Why would you have a mix of part and full time teams. Surely the part time teams would be at a disadvantage to the full time teams.

If the RFL decide to run with a two tier Superleague this is also doomed to failure. There are not enough clubs capable to support 20 full time clubs, we are struggling to support 14.

All this talk of a 2-tier Super League is rubbish. It won't happen and it shouldn't because it makes no sense. It will further dilute the money available from the Sky contract to more clubs, and guarantee that even more clubs than now are economically unviable. It is just a new way for the embittered Championship fans, who see no hope of their club getting a SL license under current rules and setup, fantasizing that they can achieve at least a second class Super League status.

The optimum number of Super League clubs for now is 12, because it will concentrate the English playing talent into fewer teams, making the SL competition more equal. It will also have the existing and future Sky monetary pie cut into fewer, bigger sllces, making it a bit easier for the SL clubs to make ends meet. But it probably won't happen in the coming round of licensing.

Castleford, despite having some good players in their side, and starting the season with promise, are struggling on the field and off. They won't have a new SL-standard stadium in process in 2014, so they probably will be dropped.

Hull KR may follow for financial reasons. But that is not certain.

If only Castleford falls, then add Toulouse, which looks like it will have a good financial base, and postpone the inevitable pruning of SL to 12 until the 2018 season.

If we ever want to have a truly competitive league we need to drop the teams by at least 2 but Ideally 4 at this stage. At this moment in time we have 11 decent to good teams but 3 poor ones. This is because the player pool isnt big enough to sustain a competition with 350 players (14 squads of 25) in it. Take away 50-100 of the lesser player and the league becomes more competitive from top to bottom. There will be few whitewashes and the best players will spread across the 10-12 remaining teams. 10 would make for a much higher intensity, especially as the playoffs would be cut to 4/5 and you'd have to go all out, all season long to actually make them.

This in turn helps us at international level, because players are playing at a higher standard week in, week out instead of knowing they can coast, as certain teams do.

People say Origin is the main difference for the Aussies when it comes to International games but I disagree. It helps, but the fact of the matter is, their player pool is large enough to sustain a 16 team league and you cant have an off game, because even the bottom team is capable enough to put you to the cleaners. That gets you in the mindset already. Origin just tunes them up and helps them reach the next level. As it is for us at the moment, were lucky if we see 10 games of great quality, intense Rugby League throughout the season. Reducing the amount of teams would go some way to sorting this problem.

An example of Australian RL is my team, The Doggies. 6 months ago, they were playing in a grand final. Now, this year, with pretty much the same squad, apart from a few players here and there, have 1 win from 6 and sit bottom of the NRL Ladder. Yes, we have had a few injuries and a suspension, but can you imagine, under the current SL system and player pool, Warrington being bottom with 1 win from 6? It just wouldnt happen. A reduction in teams would add more parity to the SL and would make it a better spectacle to watch. It wouldnt just benefit the lower teams either. It would be throughout.

Im from Leeds, Im a Leeds fan. I dont want to see the league how it is these days. I want to go to a game not knowing what the outcome will be. I want to know that if we dont play well every week that there will be a chance we miss the playoffs. I want to see Leeds, Wigan, St Helens, Warrington in a position where they may have to fight it out for the wooden spoon, then make a few adjustments in the off season and comeback pushing for a playoff place the year after. It's not impossible, and I know the teams who miss out will struggle, but for the good of the game in general, we cant go on like this.

Get rid of the deadwood . Have a SL of Leeds, Wigan, Warrington and St Helens and be done with it.

If you knock SL down to 10 or 12 teams where will the extra revenue come from for these "lost" fixtures ?

They will just end up playing each other 3 or 4 timed.

Playing with the numbers is the lazy and easy option, it wont solve anything , the whole sport, not just SL needs promoting properly, the clubs themselves are just as bad

Mr Koukash at Salford will attempt to build his club on the back of trying to buy a winnng team , he will fail

Wholesale changes are needed at the top of the sport, rhetoric without content is all they have, it isnt enough

Whoever sits at the bottom or close to it is rounded on by fellow fans to be kicked out...we act like animals in the wild sometimes.

Does any other sport act in this way?...do they have more bias commentators on their sport like those on Sky?

Yes my club looks like it will get the boot, but if you think that other clubs can just come in and sweep up the great youngsters in the area think again.

Without a top flight side in the town the talent will slowly dry up and the kids will start playing other sports or stop altogether. Do Cumbria for example produce as many top flight players like they once did?.

Nevermind let in another charity club in France chock full of players from down under

How do you know Koukash will fail? You Mystic Meg in your spare time? As everyone already knows you can't achieve success in any sport without money. If the Dr builds a winning side on the back of a brand new coaching set up at the reds the you'll see thousands flocking to the Scs as every fan wants to be associated with success!

