As I've posted elsewhere. 2 x 10 clubs with funding based on finishing positions.
£25,000,000 pool

if you base it on 1st past the post (no playoffs) then this is how its distributed
210 segments (20+19+18+17+ etc.....)

Personally, I'd reduce the pool to 20 million and have extra available for the play-off qualifiers in both divisions.

If the pool was £20 million, then the team finishing 10th in tier 1 would get £950k, whilst the team going up would get £860 + any play off prize money....the difference in funding and the improvement needed to get to the next level would always be about 100k per tier.

Owner investment and previous performance on the pitch dictates who can do what, but the cap Must remain, albeit at a higher level and there has to be pathway from L1 to this top 20.

Once league structures go away from an equal playing field it throws the whole thing into disarray and the public lose interest. Loop fixtures, magic weekend (maybe can just get away with that) play offs etc just end up confusing people and no one can work out why they were chosen like that and whose won what. We are ending up like Scottish football.

How ever many teams are chosen to be in the top league there needs to be an even set of games, everyone playing everyone twice or 3 times. The league winners need to be recognised more, this is the gauge of who is the best team. The play offs should exist as an end of season trophy, like or not we need promotion and relegation or 75% of the fixtures are meaningless after round 6.

P&R is the lifeblood of exoansion, without the 2nd tier has no point, any expansion clubs only route into the top table is by being artificially catapulted (always too early) into the top league and ultimatley doomed to fail unless its funded by a megarich owner who can buy a full team of non locals to parachute in and form a team.

Franchising in its truest form (moving whole teams i.e wigan into Birmingham) is not a model that will ever work in the UK. Its not how sport works in this country, just look at the recently mooted ESL in football, that had america written all over it, the British public dont want that artificial, made for TV product that alienates the fans. In essence the whole expansion model that we have been following does just that, forgets the paying fans. We need to initially focus on the product we have, make whats good better, strengthen the top league and allow a pathway, yes we need to encourage expansion, but fast tracking and forcing it will never work, it needs to be organic.

Funnily enough that's what Gausch and the RFL did with Catalans, who certainly have failed with less French players than ever, an abandoned France.v.GB test schedule and no sign of a French TV deal to share despite being 15 years in existence.

Not sure going up through the leagues is the way to do it? Didn't TWP "build up" over 4 seasons?

I think they did build up....A £30Million debt......







Last successful Expansion side was probably Castleford, but that was in 1926, and besides the "Expansionists" are adamant that they are some kind of failure, so I think all this expansion stuff is a cross between dreaming and going on a wind-up.

It was almost an artifical going through the leagues TWP did, there was no organic growth and they worked outside the rules of having to have home grown players and limitted imports. The only true way international expansion will work is to help develop leagues in those countries and build from the ground.

It will be virtually impossible, when you look at the lack of growth homegrown NFL teams has in the uk despite the US teams being followed in large numbers in the uk.

There isnt enough talent to support a 12 team league so lets make it 10.

Get rid of promotion and relegation and cut the championship loose (sorry championship clubs) and bring in licensing for the next 10 years. This time STICK to the license rules and dont give out licenses to clubs who say " we promise if you give us a license we WILL tick the necessary boxes sometime in the future, honest guv!". Because this never happens.

Failing that I dont see any other way that rugby league in this country wont be semi pro within the next 10 years

I’m very much in favour of promotion and relegation with a caveat. We simply must have a full time second tier for it to happen.

The thing that annoys me most is the constant changing of format, the sport needs a long term business plan and a long term structure.

When you compare us to other sports most obviously RU the biggest difference is the international game. rU took off after England won the World Cup. On top of that casual viewers are more likely to tune in to internationals, some of those then start to watch the domestic game and follow teams. I’ve said this before we need to properly sort out the internationals and have regular fixtures not the odd game here and there.

What seems to happen with RL these is like sticking a plaster on that hole in the Titanic . The structure has alienated clubs & their fans by condemning them to hopeless futures. No chance of joining the big time , & how about the CC ,the seeding system has removed any romance from the competition that for many teams was knocking a big team out of the cup. No wonder we can't fill Wembley.
Perhaps a competition involving all the clubs in one division would even work with lower clubs having the chance to welcome the big boys to town every now & then & maybe produce an upset , especially if big teams had to field x amount of youngsters.
And what about a name ? How about British Rugby League or British RL as was mentioned by a previous poster ? Nobody would pinch that name unless they introduced a ball into kabbadi.
Lastly, we need proper influential businessmen running the show to provide the best media deals . Look at RU ,all the top advertisers ,multi channel coverage ,elite patrons waving flags for the sport & drawing top name sponsors. Most of these people will be rubbing shoulders regularly with media moguls, probably all been at university together.

Clubs never hit the higher accolade without MONEY.. Simple if you have none goodnight amigo. That’s the way it’s been since the start of SL. Guess what SL the product is still here.

