Looks as though we will lose 2 teams by 2015, but Sl and the RFL have not yet decided what format they will run with. It will be 12 SL and 12 Championship with promotion relegation, or 23 games of SL followed by a split into 3 leagues of 8 for the final part of the season. No word yet on how all of this will be financed though.

Meanwhile Toulouse may also join SL, but only if they manage to get a French TV contract off the ground.

I think moving to 12 is a good move as far as I am concerned, we don't have the quality for 14 teams. I think I would also favour the two leagues of 12 as it is nice and simple.

12 is the smart move - 10 would be ideal to concentrate the talent in the SL and money across SL and Championship. Of course there's room for the RFL to take one step forward and two back if they go through the with the crazy 3 leagues of 8 idea, which will make the already confused play off system even more confusing.

It would be nice if Tolouse got promoted, we could really do with another French side if the game's to survive out there.

P&L is great with all the excitiment it brings, and is all well and good as a concept, but how do you prevent yoyo'ing like we saw for years, rendering the facility pretty useless. All well and good being in SL but what's the point if you only get to see weekly maulings?

SL clubs are not run well enough (apart from a select few) to sustain the 12 + 12 business model and Championship clubs are so far apart from their SL counterparts, it will not work. Instead it will again breed clubs (with all due respect) like Cas / Widnes / Wakey / London / Bradford recruiting crap overseas players and ignoring youth in a bid to stay in SL each year, meanwhile the gap between us, Leeds, Hull, Wigan, Saints, Catalan etc. and the lower end of the table will get even bigger.

Needs further thought.

It's a tough one, but I'm not sure the ideas on the table provide the right stability.

I couldn't agree more. A terrible decision in my opinion - short termist and short sighted, on a par with the scrapping of the Valvoline Cup for DR.

The key issue the game faces is increasing its commercial revenue. I fail to see how this is addressed by the current proposals. The current system has been given 4 and a half years - this is no time at all.

The player pool will never get stronger if it isn't expanded - this is what the 14 team league gives...in time. The clubs have voted for this so they can get their hands on an extra 200k per season. Utterly depressing.

There's just absolutely no vision or (obvious) strategic plan here - I'd be more favourable if they said this decision has been made as the 2.4m per annum is going to be used to invest in the London club so it's run as a professional sporting business and to promote the international game (all internationals to be played in London as part of an overall London strategy and this money to be used for promotion) and that will be the case for the next 10 years. Build a decent presence in London and the SE plus a strong international game and that will increase the commercial attractiveness

This decision will actually lead to revenue being decreased - I can see Sky reducing its TV deal (needs to save its money for the football rights in the face of BT's competition) because of this (it's getting a smaller product so why should it pay the same / more?) A league made up of 11 teams from the M62 and one in France is not going to be more attractive to sponsors.
Investors will be put off as the two things they hate are risk and uncertainty. Would anyone have bought Bradford or Salford if they didn't have the certainty of the licence period? I know this is a supposition but I bet Khan and Koukash would have been less keen if this was the case. Likewise an investor looking at a Championship club under licencing still knows what they need to do to get promotion - Steve O'Connor illustrated this at Widnes.

Also, P&R is exciting about once every five years if that - my main memory is of teams like Halifax, Leigh getting battered every week and their fate sealed long before the season's end. There was the one year when it went to a game between Cas and Wakefield but they are few and far between. Widnes would have got relegated last season - they wouldn't have played many of the young lads that are now establishing themselves in the 1st team. Same with London - I doubt Kieran Dixon would have been 'risked' or Sarginson.

Anyway the good news is that 3,500 people in Featherstone and Leigh are very happy with the decision.

But Chiswick Wire, this is the RFL who cannot even attract a major sponsor for Super League or for that matter, the upcoming World Cup. More worryingly, they dont think it's a problem because they feel it's job done because they have signed a number of smalle sub sponsors whose revenue makes up that of a a major sponsor.

They are so infantile in business, marketing, promotion and sustainability, it's quite scary.

The problem for me is the promotion relegation bit. If Fev are promoted for instance, how are they going to suddenly get all the money from sponsorship, advertising etc in order to support the club in SL ? And they will also need to replace , what, perhaps 13 ? of their squad players with SL standard players - otherwise we are back in the yo-yo effect.

