Correct, I'd rather watch Leeds vs Wigan for the 100th time in the season to decide 3rd and 4th on the last weekend of the regular season

Box office

OK here I go...

Expand the Super League to 16 teams (Toulouse + best Championship club) with two leagues of 8 one up one down. Playoffs to include a maximum of the top half of the table (so 4 at the most).

Teams to play their own league home and away and the other league once, so 7x2+8=22. Have a pre-season tournament with small groups including the top championship teams. Super League starts in April/May.

No automatic promotion relegation between FT and PT leagues. A team can be put "on notice" if they continually under perform i.e. finishes in bottom 2 of SL2 for 3 years. Teams looking to gain promotion to super league in the event of a vacancy MUST meet strict criteria which they can asked to be reviewed for. This will replace the 4 years licencing cycle. The eventual aim would be to increase SL1 and SL2 to 10 team competitions once it was decided there were enough British players to support it.

Team academies are to be funded separate from the clubs to avoid teams cutting back on youth development. Associating them with universities would work similar to US sports. Would pave the way for a player development pool rather than individual teams youth development.

A 12 team SL competition. The top 5 qualify for the play-offs. 1 up 1 down promotion and relegation.

I may get called small-minded but I feel that we have to stick to our core area. Clubs like Barrow, Featherstone, Halifax, Leigh etc. must take precedence over London/Welsh sides. Let's get the basics right before we try the complexities. As has been mentioned, a named nationwide sponsor that invests financially must be found. If you look at the viewing figures from Sky, our game is not difficult to sell.

Wrote this a while ago but still think it would be better than what we have now.

Its mainly based on comments about the lack of competitive nature of the leagues by those in high places coupled with comments about just how transparent the league is I wondered if using a similar format to Gary Hetheringtons old 8 team Division 2 is a way to drive up intensity and interest in divisions in all the leagues in the country.

Going off the current league placing's this would consist of.....

SUPER LEAGUE
============
Catalans
Huddersfield
Hull
Hull KR
Leeds
St Helens
Warrington
Wigan

DIVISION 1
============
Bradford
Castleford
Featherstone
London Bronco's
Salford
Sheffield
Wakefield
Widnes

DIVISION 2
=========
Batley
Dewsbury
Doncaster
Halifax
Leigh
Toulouse
Whitehaven
Workington

DIVISION 3
===========
Barrow
Hunslet
Keighley
North Wales
Oldham
Rochdale
Swinton
York

DIVISION 4
==========
Bramley
Coventry
Gateshead
Gloucester
Hemel
London Skolars
Oxford
South Wales

Obviously Division 4 is a unknown quantity and may alter to get suitable clubs in but all the other leagues see's clubs of equal ability throughout and at equal levels in those clubs current playing status which is something we are currently missing in all leagues with week to week
intensity in all divisions non existent.

League Set up........
Play each team home and away twice (gives you 28 league fixtures), 1 up (winner of Champions final , see below) , 1 down from each league each season (8th placed club), only requirement being minimum ground standards (which all clubs will have to work to on a rolling yearly basis from clear transparent guidelines that all can see on the RFL website), these standards increase with each league step up with each league having minimum ground criteria - the further up the league you go it will also be a requirement to run reserve / youth teams at various levels.

End of season Champions finals.......
Top 3 from each league enter a Champions Final which acts as follows........
1st Placed - Straight through to final
2nd & 3rd Placed - Play off to get to Champions final.

SL Champions Final at Old Trafford - Sunday 5.00pm

Div 1 Champions final at Warrington - Saturday Evening 6.30pm

Div 2 Champions final at Salford - Saturday afternoon 2.30pm

Div 3/4 Champions final at Leigh - Friday Evening (6pm & 8.15pm KO)

The reason all in North West is so you can get to all games over the weekend (a long weekend of RL) and all are modern state of the art RL grounds.

Additionals.......
Winner of SL League plays touring National Team(s)
Winner of League 1 & League 2 plays touring WCC team
Winner of League 3 & League 4 afforded respective league bye in next seasons CC.

Challenge Cup to be seeded , will become a midweek comp 'under the lights' for first rounds (unless clubs can fit in a weekend fixture), Division 4 and Division 3 clubs enter with remaining amateur clubs followed by Division 2 in next round with Division 1 and SL next round.

Northern Rail Cup.
Available to clubs in Division 2 to 4 only , Straight Knock out competition.
Finals day at Blackpool.

Of course with all of the above its hard to predict the finance split per each league (put bluntly I haven't a clue what it is) but I feel its time to have a real look from top to bottom and drive this sport further forward.

Of course the alternate is we just look after 6 or 7 clubs and eventually the pyramid will crumble (or worse) we will see our top clubs joining RU's bottom clubs in a Hybrid RU/RL type comp for SKY.

