Re: League structure : Sun Aug 19, 2018 1:14 pm  

There are no assumptions in my post.

There are 12 teams in SL. That means 22 home and away games + Magic. That's a fact without loop fixtures.

No club can survive on 11 games of income!

Less games will not mean more people coming - you my find less come in fact, as attending games is a habit that could easily be broken.

I like the 8's, but it's car crash excitement. By all means do away with it, but you then have to artificially create another set of fixtures to replace them.

Re: League structure : Sun Aug 19, 2018 1:27 pm  

Just go with 12 in Super League. If it went to 14 teams then each existing SL club would have to give up about £1/4 million of central funding. Not worth it just for two extra home games.

No, stick with 12 clubs = 23 matches with Magic. Most clubs in the lower half would be happy with the central funding. The clubs likely to be near the top should go for more revenue by having a top five play-off for the Old Trafford Grand Final - BUT WITH ALL THE TOP FIVE PLAY-OFF MATCHES (except the Final of course!) BEING DECIDED ON THE AGGREGATE SCORE OF TWO-LEGGED, HOME AND AWAY MATCHES.

Re: League structure : Sun Aug 19, 2018 1:35 pm  

Fax and furious wrote:

Just go with 12 in Super League. If it went to 14 teams then each existing SL club would have to give up about £1/4 million of central funding. Not worth it just for two extra home games.

No, stick with 12 clubs = 23 matches with Magic. Most clubs in the lower half would be happy with the central funding. The clubs likely to be near the top should go for more revenue by having a top five play-off for the Old Trafford Grand Final - BUT WITH ALL THE TOP FIVE PLAY-OFF MATCHES (except the Final of course!) BEING DECIDED ON THE AGGREGATE SCORE OF TWO-LEGGED, HOME AND AWAY MATCHES.

The old top 5 format was the best play off series that we've had and did, quite rightly, favour those sides finishing in 1st & 2nd (until Leeds trashed the party).
This will mean that the remaining 5 (or more if we increase the numbers) wont have any further games but, this was a better system which, quite rightly, put the emphasis on the run in to the grand final.
One major issue with this would be fewer games for Sky, which could be a huge stumbling block.
Maybe all the sides that dont qualify for the play offs could have a new end of season cup competition, which would give them something to play for and give sky some additional matches to fill our screens.

Re: League structure : Sun Aug 19, 2018 1:46 pm  

dboy wrote:

You need "loop" fixtures, because without them, you have 11 home games and 23 in total.

That does not give a sustainable income stream.

That’s why we should have 14 teams in Super League

Re: League structure : Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:58 pm  

Sir Kevin Sinfield wrote:

That’s why we should have 14 teams in Super League

Which requires the acceptance of Sky, as their current contract specifies the league set-up, and this can't/won't happen before 2022 (next contract).

I too would like a 14 team SL, but the bigger division then needs 2up, 2 down = bottom down, top up, "MPG" between next to bottom and 2nd.

That would be fun.

For 11th upwards, that's still only 27 fixtures...a minimum of 3 more needed to sustain income.

Re: League structure : Sun Aug 19, 2018 11:22 pm  

Everybody hates repeat fixtures, except repeat fixtures against the bigger/better/more famous* clubs attract more fans than the first fixture against the smaller/worse/unattractive* clubs.


Change the structure again, why? It makes no difference if the clubs are poorly run and keep losing fans/revenue/good players* and there is no central funding/structure to get out into communities and get kids/more people playing the game in the long term and no plan to expand the international game, the only product that we could sell to a bigger/broader/richer audience in the short term.

*delete as appropriate.

Re: League structure : Mon Aug 20, 2018 4:09 am  

14 Club SL, no auto promotion/relegation. Strictly down to criteria - finances, personnel, stadium, marketing plan, 5 years business plan etc. If clubs fail in these areas then no membership of SL end of! Too many lazy, poorly managed clubs in SL who lack true professionalism off the park!!