Well, if the new structure had been in place this season, the fixtures would have panned out thus:
Eliminator: Fax - v Fev. How exciting would that have been? Fax win to play loser of ………..
Qualifier: London - v - Toulouse. London home advantage tells so we have next 2 games ………..
Qualifier: Toronto - v- London
Eliminator: Toulouse -v- Fax
Toronto through to Grand Final to play London who beat Toulouse (who beat Fax)
I'm going for home advantage in each case but you can see we've a far better chance of getting through (the match at Toulouse for example is like a cup match where we'd fight harder than our effort in the qualifiers).
Also, assuming the additional 2 championship teams are Bradford and York, then the 3 additional fixtures under the new structure would I guess have attracted:
Bradford - 3,500
York - 2,000
Fev (eliminator) - 3,000
Total - 8,500
Current structure:
Toronto - 1,800
Salford - 2,500
Leeds (estimated) - 4,000
Total - 8,300
So not much diference attendance wise, but a very possible route to the Grand Final under the new structure but not a cat in hells chance of beating SL teams under the current structure.