My lads tell me I'm living in the past but here's my thoughts from the dark ages: the reason we had play offs was because there was one league of 32 teams, nobody played every other team home and away, so play offs by the top 4 then top 16 were the fairest way of determining the champions. This, incidently is how the NRL operate, and the NFL and other leagues across the world, so we either have a league set up of play each team home and away to determine champions or choose a system that could be set up in any number of different ways. Personally, I'd split into 2 leagues of 10 - could be east and west - decide how many game you want to play and tailor the fixtures to accomodate this (including the magic weekend) then top 4 in each league play off to decide that league's own champions - the 2 champion teams play off for grand final. It may not be for everybody but we should be looking to getting 20 competitive teams and such a set up can accomodate new clubs. Anyway I'll wait for the reaction now!

Slightly off topic but a change I'd like to see to prevent clubs getting into financial difficulties is the RFL enforcing new laws that prevent directors/owners making non repayable, interest free loans to their own clubs. These loans are rife and create a false financial picture of a clubs finances and make it harder to attract new owners/benefactors to come in and buy them out. By all means allow them to make financial donations but these loans (Usually converted into new shares) are holding our game back because these people get in too deep and can't just step aside allowing new investers to come in with a fresh approach.

There are differing scenarios that make your point valid, but also on shaky ground.

Reports are that OK at Bradford will get his Million back, but over a period of time, which essentially makes the job for the new owners even more difficult.

Flip over to London where conservative estimates put David Hughes investment as 9 million quid. If Mr Hughes believes he will ever see a penny of that cash back then he needs locking up and I personally believe he would be more than happy to flog the club for a fiver if he believed the new owners could offer the same level of support whilst getting the basics right.

Now flip back to the good Doctor at Salford. It remains to be seen how much and for how long he will plough cash into the club before he either starts to cut back or even worse, buggers off?

Now, flip over to Huddersfield. For many years Ken Davy has ploughed money into the club whilst trying everything to get the public to come and watch the team. This year, they won the hubcap and yet still the fans (and therefore the associated revenue needed to be self sufficient) can't be d.

Money men are a necessary evil in most sports.....they sometimes get it right, like the guys at Wigan, Wire, Leeds and Hull, but too many times the people at the helm can't afford to plough 500k a year (HKR) of their own cash into the clubs.........it nearly Killed OK at Bradford.

Not sure about how I would structure the league moving forward, but I would most definitely make the broadcast partner pay for the expansion teams if they insist on having one.....

I will just keep reminding people that RL exists beyond SL and the championships.
Where do the players come from?
What does it cost to run an amateur club with many teams?
What help do they get from professional clubs?
What FINANCIAL help do they give to the clubs who develop players?
Unless and until the WHOLE game is restructured in this country, these discussions will carry on and the game nearer death as a professional sport

Fair enough, but without the top tier, RL becomes Curling....

There has to be a top tier as there is in any sport. It is the structure that is in place that creates success. Rugby League was founded because of injustice and elitism by the RFU.
Is this really what is desired by today's game? The core of the game was always as long as you can play you are welcome there is no prejudice here.
Sadly all I see, hear and read in this country shows that core of the game has been forgotten by so many and even sadder is that people don't care and even worse do not know what RL has been through to survive.
It is strange that the game keeps on inflicting wounds to itself. I just hope they never cut a vital artery but they are making a good attempt.

I disagree.

SO do I. But only just.

I mean we must have a London club in Super League. At least he got Toulouse right.

Licensing must be retained. No P & R.

So it should be:

[iWigan
St. Helens
Warrington
Salford

Leeds
Bradford
Huddersfield
Hull FC
Hull KR

London

Catalans
Toulouse[/i

I disagree.

You shouldn't. This is the only team roster that will take Super League forward into the 21st century.

Amateur clubs gets subs from its players for its finances, same as every sport, why should the pro clubs pay amateur clubs? They aren't even ran by the same governing body

That said I agree a restructuring from grassroots is needed ...

Pillock. Do you realise how long it took me to type that on a phone unsuitable for podgy fingers?

Not enough detail.

I agree.

come again?

Don't come to me about details. I'm not the details guy. I'm the ideas guy.

I like you.


Don't you start!

By the way, I wasn't excluding London from the top flight in some retreating to the heartlands type way, merely that I didn't think they'd be capable of being a top flight club going off the current outlook anyway.

Your idea lacks detail.

Your detail lacks idea.

Any London (or other expansion) club in the top tier would need to be centrally funded, either by the RFL, the other SL clubs or the broadcast partner. Furthermore, I believe they would need to receive extra revenues and be allowed a cap 50% greater than the other teams as well as being permitted to have 10 overseas players in their squad.

The ARL, NRL and Murdoch's News saw the benefit of a professional team in Melbourne and backed the concept with cash and support for 18 years.

The RFL bowed to SKY's demands for a London team but didn't negotiate any support for it. The really weird thing is that the RFL "claim" 50% of the SKY viewers are in London......why in Christ's name haven't they asked SKY to advertise the London Broncos to these keen RL fans in London



Wales and Paris failed, London looks like going the same way. The new "expansion" clubs will take 50 years or more to get to anything like ready for the top tier...and believe me, without a London SL club, the Skolars et al will struggle to attract talent that the Union clubs will hoover up. 2 London Broncos lads ran out for London Irish reserves last week.....it's not about the game retreating to the heartlands, it's about the governing body's total failure in most aspects of their remit!

On one thread....



And on another....