I haven't seen the full article so don't know if it would be explained in it but a similar set-up was part of the proposed reformatting of Scottish football that was recently in the news.

Season is played out as normal up to a specified point. Then with positions as follows

SL1
=#0040BF1
=#0040BF2
=#0040BF3
=#0040BF4
=#0040BF5
=#0040BF6
=#0040BF7
=#0040BF8
=#FF40009
=#FF400010
=#FF400011
=#FF400012

SL2
=#FF40001
=#FF40002
=#FF40003
=#FF40004
=#0080005
=#0080006
=#008000 7
=#0080008
=#0080009
=#00800010
=#00800011
=#00800012

The leagues then split and the teams in blue compete for the SL championship. The teams in red compete for the last four places in SL1 the following year. The teams in green compete for a trophy amongst themselves.

As Eastbourne Warrior said both tiers (however many teams are in them) would have to be full time or it won't work as the massive financial gap would still be in place.

We are averaging over 8k at the moment. I can't see us getting anywhere near that in a lower division.
Can you?

Looks good to me. How about:
SL 1 play each other home and away twice (22 games)
Top 8 play each other once (7 games)
1st straight to the final
2nd v 3rd for the other final spot

In the usual scenario of Wakey playing dog awful for half the season, dropping down the league and being competitive may attract more fans in my opinion.

Given we can't fund 14 not much chance of that. The risk is with two fully professional divisions of 12 the salary cap would go down not up assuming there is no more money coming into the game from the outside.

As you say there is no point having one full time and one part time division as it isn't workable.

Oh dear.

I do think there will be something very unpleasant in all this.
There has been so much talk about Wakey and Cas and their troubles, mainly financial that I do think they will be given an ultimatum, either merge as we are only having one club from the Wakefield MBC in Super League.
It may then be left to them both, or all three clubs in the area to sort it out.
We have two very uncompetitive clubs now in Wakey and Cas and maybe SL see it as one club from a population of approx 375k in a rugby league mad area could be a top four club and challenging for honours every year.
With some of the players in SL but not at those clubs it would seem a distinct possibility.
Whether they will overcome their own allegiencies and create a British StGeorge/Illawara I don't know but I simply can't see SL continuing with Rugby League in its currrent state in the area.
Hey Love, where did you put that tin hat??????????

This seems a fanatstic idea! The Legaue needs shaking up, this system will:

- More competative matches
- More chances of trophies
- Increased crowds
- More players playing professional which will increase the pool of players for the National squad

On current standings the league would be:

SL1

1. Wigan
2. Huddersfield
3. Wire
4. Leeds
5. Catalan
6. Bradford
7. Saints
8. FC

SL2

1. KR
2. Wakefield
3. Widnes
4. London
5. Salford
6. Castleford
7. Halifax
8. Featherstone

SL3

1. Sheffeild
2. Batley
3. Leigh
4. Whiteheaven
5. Hunslet
6. York
7. Dewsbury
8. Workington

The new leagues seem more competative, I would definatly watch these rather than the current Super League system

We would have to make the full 24 teams full time, at least 20 teams to make it competative............ I could see this taking 5 years to mature, however being a fantastic concept in the future

On paper it looks a feasible plan, but as others have alluded to, a lot more money will have to be brought in to the game to sustain this new format. No way at this stage are we ready to make 10 more teams full-time professional.

Negotiating the right title sponsors and TV deals is going to be crucial for this to ever take off. If Premier Sports aired a 2nd lower tier game, say Saturday afternoon, on top of the current Thursday night one, that could be a start. I'd love one of the FTA channels to start show a Sunday afternoon/evening kick off also.

Could be a big headache for the fixture planners having a few days (?) after Round 11 to organise 3 leagues worth of fixtures for the remainder of the season.

It really should be two leagues of 10.

10 professional teams, 10 feeder teams.

There just isn't enough talent/support to have a 14 team SL, nevermind a 24 team behemoth.

Wakefield aren't competitive??

They lost by how many at yours? With 12 men?

Competitive doesn't mean winning things...we leave that to Leeds and Warrington.

You are right that Cas are though...

And the best way to prove how competitive you are is to focus on 60 minutes of one game that was lost - genius.

More money comes in to the game, maybe the RFL get a league sponsor and i'd go with it.
Otherwise it's just another silly pipedream.

How about 6 leagues of 4, that way the top flight must be competitive!

Seriously though, 8 teams in the league is just a minor reduction in games per season which will surely reduce the season ticket prices by almost half. I only need to drag myself to 7 games at home, that's about £100 that I won't be spending on rugby that I can spend elsewhere.

I guess that the club is more than happy to miss the £1m that the other ~10,000 fans per game would generate as we will all be happy to pay more due to the better quality by playing less?

I take it you're not convinced then?

True. Unless there is more money it is just rearranging the deckchairs.

I take it you didn't read most posts? You know, the ones that explain how it works? Under my interpretation for example, there would be one more home and away game and less play offs

here we go Wakey/Cas/Fev merger its likje chalk and cheese over here

Perhaps Wigan and saints would be a good merger at least you wouldnt have to annoy Wigan Athletic or the Premier league ruining the pitch you would surely fill Langtree between you, Oh I forgot even though the geography is just as close it wouldnt happen as you both have your identities!silly me.

As for merger I would rather see my club go into oblivion and think of the memories that watch a convoluted side that has no affinity to an area.

Hull/Hull KR

Widnes/Warrington

Leeds/Bradford (they have an airport)

Wigan/Saints

Should be considered in mergers the league would be sorted out overnight leave London and the French Team(s) make it an expensive weekend out evrytime you are awaay from home abosolute recipe for success in a recession.

I follow my team because its in my blood not because we believe we have a right to a trophy each year by hook or by crook.

Rant over NO MERGERS

Probably not, beer after the game and all that



Anyway, I'm still not convinced. It reads like a pre-GF 12 that then turns into a GF play off season for the rest of the season.

Just do it I say, anything is better than this shambles we have got in place at the minute

I suspect that's the alternative you'll be faced with.

I'm just sick of the current system. I've been bored at a lot of games recently and I really love rugby. We need more competitive games

On Cas, Wakey and Fev they should have all sold their grounds built a stadium in say Normanton and shared that a merger of stadiums. The could have called it the Calder-on (see what i did there)
One stadium could really have helped them with finances but as usual common sense out the window.

If we were poor or Widnes had to sell i'd have no issue sharing a stadium.

Reducing the number of teams in Super League I agree with.

Rebranding the Championship as Super League 2 to appease the ne'er do wells I don't agree with. Regardless of how many more "meaningful" games the likes of Wakey and Cas are faced with, it'll still be perceived as the second tier and the support will show it.