Unless you only get promotion relegation every 2 yrs, so clubs have time to adjust ?.

Just a thought in your ideal world, if Toulouse get 'promoted' and we drop SL to ten, give me the five clubs to be given their marching orders?

I'm sure that Leigh Featherstone and Halifax et al might see some initial perceived benefit of having a visit from London Bradford Widnes Salford and Castleford (based on current standings) I'm not sure that the reverse would be true, or do you see yet more 'engineering' from the RFL based on other factors similar to the franchise criteria?

Too much meddling IMO

It looks as though the 3 leagues of 8 option has a fair bit of support, certainly the RFL are pushing it hard. But that would mean a pretty complicated end of season, with the split into 8 and then the playoffs.

I'm not saying I disagree with the point, but Featherstone are run a lot better off the field that several existing SL clubs and have the sponsorship and business in place to strengthen if promoted. The issue is their catchment area is so limited, but then Huddersfield have a larger catchment, are home to the birthplace of the game, have a team vying for honours ..... and still get shall we say, modest, crowds.

Actually, no they aren't modest crowds they are abysmal.

The report I heard said that the split would happen after 23 rounds (1 home & away and magic).

SUPERLEAGUE GROUP
Top 8 play a straight forward 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5 etc (basically a return of the old premiership structure)

MIXED GROUP
9th in top group plays 4th in bottom group, 10v3 etc etc.

The only decision will be how many go up and how many go down. It quite possible that if for example Sheffield get promoted for the 2016 season (after this structure is played through in 2015), they would be good enough to at least come high enough in the mixed group to show they are better than the best of the championship at that point and therefore get to stay up for another year.

As for who goes...........

London --- come on admit it, every season the majority of fans ask "why?"
&
.
.
Bradford --- the RFL have still never come out and said they are safe, only that their position would be looked at at the next round of licences AND they had already threatened the clubs about their finances previously.

Couple of points,
Weekly maulings are happening without p+r
NL is not so far apart from SL as you imply. Fev,Fax,Sheffield and Batley would not be as embarrassing in SL as Salford and London have this season.
"Breeds clubs like Wakey,Cas,Widnes and Bradford."are you taking the pee? If it wasn't for a sugar daddy, we would be in the same place as Wakey and Cas, if not worse. Wasn't so long ago we were at Fax for a relagation game. As for Widnes, SL fudged up by not allowing them into the original SL lineup. At the time, other than Wigan, they were the most successful club. As for Bradford, check the history books over the last 15 years, Leeds suing over Harris caused their problems.
Every club in SL is recruiting from overseas, not just the lower teams. We are in contact to an Australian team about a replacement for Briers, who came from Saints, to partner Myler, who came from Salford, whilst in the meantime, continue to prostitute O Brien, a homegrown player to any team who wants him. Ignoring youth?

Bringing back p+r is a definite move in the right direction, and should be applauded.

Couple of points,
Weekly maulings are happening without p+r
NL is not so far apart from SL as you imply. Fev,Fax,Sheffield and Batley would not be as embarrassing in SL as Salford and London have this season.
"Breeds clubs like Wakey,Cas,Widnes and Bradford."are you taking the pee? If it wasn't for a sugar daddy, we would be in the same place as Wakey and Cas, if not worse. Wasn't so long ago we were at Fax for a relagation game. As for Widnes, SL fudged up by not allowing them into the original SL lineup. At the time, other than Wigan, they were the most successful club. As for Bradford, check the history books over the last 15 years, Leeds suing over Harris caused their problems.
Every club in SL is recruiting from overseas, not just the lower teams. We are in contact to an Australian team about a replacement for Briers, who came from Saints, to partner Myler, who came from Salford, whilst in the meantime, continue to prostitute O Brien, a homegrown player to any team who wants him. Ignoring youth?

Bringing back p+r is a definite move in the right direction, and should be applauded.

