Reading 40-20 and then associated posts across League forums, it would seem that SL is yet again going to shake up its format (seems to be a popular move around TV negotiation time?

Question is, where, if anywhere, do the London Broncos fit into any future SL DNA?

In our current format, we're hardly fit for purpose in the 2nd tier, but if the club and the sport genuinely want a club in the Capital, how can the London Broncos get themselves into a position whereby they qualify for the list of minimum requirements that get rolled out by armchair administrators every time this happens?

These Include in Licenced format:

1.Academy. We tick that box
2.10k Capacity Modern Stadium. We're very close (Wimbledon) to that figure and given a number of clubs who've promised new builds for decades and not delivered, we should qualify.
3. 6,000+ Attendances with a plan to increase this. Not going down that Rabbit Hole, but it does links nicely to the next point
4. Financial stability/security. Mr Hughes has done all he can and if we want to stand on our own 2 feet in a modern new look Super League then we need 6,000 people paying £20 a week 13 times a year, buying shirts/merch, corporate Hospitality to stand any chance. Failing that we need a benefactor happy to throw £1.5 million a year at the club until such time that we can stand on our own and Mr Hughes, for all he's done, just isn't the man to lead the club into the future..

If on the other hand, P&R remain, then I see little hope for teams Like London, Leigh, Fev, Salford (punched well above recently but so did we 20 years ago), Halifax, Wakefield....in fact, pretty much every club outside Wigan, Leeds, Saints & Wire who have appeared in 28 of the 30 finalist spots in the last 12 SL Grand Finals.

Toulouse are pretty much bolted o to go up this year and whichever team just avoids the drop will be chasing just Toulouse in 2022 in a bid to stay up......whilst St Helens play one of the other 3 at Old Trafford again. That's tedium and that's not helping the game grow, so let's hope we see a return to licencing with some proper governance and if need be, so tough decisions at the start in terms of clubs not making the cut.

Have to say I agree with most of that. I don't think RL is strong enough to support a promotion & relegation format. Licensing has to be the way forward.

Promotion and relegation is important. Without that you get a lot of meaningless games.

There are currently plenty of meaningless games in SL. If Leigh lose every game this season, which they could having been robbed of fair funding, that would be meaningless too.

OK, but that is not an issue caused by promotion and relegation, it is a fair funding issue.

The game just seems to have lost the plot completely, a broadcaster that treats us like a joke, those conditions many clubs in Super League will struggle to achieve that, Salford, Huddersfield, Leigh, 6,000 LOL! Look at Widnes now, to think how they were such a major club, now struggling to even win?

While we tick the box on the academy (and I applaud the investment that is made in it) is it really doing the job it needs to ? It doesn't provide the backbone of the team since the best players move on elsewhere. So while it benefits RL in general what does it do for LB ? Perhaps it keeps the costs down because I doubt academy players graduating into the 1st team squad for their first professional contract are on particularly high wages.

So what’s the rumours? One going up form champ and SL teams going down?

It would be catastrophic for almost any super league team to get relegated.
Not saying that’s a reason to scrap promotion and reg but I’d get rid.

Our Academy brilliant we should absolutely keep putting money in.
We’re gonna lose players to bigger clubs but not all

Wasn't the notion at the time of the Great Snatch that the reduced funding would prove whichever club was selected were able to compete in SL by compensating for the reduced income?

Would Toronto have done better than last place if covid hadn't of happened? Although we were close, we only survived 1 season. Tend to agree with the article in Love RL that suggested that Cats & Toulouse should be exempt from relegation from SL in exchange for having a high number of French players in match squad. Would apply that to Broncos too (which we already do).

How many transfer fees have we received to feed Super League clubs along the M62 corridor over the years? We can all list a team of players we have developed, that would make a fine Super League team, I have said over and over again, Any Club who develops young players, should receive a reasonable fee, we and other clubs are not here to feed Top Super League Clubs!

But that's exactly what we do - and have been doing for a decade or so.
From LMS and Tony Clubb right up to Rob Butler.
Sad really. I had hoped our academy would produce Londoners and Southern players who could play in Super League - they do, but not for us.

That I think is in part because every year seems to be surrounded with uncertainty, especially since we were relegated from SL in 2014. We therefore don't very often offer contracts of more than 2 years meaning we will struggle to hold onto them if not in SL. Not unreasonable to have a compensation scheme for Academy trained players that move on under the age of 21 or 23 whatever unless they are released by their clubs. It works in football, not perfect but does generate funds for lesser teams.

Let's Look at Widnes as a VERY GOOD example of the experiences of clubs over the SL period.
2002-2005. 6,200 average gate (Division average 8,800) WLD = 39/71/3. Relegated from 11th because of the French Arrival
2006-2007 BOOM or BUST = BUST still with 4,800 average gates still higher than the division average at the time
2007-2011 Rebuild with an investor, building an academy and reconnecting with the community and 3,200 averages, still above average
2012-2014 3 Seasons free of the threat of relegation saw last, 10th and then a play-off finish (39/59/3) and a rising on year an base of 6,500 average (10k SL ave).
2015-2018......once again looking over their shoulders at the drop, Widnes returned to type and eventually lost their fans, their owner and their SL status but maintained a 5.5k average gate over this period until they dropped down.

My point is that the period where the Widnes team & club grew in stature and support numbers was the period where they didn't have to look over their shoulders. The return of the drop saw the risk for the owner too great and the spend required to continue the build but also ensure survival was too much.

Put it this way. Let's say Featherstone Rovers beat the odds and get promoted this year and replace say, Wakefield. Do you see anything other than Fev going straight back down on the back of 20+ hammerings and Wakefield drifting into Oblivion in 2022?

Do you see anything other than the 4 survivors this year from HKR/SALFORD/HUDDERSFIELD/WAKEFIELD/LEIGH competing with the newly promoted side with the sole aim of keeping their noses in the trough only to repeat the struggle in 2023?

SL is boring at the top, because it's the same bloody teams every year and now, we have a chasm that has cut away the 5 at the foot of the table....

The solution to this could be to reduce the size of SL and have a better promotion & relegation contest.

Doubt a 6 or 8 team Super League would be attractive to any broadcaster. Would be like when the Scottish FA came up with their system where Celtic played Rangers & co 4 times a season.



Might be better to enlarge to 15. Spread the payments out more & get rid of loop fixtures & magic weekend. If there then is room for a Magic Weekend, make it a festival of 7s or 9s for the 3 leagues.

Perhaps the big question is why is there such a large disparity between 12 teams where a salary cap has been in force for so many years & everyone seems to claim to be spending to the cap?

Interesting with Widnes in their real glory days, they were run by a committee, then the businessman in recent years came in, pumped money into the club, and they went backwards? and I think they are back to being committee only.

Look at Ken Davey Huddersfield Giants, it was his wife who was interested in RL, not him, he then owned the football club, which he has now relinquished all interests in, since taking over the rugby league club, how much has he put in, but little success, and he sold one of his companies in 2001 for £75 Million!

I am also getting to the stage that some Super League games are just boring, friends are so looking forward to tonight with Saints at home to Huddersfield, but it does not interest me at all, we can tell what will happen now without looking in the crystal ball, which is boring, as well as putting up with the 2 clowns co-commentating!

This will never happen all of the time you have the SL club owners making the rules, they will not want to spend money on buying good academy players.

Yes! But it should & must happen, in my BARLA days we had to fight to get the £50 which had been agreed by all Parties.

Not really.....the only thing we're uncertain of is if THIS IS THE YEAR that Hughes walks. We're like Wire but without the forlorn hope