Breaking News the RFL proposal has been accepted to be start from 2015 Season. At least its been agreed and we know what we are playing for this season (Super League 2 Teams relegated Championship 4 Teams relegated) I know the 3 x 8's is not particularly popular but lets give it a go and see how it works out in practice.

Super League will become a 12-team competition from 2015 after the 14 member clubs today backed plans to introduce an innovative new league structure.
From next year, Rugby League’s elite competition will feature 12 clubs alongside a 12-team Championship that splits into three groups of eight.
At a meeting in St Helens, the clubs voted unanimously to return promotion and relegation and pledged their support to the proposed structure which is a central tenet of the RFL’s Policy Review.
Super League (Europe) Chairman Brian Barwick said: “I would like to thank the clubs for their contribution to what was a very fruitful and positive meeting.
“The clubs were unanimous in their view that Super League should become a 12-team competition from 2015 and that there should be meaningful movement between Super League and the Championships.
“There was a full and frank debate about the competition structures and a commitment to support the proposed format.
“The Super League clubs’ decision will now go before the RFL’s independent Board of Directors for ratification next week.”
Full details of the new structures will be announced later this month.

I look forwad to it with no enthusiasm whatsoever.

Can't say it the best option but it will give us chance to play against super league clubs and improve our team - it it had been in place last year we may well have been in top twelve this year!

That would depend more on the finances than the competition structure.

Well its done now this is the future lets make it happen for the Eagles

If we end up in the third 8 (fair chance, only like finishing outside of the top 2 in the championship) I think I may die a little bit inside watching us contest the final to become champions of absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Goes back to my original thoughts - what exactly is everyone playing for ?

There are some folk around who still haven't grasped that two $uperleague clubs are coming down. There's a post on another forum about who's going to be in the middle eight from Div 2 - Halifax, Fev, Leigh, Us was the thought. Somehow, I think not ......

Oh ...... and I see that the top ranked four of each eight will get the extra home game.







Except the middle eight, where it'll be the bottom four.

Rugby League, eh ?

Good point

If we miss out on the middle 8 I can't see many turning up to watch games in the bottom 8 or be bothered to go to a "grand final" I'm not sure what would be Grand about that final

There's some debate elsewhere about whether season tickets will be include the play-offs or whether they'll be issued for the Twelve and then another "season ticket" for the Eight.

Clubs need to think hard about that.

I do believe Hull FC will be selling a separate mini season ticket for when the leagues split into 8. I think this could be the best way to go

Could be a hard sell. If you get three home games, what do you sell them for ? If you sell them for more than double your walk-up price, folk will start thinking they'll be out of pocket if they miss just one game. If you sell them for double or less, that's one hell of a discount.

OK - we're likely to get four home games, but the principle's the same.

There's been nothing like this before so clubs are just going to have to go with their gut feelings.

The whole proposed system is utter bobbins

Is that good or bad ?

Not very good, I had to self censor bobbins in place of a similar sounding word

Thanks for clarifying.

Only solution I can think of at the minute is clubs have two prices for when the leagues split into 8

Price A for 3 home games and Price B for 4 home games with each giving a saving on the match day price.
Obviously the club's couldn't sell these until it was known whether they have 3 or 4 home games which wouldn't give them much time to sell them.

I'm not to sure what else clubs could do? apart from have the league's of 8 games pay on the day but as we've seen with the playoff's and Challenge Cup in the last few years pay on the day has been a bit of a flop

Well- yeah -obviously the price would depend on how many home games you were getting.

I was thinking along the lines of how you'd set that price at a level which would make people want to buy them.

Look - we're likely to have four home play-off games, whether we make the cut or not. Suppose our walk-up price is £15. If you sell the mini-season ticket at, say, £50, then folk will think "If I just miss one game, I'm out of pocket." But if you sell them at £45 (or less), that's a big discount on the walk-up price.

And you're right - not much time to sell them is there ? A week ? Two, maybe ?

I'm thinking it's not practical. You have to go for the whole season.

In that case I would sell them at £45 (or less) based on a £15 walk up price. I don't think people will turn up for pay on the gate games as mentioned in my last post also supporters like to make a decent saving which is why a lot buy full season tickets.

Maybe they could do a whole season ticket where in the very unlikely situation we go into the bottom league of 8 with only 3 home games they could refund 1/15th of the season ticket price or make a discount for renewing the following season or some other offer?

Why not sell a season ticket based on 14 Games (11 League 3 8's) but include an free extra ticket incase we have an extra home game in the 8's.

I presume in the Challenge Cup revenues are split between both clubs if not you could sell a season ticket based on 15 Games (11 League 3 8's and 1 other game either Challenge Cup or 8's in the unlikely event of us not having an additional game you could return the ticket to the club for a refund or give it to charity)

Aye, it's when you start thinking about the nuts and bolts of how it'll all work that it starts falling to pieces.

I think clubs will end up selling tickets for the whole season and just guess where they think they're going to finish.

I don't necessarily agree about season ticket holders not going to all-pay games, Zilla. I'm not convinced that that's because they're not included in the season ticket. It seems more likely to me that it's because they're poorly promoted, played (usually) at short notice or that they are thought likely to be one-sided. But unless someone comes up with a season ticket that covers these games (and you'd need the agreement of the away club if it was a shared gate game), then we'll never know.

Think your quite right, has to be for the whole season.

Suggestion for you: Go for a season ticket that is priced to cover 15 home games (11+4) and if you only end up with 14 home games (11+3) then you offer all season ticket holders a £10 discount if they buy a season ticket for the next year by a certain date.

Maybe a membership scheme could be the way forward? one or two clubs seem to be adopting it

Basically, it's just a season ticket with added extras. Not that that's a bad thing.

Probably the future is some kind of season ticket you can use at any game, coupled with the "extras" that make up a membership scheme. But that's the future ......

Bit negative for you, Dave.



I'd sell them as 14 games but - hey - who knows - there might be a 15th !!

Anyway for the foreseeable future, I'd tip we're going to be in the top eight of the second twelve, which would mean 15 games (11+4).