't be any more clear.
And yes there are massive gaps in on/off field level between some of the leagues but part of this is self inflicted and rather than just saying 'X club will never be able to compete with the likes of Y and Z so they have to stay where they are forever', how about the people think about how we can help and improve the game at ALL levels and bring clubs up in standard so that one day we could implement a full pyramid structure to our game and not have a true sport rather than a handful of artificial leagues

That is part of footballs strength, it's other being its easy to play and understand. But that pyramid structure can only exist when there is a good amount of comparable quality clubs to make up a league, and not a monstrous gap in quality between the leagues.
Football has the Premier League, Championship, League One & League Two, with a decent Conference underneath. Every single club in the football league is full time, That's 90 full time clubs. Plus a 24 team Conference Premier. Of course there should be a pyramid structure with P&R in between those leagues. In RL we have 14 full time clubs. Some of whom can barely function as full time clubs. There is a huge gap between the first and second tier. The sport simply isn't strong enough to support a full pyramid structure like that of football. The Wigan Athletic example is a poor one, as it wasn't ambition that got them in the PL, it was Dave Whelan's money. The same way Steve O'Connor's money got Widnes into SL.
If there were enough full time clubs to support it I'd happily have P&R, but at the moment we can barely fill one league, nevermind 2 or 3.
But having a full pyramid structure in RL at the moment is like football having direct P&R between League One and Northern Premier League Division One North with no steps in between.

So the answer to the problem is?

Attempt to expand the number of "real" full time clubs. Which is monumentally difficult in a sport with little money and limited nationwide appeal. The expansion of grass roots teams and leagues is a good start to what needs to be a long term project.

Talk up and promote the game. Be positive and enthusiastic, and get people to matches. And there we are, back to the beginning of the thread

Plus results are less proportionate to the relative skills of each team, underdogs have much more of a chance. In RL mostly the right team wins, often by a healthy margin.

Yep, with a big effort and a bit of luck a Championship or even League One team can hold a Man Utd/Arsenal/Chelsea/Man City to a draw.

In RL the winter weather used to be a good leveler. Maybe the 5m rule was also another parameter keeping things from getting out of hand? I remember games not being inevitable that a higher division side would automatically thrash a lower league team. But then, Saints did thrash Carlisle and Trafford Borough by 100+ points in the late 80s and early 90s.

Yep I think you're right, but the the biggest thing that has widened the gap has been full time professionalism. There are only 14 full time pro RL clubs. In any sport there is a wide gap between the pro clubs and the semi-pro clubs, be it football, Union or RL.

So WYSIWYG isnt WYSIWYG because WYSIWYG is Graham. So should it be WYSIMLG (What You See Is Most Likely Graham)?

20 years of Premier league

Winners

Man Utd
Blackburn
Arsenal
Chelsea
Man City

5 teams in 20 years

Rugby League
16 years of Super (dooper*) league.

Saints
Bradford
Wigan
Leeds

4 teams in 16

I'm seeing the massive difference

*must add this when talking with fans of lower league teams who don't have an ounce of jealousy in them.

How?

' talk up and promote the game ' ? , thats your solution?

I'm sorry, are you wanting the details of an in-depth, fully costed, point by point, multi-year plan that involves all aspects of the sport?

I would suggest its a better solution than constant, unnecessary, unmerited and unwarranted criticism such as blaming the RFL for how a private company words a positive article on the sport, or a thread proclaiming the sport has no credibility because of 2 50/50 ref's decisions in the cup final.

Yes

Well the 50/50 tbread tells us all we need to know about SL fans

As for the criticism of the RFL? , well start getting it right and I wont criticise, simples

Well in the true spirit of RLFans, I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours.

Once again, your constant need to separate the Championship and SL is noted. Very few others on here do, why do you? Instead of complaining and criticising everything in sight, why not suggest a few ideas of your own?

Or how about instead of asking pointless, irrelevant questions why not say what is wrong the solutions proposed on this thread?

Massive ( in RL terms ) investement in ' localised ' marketing of all Championship clubs, no live televised championship matches, but a weekly highlights/review/preview show produced to best show the competition, investement on behalf of the clubs to increase,improve and find new income streams

A few other ideas as well but considering the time of night I'll decline fron going into details, the bottom line is for the International game to improve requires the levels below to improve , the same principles applies to other issues as well

I have on more than one occasion shown you how I would change the way the game is run.

By the way a few years ago the ECB looked at why cricket was failing to attract new players at local level, why crowd numbers were dropping generally why people were not interested in the sport anymore. From the report they made changes one of these changes was to bring in promotion and relegation from a two league system. And yes there were other changes but my point is that they brought in promotion and relegation to generate interest.

I doubt it because I have never met you, if you can link to these detailed, fully costed, comprehensive plans then I'll happily look at them. But Starbug has demanded that level of detail be required so until someone comes up with some this thread is pretty much irrelevant.

As for the ECB, again like football, it's not a close comparison. The ECB enjoys massive interest and funding from its internationals. That money can be, and is being, ploughed into the sport at domestic level to keep it running. Without the money from internationals domestic cricket would fold overnight. I'd also point to the clubs issue once again. We have 14 full time clubs, with interest and money focussed on and coming in through the top of those 14 clubs. How do you run a legitimate, functioning P&R system when only 10 or so clubs can actually compete? Having P&R between a top division which is completely full time and a 2nd division which has no full time clubs and are operating on crowds of hundreds in some cases is a recipe for disaster. Until there is a predominantly full time 2nd division P&R will not work.

If the RFL had run the game properly from the start then this would not be an issue. The reason the teams below super league are part time and have small crowds is because of the fact there is no dream, nothing to aspire to, yes you can win the respective league that you are in but what happens then? The reward for the clubs below Super league is little; the reward for the fans is far smaller. The fans want bragging rights. How do you attract new support for your club when
A) It gets limited publicity from the governing body,
B) You have your games shown on a channel that less than half the population of the country get (this is yet another great deal done by the people in charge) the clubs get nothing from the deal and actually harms the top clubs bid for a licence. The top games that would pull the interest of the neutral can be seen on the TV they can sit in a sports club/ bar and watch for free have a few beers. The games are switched to a Thursday night and many of the diehard fans cannot go.
If they are going to give it away give it away to a terrestrial TV channel that gets into every home then you have a chance of better sponsorship.
c) Super league clubs sell season tickets at a stupidly low price that they cannot afford causing the floating supporter to buy their season ticket because it has paid for itself even if they only go to two games. Then money that could have been used to promote the lower division clubs is spent buying a hole in the ground (iconic ground MY A (Jim Royal moment) ) and keeping a team that has bought its iconic status with money it did not have, running.
d) No promotion or relegation. Nothing to get excited about or biting nails time, talking about the connotations that may get you promoted or relegated, the excitement the disappointment until you reach the semifinals or the final of the playoffs there is none of that so people do not get attached to the club like the supporters that have been around for years and their family’s

it is because of a lack of promotion and relegation that the gap is as big as you say, although I think the top 5 championship clubs could compete with the bottom 5 Super League clubs with only a few adjustments needed.
Rugby league is top heavy too much money, time and promotion is put into super league and will fall over if something is not done about it. Without the lower leagues Super league will struggle.