Quote ="Chris71"Exactly and it doesn't matter what changes are made or however they go about a restructure unless all the clubs think about the game as a whole rather than the blinkered vision and the whats in it for me attitudes.
Reducing the size of the league which we all know is down to the share of the money pure and simple, yet for all the business sense within the clubs at the top, the mind boggles that they all still have theirs heads buried in the backsides and fail to see the damage they actually do to the game.
A 14 team league for me is the way to go with proper structure, hold off any promotion/relegation for say 5 years to give the lesser teams a chance by affording them the time needed. Make sure all clubs have a proper academy system with a proper league format that runs alongside the senior teams.
The same to a lesser extent needs to be done with the Chamionship teams etc.
Its just pointless making any changes that don't and never address any of the issues and they don't even paper over the cracks. All a 10 team league will do in drive away the fans that currently go rather than attracting more people to the game and a wider audience.'"
Sadly for the game as a whole a 14 team League and pulling up the drawbridge for a few years looks to me the only way to move forward in a sustainable way. 10 Clubs is just an excuse to ensure that those 10 don't lose out. The 10 will want the money on one hand but on the other they will still want at least 28 games so there could be 10 loop fixtures every year and what a turn off that will be for most fans!
The period that we dabbled with a sort of franchise system might have seen a few barren games for the bottom clubs at the end of a season (with no relegation) but the way clubs could build their Academy set ups and their outreach programmes and try out younger players when they could was the most stable few years we have had in the game this century.
Because of all the funding arguments and wrangling which have resulted in the way the TV money is split and is to be between the two Divisions (particularly going forward) we face some tough times ahead. I fact for me until we can ensure that the relegated team has some sort of structured security for the next couple of years and that the promoted team has the time and wherewithal to build a team that is a credible challenge to the rest of Super League (so that they are not just cannon fodder) we are courting with disaster. But that would mean the Big Boys giving up some of their TV money to facilitate longer term parachute payments etc. so that aint gonna happen. Fancy inviting Leigh in at the last moment but giving them reduced central funding???? Some would argue with the short time scale and unavailability of players we should have been giving them more or at least quota exemptions for the first year.
A senior member of the RL staff told me only a few weeks ago that with all the debt that the Clubs are carrying after lockdown and with them having to start to pay back government loans etc if one of 4 or so of the current SL clubs were to be relegated this year they would probably not survive.
) its certainly tough on some smaller clubs and there has to be a way in for them but not yearly, but its perhaps the only way to sustain club's sponsorship, Youth Development and them building their squads is the NRL model. However it will never happen simply because the 10 team business has nothing to do with what's good for the game its just the big clubs wanting to keep or increase their current cut of the TV money, and with two teams less in the top tier the RFL seeing it as a way that they can still get some of it! You can pick the teams who are for it and those who are against it without being told who they are its a case of the rich getting richer and Turkeys and Christmas really'"