I think the sport has to accept a dip in quality in order to actually improve.

We simply have had to many years of journey men aussies/quota exemption players filling up playing rosters at the expense of younger british players.

we need to get back to a point where imports compliment a side, not form the the core of them and playing with league numbers does not do that

You truthfully believe that ?

It is just that easy , is it ?

At what point do you consider success ? , 5,000 averages ? , 7,500 ? , 10,000 ? , which is the supposed break even figure

Or is it just a winning team on the pitch funded by Mr koukash ? , and bugger the rest ?

I am not have a ' pop ' at Salford , I hope you are successful , I hope Mr koukash spends an extra 25% over and above what he puts into the squad and coaching into community and marketing , is he the sort of person to see the benifit of that ? , is that what he wants ? does he understand that it will take years , possibly decades of investement ?

And dont forget , this is just my opinion , I would be happy to be proved wrong , but we will only find out in 2023 , maybe we can discuss it again then ?

I never said it would be easy? But I know full well what we can achieve crowdwise, listen alot of us fans at Salford have never seen the good times or even an average time we've always been whipping boys, and we've usually attracted from 3000 to 5000 average now that's spectators who turn up with 0% hope of winning 70% of Super League games if we had a team that had a chance of say winning 70% of games then you'll see that average double. It's not that the people of Salford and Manchester aren't interested in RL its just their not going to fork out their hard earned cash to go to a game they never think their going to win. You put Leeds Rhinos in Salford's position for the next 10 to 20 years And see how many of their huge following remains? Like I said sport is about winning and following the best teams and hopefully I the Doc can deliver a team on the pitch the Salford public will want to follow and boast about their team.

Think it's a little premature to denounce Dr Koukash as a failure two months into the job. Plus, Salford have been, literally, rock-bottom off the field for all of the off-season. He has to start somewhere, and what the Club desperately needs is an injection of cash that goes in the right places. There's more to fix off the field than on it and the Dr knows exactly what he wants and how he wants to achieve it. He's no idiot, and he's bringing in plenty of people who really know what they are doing with regards to stuff away from the playing side.

I find it a little bit smug that fans can dismiss struggling Clubs with a wave of a hand because their team is lucky enough not to be in that situation. Some of the teams who occupy the top half of SL have had their struggles in the not so distant past, why not get behind the struggling Clubs instead of denouncing them as lepers and hangers-on?

14 teams is the way it will stay for the foreseeable future anyway.

And is it possible to ' buy ' a winning team in RL with a salary cap ? , or how long could it take to get it right ?

Ah the salary cap? That old chestnut? I'm sure Dr Koukash has been on to Simon Moran at Warrington to figure out the same loop holes he uses?

I'm doing nothing of the sort , I am giving an opinion , it might well be wrong , as I said we'll know for sure in 10 years time

Without a doubt , and that is harder to achieve

Who exactly ?

Ah , so you are suggesting he will ' Cheat ' ? , that doesn't fill me with confidence he will have the patience to achieve the other stuff required

Two leagues of ten with p+r between the two or a four team super league until the rest catch up and become sustainable.

You show me one honest businessman in either this country or any other? There is ways around the salary cap but and I guarantee you there's more than just one wealthy backer in SL that's doing that. To me the coaching set up is the most vital at any sports club. If what I hear is true Salford will have one of the best In the league and that is most important for on-field success.

Until those advocating a smaller SL can explain how we replace the lost revenue from fewer games, it's a no-no.

On average, each SL game brings in several thousand home fans, variable numbers of visiting fans, matchday sponsors, pitchside advertising, corporate spectator packages, player sponsors, programme sponsors and advertising, revenue from refreshments, some also bring in car park revenue. Many teams even have announcement sponsors!

Then consider Sky would be unlikely to pay the same amount for a smaller league with fewer games. They would also lose out from charging a higher rate for adverts during SL games with healthy viewing figures. And a Super League sponsor (if we ever find one) would be aware of the reduction in exposure and only pay accordingly.

Reduce the league to 10 and you reduce the number of home games by almost a third. Yes, teams could play one another three times but do we really want to go down that road? No thanks.

Plus with fewer elite English players at the top level we thin out our international pool massively - overseas players would still occupy many key positions leaving even fewer places for the better English players. Even further if (as some are also advocating) we then bring in another French team or two. The idea of quality not quantity is a good one, but it just wouldn't work.

Two tens

Twelvty.

Whichever number benefits my club the most.

Signed, everybody.

Down to the way it was, 12 teams, top 5 playoffs. Increase the fixtures more fairly, maybe by all the teams that finished in the odd places play each other & the same with the even, rather than done on position.

Same in the championship, which are under more strict guidelines on promotion, the championship starts and finishes a month before SL to give the promoted team more time to sign players/prepare.