This is THE most important issue with the sport of RL.
We chop and change, looking for the proverbial silver bullet and each time there is a change, we actually lose fans from the game.

There has to be an achievable plan for the next 5, 10 and 20 years for all of the sport from U8's right up to SL.
Set goals and achieve them and not keep changing for the sake of it.

RL looks half baked and unprofessional.

Of course there are plenty of good things about the game but, the internal struggles between SL, the lower leagues and the amateur game, helps no one.

Lenegan and McManus both voted for

An interesting thought, if we had 2 teams of 10 in a SL 1 & 2 perhaps teams could play each team in their division twice and the other division once thus removing loop fixtures and better preparing SL2 teams should they get promoted.

The elephant in the room is, how on earth do "we" fund 20 clubs ?
Right now, there are 12 SL clubs and only 2 or 3 contenders in The Championship, plus, the "sleeping giant" that is Bradford.
IMO there will be a drive to reduce SL to 10 clubs, which has been nuted many times.
It may be "sold" on the basis of having SL 1 & SL2 but, this just isn't possible with the reduction in Sky monies.

Unless there is another broadcaster out there that is willing to "compete" with Sky, as a sport, we looked screwed.

The goal for youth getting to SL has been most disappointing. No pathways other than grubby tactics. If the restructure comes offf and they forget the youth this time (not academies) the community game with proper regulations in place. Not there’s £500 and see you later to see that player left to dwindle when they make the grade.

Sod the academies get community game looked after. That’s the future not the product.

The goal for youth getting to SL has been most disappointing. No pathways other than grubby tactics. If the restructure comes offf and they forget the youth this time (not academies) the community game with proper regulations in place. Not there’s £500 and see you later to see that player left to dwindle when they don’t make the grade.

Sod the academies get community game looked after. That’s the future not the product.

Does RU have a full time second tier ?? Be surprised if it does

I get what you are saying but where is the motivation for kids when you can earn more money working in a supermarket?

This.

Some of the salaries a young player playing first grade is on is disgraceful.

I played for nowt, Love of sport when I was a kid. Maybe that’s what the sport is missing. You start RL well before earning a wage. You breed the players they just don’t suddenly appear.

That’s always from a community club, not academies. Who have already taken from the community.

The best players I have seen have come from the heartland community clubs. Some don’t and will never understand that.

The move to change the second tier from an RFL Championship to a Superleague second division does not involve professionalising the "Superleague 2" competition.

I have no doubt if rich owners in that second tier wish to pay for professionalism themselves that will be allowed as you can't stifle ambition nor stop a second tier club readying itself for a tilt at Superleague One.

But I see no plan to share the SKY money 20 ways, it's very clear to me the drop to 10 means the 10 Superleague 1 clubs will get all the TV funding because the top division will provide SKY with top class content.

The plan is to remove the RFL from controlling the division that will provide promoted clubs to Superleague one, leaving Superleague fully in charge of P & R.

I’m unsure how you drop 2 from SL1. If it’s 10 then there is no promotion. The P is void and the R is another thread.

Well yes of course but it's once players become professional and this is there job.

Should a player playing first grade be earning amounts like £20k a year?

Yes fair play You are right McManus voted for but Lenegan did not vote for.

Nor did Hudgell, Pearson, Koukash, Davey and Moran. Les Catalans as guests did not vote.

The vote on the SKY deal was split 7-6 for, as Martyn Sadler reported on January 20th. 2014.

Sadler explained that once the vote had been taken and the clubs were split, the protocol was for the losers to concede to the majority and a second vote was taken so a unanimous result and a united front could be shown shown to the world.

But on the second vote Koukash still voted against. As the seasons passed by McManus started to associate more with the six "rebels" who have spent seven years looking to wrest all control of the Superleague from the RFL. Their time has come now which is clear from the fact Lenegan & co negotiated the next TV deal for themselves and Ralph Rimmer was left in the cold...........

What we see now is Lenegan and McManus looking to wrest control of P & R from the RFL.

URBAN MYTH #365.
Twickenham capacity was 72,000 in 2002. They filled it 2 times that year and 3 times the following year before heading to Australia for the RUWC.

Decades of FTA coverage on the BBC for games like Ireland v Wales, or Scotland v France built a "must see" attitude to the 5 and then 6 nations. Italy v France in Union on BBC2 now gets a comparable TV audience to England v Australia in League.

REGULAR GAMES.....in FTA TV, with buy-in from the broadcaster over decades is what we will never get, so stop hanging your hat on internationals as the saviour. With only three viable teams, it's a non starter.

Well the top SL bosses have championed 2x10 so I assume they will organise who is to be "dropped".

Obvious way they may do this is, is to repeat how they chose the clubs for licensing. Work out criteria that gives them the result they want, stuff like "being an English club" is a required criteria,

I also have an idea that whatever criteria they choose Leigh may somehow fit it.....Or maybe even Bradford? They could bring in Nigel Wood to help with the process as he did this before? Do Salford have any money?