SL clubs still do youth development (not enough and not brilliantly admittedly)

Read it again

Would still seem backward to reward clubs for failing financially.

Clubs should be rewarded however for specifically doing the things we want them to do though.

Yes it is a strange one, rewarding failure, like they do in the NFL

There is a huge amount of co-operation in the NFL and much more of an attitude of working for the best of the whole. I actually agree with it and would have no problem with us adopting a structure and funding much closer to the NFL.

But it is something you would need to do wholesale, not just pick the bits you like. When the NFL take this heavily socialist philosophy it is on the basis that an payment to improve a struggling club is an investment in that market which if successful benefits the whole league. But i think the clubs you think would benefit from that kind of structure would be the ones to suffer the most, because if it becomes apparent that that payment isnt growing an emerging market but subsidising a failing club that club is gone very very quickly.

Can we stop strangling the life out of the lower leagues?

10 years ago Leigh were averaging 3-3.5k in the lower league. What have we lost since then that has seen our average drop to 1.5k?

For me it's competitive fixtures. The fixtures we do play in don't feel like they mean anything. There's next to no reward for winning anything, so it's difficult to get excited about being crowned 15th best team in the country.

Secondly, I remember big games with big crowds against Widnes, Hull KR, Oldham, Rochdale, Swinton, Salford, Huddersfield, Featherstone, Whitehaven, Batley, Hunslet & Dewsbury, all over a 5 year period. Now many of these clubs are shadows of their former selves. Oldham, Rochdale, Swinton, Whitehaven, Dewsbury & Hunslet are now all close to being dead. Widnes, Hull KR, Salford & Huddersfield are all in the closed shop top flight.

These days, Leigh fans get excited about games v Featherstone or v Halifax, everything else is a let down on one level or another. For example, Batley and Sheffield are good teams, but virtually none of their fans ever turn up at LSV to see their team play.

Yes it works well if you have money queing up to replace them, but we dont, and wont have, unless of course you improve the next lot down, then you might get better results from those failing

And the circle of life is complete

So not only now do you want us to be taking funding from the top of SL to the bottom, we now also need funding to subsidise the lower tiers as well. So in short you are wanting four or five clubs to fund the entire game from top to bottom in the hope that that will produce some clubs who can challenge them. Good plan that.

You also seem to be forgetting that the best market for the league as a whole probably wouldnt be any of the clubs currently in the championship bar Sheffield. It would surely be cheaper and easier just to invest in Sheffield.

No, Darth is putting money into all levels of the game at the moment, including Championships clubs.

I don't quite understand Smokey's reasoning that the Championships don't contribute towards youth development or growing the game. I don't think they do as much as they could or should, but then I don't think SL clubs or amateur clubs do as much as they could or should either.

Good idea, certain to work, cant think why we havent tried that one before?



Look, I think a change of structure isnt going to work, I posted as such at the start of the thread , but neither is the current one working either, so my solution is to put some pressure on the lower SL clubs to improve, as I understood it, thats what everybody wants to happen

There are no new mega clubs around the corner, Salford will fail looking at the way Mr Koukash is heading, because he looks to want instant results, and that wont happen, or if it does it will probably be on the back of an influx of overseas players

Im not saying they dont contribute at all, but out of all three levels of the game they contribute the least, and considering that all three levels of the game are desperate for investment I cant see why we would be prioritising investing in the part of the game that has and will contribute the least.

As i said before, we dont have an infinite amount of money, every penny we spend has an opportunity cost, if we invest x amount in the championships we dont invest x amount elsewhere, investment in any part of the game doesnt only have to be worthwhile it has to be the best use of that money.

If its pressure on the lower SL clubs that is our aim, the most obvious and simplest answer would be to cut the size of SL by 2.

Or by 4 , or 6 , crazy really, shrink till we dissapear, or attempt to grow, all parts

robbing peter to pay paul isnt growth.

If peter is blowing his money on drugs unneccessarily instead of planting seeds then buy paul some tools so he can at least attempt to feed himself

All three proposals will see lesser teams in the 'top' division. I have no problem with this as long as it is based on results (ie the bottom 2 or 4 teams in 2014 are the ones to lose their place). No exceptions and no bending the rules to suit the RFL and/or Sky - there can be no arguments if relegation is re-introduced and the only criteria is success on the field.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22488221

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22488221

If those are the only options then I hope they vote for Option 1 - a 12 team SL and 12 team Championship with 1 up, 1 down. Though I think that in itself is a mistake, but the least worst option of those 3.

Out of those options on the BBC, I think option 2 is the most likely there. I do quite like option 3 now that I have thought about it but it will bring with it a lot of disagreement with fans and clubs so I don't think it's in the sports best interest right now to do that.

I think a 10 team Super League division will be more intense than a 12 team one. It doesn't mention promotion and relegation on the BBC article but I'm assuming that it will be in place, not using the current licensing system.

The last 2 paragraphs have words that worry me

Excellent progress

KPMG



, what planet is Mr Wood currently residing on?

I'd vote for 2 x 10 SL from those options, if I had a vote.

We don't need a new set up every 5 mins, we need patience. So the Championship clubs don't want to keep the current format...that's just turkeys & Christmas.

I'm firmly in the 'none of the above' camp.

Three poor ideas and the worst of the lot - by some considerable distance - seems to be the one most likely to be adopted. It will do absolutely nothing to address the problems in the game while at the same time making us look like a joke competition to anyone outside the sport. And many within it.

Pathetic.

Spot on