It'd have meant letting Bradford go. Not an easy choice, but licensing lost it's credibility there and then. It was then a case of either admitting that the Championship had been cut adrift, or something like the options being considered.

Another round of licence applications was a toe-curlingly awful prospect, so, IMO, credit to the rfl for sparing us that.

What would you do then? closed-shop franchising? Genuine question.

It is the same search for a ' magic bullet ' that the clubs undertake, removing the requirement for hard work and initiative, only this time its the governing body looking for the easy fix

Lots of people are think just that, with what we have now.

If the top 5 think they are subsidising the rest of the game lets all pack in, leave the 5 to play themselves each other every week and see how long it lasts.

I'd give it a year at best.

Comparing any UK rugby league model with the NFL is like asking why my wheelbarrow can't fly me to the moon.

There's nowt wrong with aiming high but there's everything wrong with living in a dreamworld.

You may well be correct about the Bradford situation MR but bringing back P&R will mean the clubs just go back to short term solutions.

Is it any wonder we can't find a sponsor.

S Wales & then N Wales disappearing,Bradford,Wakefield and Salford failing and now probably building up more massive debts.

The owners & fans of huddersfield,London,Cas and HKR basically admitting they're exhousted chasing there own tails round and round and not getting very far.

You'd think they'd learn licencing in such a small sport wont work

If option 1 or 2 is taken up then would there be parachute payments for the relegated team. If there is going to be then the second division will just be a race to see who gets beaten by the team who came down the previous year in the Grand Final, just like it was when Castleford yo-yoed between the leagues.

This would mean that be demanding that they have the chance to be promoted into the top flight the championship clubs would have ensured that they have no chance at all.

Yo-yoing between the leagues still created some drama though. Two final day relegation battles, 2 grand finals that created a lot of hype and attention. The crowd at Headingley for the game with Widnes was some 20,000 I think? (albeit with contributions from the 2 fev teams bramley & Oldham).

Thus, my simple idea is, just bring back P&R.

If we went with Option C, I can see the 2 divisions in 2015 being something along the lines of:

SL 1

Wigan
Leeds
Warrington
St Helens
Bradford
Huddersfield
Catalan
Hull
London
Wakefield
Salford
Sheffield

SL2:

Hull KR
Castleford
Widnes
Toulouse
Halifax
Featherstone
Whitehaven
Batley
Leigh
York
Crusaders
Hemel


Entirely on merit, I can see London & Salford progressing over the next couple seasons, Hull KR could be in danger depending on Sandercock/Replacement. Only got Cas going down because we don't yet know what effect Powell will have, and unfortunately I think Widnes are rather doomed with Betts.

Sheffield seem the most likely Championship outfit to win promotion, but Halifax could easily challenge them for it.

You think Widnes are 'rather doomed with Betts' !?
ah yes! That's what Saints and Wolves fans said, immediately befor they got a pasting from Widnes.
Irrespective of my Widnes bias, how can you think that Salford and London will surpass Hull KR?
As far as the structure goes... It may work as a novelty idea, if ALL clubs involved got the same or at least a similar cut of the money and there was a universal salary cap, the same for everyone (allowing, say Leigh or Fax to get a sugar daddy and spend the same as Wolves and Leeds). But as it stands it is a joke.
It's a more dangerous version of the much trumpeted RL Nines that was, on its introduction, announced as RL's version of 20/20 cricket.
Let's ignore the fact that RL didn't need a version of 20/20 cricket for a minute.
Three rounds into that comp, a senior RL official sat behind me at one of the games asked me what I thought. I repeated the thoughts of some coaches, which I agreed with, that it was a decent run out for the younger teams, as a fitness exercise, but would never catch on at Senior level. The said official was like a rejected school kid and continued to look for my (an anonymous fan's) approval.
I put this idea in the same bracket. The level of creative thinking and business acumen at RFL is NVQ business studies level, at best, IMHO.
Thank you and goodnight
(I'll be back in another 4 years!)

The option 3 (8-8-icon_cool.gif will make the avarage attandance increase. For example - Wigan Vs London will be replaced by Wigan Vs Saints (part 3). Warrington Vs Tigers will be replaced by Warrington Vs Wigan (part 3) and so on. The RFL will use these figures to convince us that it will be a success.

IMO the only way P&R will work is that the promoted team get to or 3 immunity from relegation. This way they can put structures in place to build the club and don't have to overspend to stay up. With Championship clubs being part time to expect them to revert to full time in such a short space of time is doomed to failure. As a Widnes fan we have seen that franchising is sort of working. Ok we took quite a few pastings last season but you could see the improvement as the season went on. Our crowds are up and we have the opportunity to bring some of our youngsters through when with P&R we wouldn't have been able to do this. I agree the game is dying below SL and these clubs need the opportunity to play at the highest level but promotion could set these clubs back even further especially if they are relegated after one season.