Worst thing I could of imagined happening, london gone, a given, but will now just completely lose a rugby league team which we cant afford to do, whether it be salford, cas, widnes or whatever other names are being thrown around, plus if tolouse join sl then it will be 3, absolute travesty and a farve, I have lost all faith in rugby league

I've not Lost faith in Rugby League

I have lost all faith in the RFL.......they are killing the game with every passing year.

and its a stupid prejudice I have but I look at Nigel wood and think you sir should be dressed in a replica shirt drinking Bovril on the terraces of Dewsbury or Batley and cheering a team on....you should not in no way shape or form be a mouth piece for, or have any input in the running of Rugby League........

I'm sure he is a lovely fella but at the minute hes kicking the game in the balls and he genuinley doesnt realise it.

the second most watched league on Sky Tv not getting a sponsor is nothing to do with "uncompetative games", or "falling attendances" ? its sheer incompetance by the RFL all this restructuring is taking everyones eye of the real problem. in that respect I guess he's quite clever..

My understanding is it's going to be the bottom two next season. Saints must be sh*tting themselves.

Here is Nigel Woods summarising where the discussions are concerning 2015. Interesting to see that they recognise that it will be challenging to get a part time, promoted Championship side, into SL. It looks as though they are going to take some of the Sky money and put it into the Championship to achieve this. www.loverugbyleague.com/news_126 ... uring.html

Here is Nigel Woods summarising where the discussions are concerning 2015. Interesting to see that they recognise that it will be challenging to get a part time, promoted Championship side, into SL. It looks as though they are going to take some of the Sky money and put it into the Championship to achieve this. www.loverugbyleague.com/news_126 ... uring.html

The more I think about it, the more the idea is growing on me. At first i thought it sounded ridiculous. Spoke to a few people and they all thought it was crazy n'all which almost cemented that thought in my mind. But now I actually think it's a good idea.

Also I don't think it's [ithat[/i complicated.

I don't usually use the smiley facey whatshernameits but this deserves a:

They have yet to explain it properly, though. What happens when the leagues split into 3? Do the points already won count or does everyone start from scratch again? Do the RFL even know...?

From what I understand of the new proposals;

SL sides play 23 matches, then we have the 3 X 8 split
SL sides keep their points, and play 7 further games
Playoffs are between the top 4

I am not sure how they decide who plays home or away in the last 7 games.

A current problem raised by the players I believe, is the fact that they will have to play up to 32 matches in this system.

So I would have to agree that this system is in fact a bit simpler than the previous playoffs, which I personally disliked. The top four playing off would satisfy all fans I think, we don't want 5th placed winning again, whoever they are (and that includes Wire for me) as it's laughable and discredits SL.

So it looks as though discussions are now focussing on concerns of the players and how the Sky money will be divided up. Plus, whether or not Toulouse can raise a TV contract and get into SL.

If 12 teams is the way forward, then to create a truly stronger competition. the restructure should come with the following caveats:

SC - Clubs must spend the full cap
Juniors - Clubs must run teams at all age groups (whatever they may end up being), with at least one fulltime coaching staff.

@Winslade's Offload; from what I've read I thought the 12 teams played each other once (11 games) then the split into 3x8 comes in. Each of the 8s from there play each other home and away (14 games; 25 games in total) before the top4 go into the play-offs.

[Maybe I've got that wrong, though.

Quote ="Caveman"@Winslade's Offload; from what I've read I thought the 12 teams played each other once (11 games) then the split into 3x8 comes in. Each of the 8s from there play each other home and away (14 games; 25 games in total) before the top4 go into the play-offs. [Maybe I've got that wrong, though.'" i think that may have been discussed, but we now seem to be down to this 11 games home and away, plus Magic giving 23 games. The split then occurs, and we have a further 7 matches for the top 8 prior to the playoffs. Have a look at this video; www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/28 ... -on-policy

Quote ="Caveman"@Winslade's Offload; from what I've read I thought the 12 teams played each other once (11 games) then the split into 3x8 comes in. Each of the 8s from there play each other home and away (14 games; 25 games in total) before the top4 go into the play-offs. [Maybe I've got that wrong, though.'" i think that may have been discussed, but we now seem to be down to this 11 games home and away, plus Magic giving 23 games. The split then occurs, and we have a further 7 matches for the top 8 prior to the playoffs. Have a look at this video; www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/28 ... -on-policy