I agree with all of the above but most of the middle division would already be full time.
Say for instance Tigers and London leave SL in 2014. They are then joined in the middle division after 11 rounds in 2015 by Salford, Wakey, Widnes and Hull KR (from SL1). Halifax and Fev also stay up in the second tier. Only the latter 2 clubs need to adjust to the full-time environment.

If Cas and London are relegated into division 2 then they will be at the same level as Fax and Fev as they will be getting the same funding as them and be full time or part time based on that funding.

If extra funds are available to bring up 5 or 6 "2nd division" teams a lot closer to SL then fantastic. But if that's the case then lets just have straight P&R without a daft mid-season split.

Yes but you are only looking at the funding from Sky. Cas (like in 2006, 200icon_cool.gif could operate a full time squad in SL2 and with Hughes backing so could London. As you know a lot will depend on the SL2 clubs individual turnover from gate receipts. The reported Sky money of 300k won't go far regarding squad building.

Agree with your last paragraph entirely.

That doesn't make sense. We have been unable to find a sponsor in the current franchise system. We had plenty of sponsorship when we had P&R. I'm not saying we should bring back P&R but the point you made is nonsense.

With it looking like a split half way through the year, I'd like to know the relegated clubs from SL1 would survive a operating a full salary cap, when they will be getting attendances of 2-4k in SL 2.

I don't think clubs have thought this idea through and have just seen the idea of more competitive games. Considering the last two major decisions the clubs have voted on (Dual Reg & Stobart) I'm not holding my breath they will get this one right.

I fear if this one doesn't work though, the sport is in trouble

For me a 2 tier superleague with a 2 tier salary cap.
First 12 minimum cap spend 1.5 million all the way up to a max of 2.5 million.
Second 12 minimum cap spend 0.5 million up to a max of 1.5 million.

Run the 8 x 8 x 8 as a pilot for 2015 to see how it develops for supporters, clubs and market response.

Franchise system in its present state is now dead wood, the threat of P + R need to be in place with a possible financial assessment to the promoted team.

We have around 4 or 5 "successfuly run" clubs now stagnated because of the veto power from the weaker clubs , the new structure should be of positive progression, the present environment is one of ever increasing demise.

Maybe these 4 or 5 "successfully run" clubs should join the NRL and let the rest of us compete on our own ?

I sincerely hope none of those are adopted.

We left Option 1 a few years ago, for good reason. 1up1down is just a recipe for an unbalanced league and smaller clubs committing suicide.

Option 2 is painfully regressive.

Option 3 is unsustainable at current levels as it requires more FT teams than we can handle (and apparently it is complicated... though I don't see that myself).

Merely pointing out that as a sport we don't seem to know what we're doing or where we're going, I'm sure that's very appealing to potential sponsors.

My initial reaction to the structure was nah!

It just seamed to take to long to figure out, but then after 5 minutes I could see some merit in it.

After a week I can see a lot of merit in option 3 and I think it answers a lot of questions that clubs keep raising.

It answers questions about increasing the number of competitive games.
It justifies a playoff , because of the uneven nature of the league.
It should provide an increase in attendances for the first 11 games and then for the 2nd tranche of games, with promotion and relegation on the cards for division 2 and places in the playoffs for division 1.

With increased cross over between the divisions, you would expect this will bring more and more clubs into being fulltime, with bigger crowds to boost income.

There is a also a chance to increase marketing and with BT vision on the prowl for sport, why not split the TV packages into four parts.

League 1 and League 2 opening 11 games.
Division 1 and Division 2 14 rounds.

Also when the leagues split there should be an oppertunity to compress the CC into a set of games closer together week to week, allowing for more concentrated free to air coverage and for those clubs knocked out, allowing a mid-season break for resting players before launching part 2 of the league.

Crowds should be boosted by all aspects of this. Game 11 could be critical for up to 10 teams across the whole structure.

In the end it will be down to the clubs, but I can see a lot of chairmen seeing this and as time goes by seeing how it will benefit them money wise. For those who don't spend the max salary cap, it will allow them to build at a rate that is better for them, but it will also allow the Koukash's of this world to take a club like Sheffield and ratchet them up through the leagues in double quick time.

For those wanting to spend more than the current cap, it allows this too as it will not create as big a gap between top and bottom as the bottow will be sifted out part way through.

It offers a lot of flexibility and options, but when it comes down to it, the RFL can only provide a structure, it will be down to clubs to manage their finances and market the games to fans, you can take a horse to water, but you can't make RL clubs make the most of what is on offer.

option 3 is a disaster waiting to happen, all it will do is help to distroy 4 teams every year as it will slowly erode them to chapoionship level and not the other way round. there is not one team in the championship now that could make a fist of sl and the chairmen of them clubs are happy with their lot all they want is a bit more dosh so they dont have to spend there own money on the teams, we need to go to 16 team sl full stop teams below can be feeder teams with funding from the parent clubs pand r does not work just ask leigh they still haven recoverd from there disaster of a season

You mean the disaster of a season that we made a profit in?

It is the LSV that has caused us problems, just as it buggered up your finances when you moved into the ' Halton Stadium ' , nice fancy rented staduims dont work outside the top flight