'Thus I am tormented by my curiosity and humbled by my ignorance.' from History of an Old Bramin, The New York Mirror (A Weekly Journal Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts), February 16th 1833.
An interesting ' term ' for clubs outside the ' Elite '
The gap between tiers 1 and 2 is massive and not bridgable through normal evolution and simple hard work, IMO. There are strong arguments for this being necessary, but it certainly isn't desirable. SL was and is about concentrating the wealth - going to 10 could either partially reverse that by creating a genuine SL2 whose teams would be given a SL grant (albeit a smaller one), or it could extend the process by just keeping all the cash in a ten-team SL1.
A small, genuinely elite SL sounds good if you put the stress on 'elite', rather than 'small'.
Luck is a combination of preparation and opportunity
Just to avoid confusion Starbug is the username of Steven Pike
SOMEBODY SAID that it couldn’t be done But he with a chuckle replied That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried. So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin On his face. If he worried he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn’t be done, and he did it!
Haha we are all a bunch of dreamers when we want to be. I'm not sure we are ready for a conference system, nor are we ready for the idea of watching a merged team. We have a different culture in the UK whereas in the USA and Australia the people don't seem to care as much. I like the idea of a conference but there are too many problems. At the moment crowds are generally on the up, viewing figures are on the up and we are seeing a lot of young English lads breaking through. We don't need radical change at this time, I think Widnes' inclusion to Super League is great for the sport, hopefully Leigh and Halifax can put the hard work in over the next couple of years and get themselves ready for Super League. Dumping Toulouse or another Welsh team in SL is not the way forward.
One of the real problems is the Championship clubs though
You seriously think we can double our fan bases in a couple of years ? , and draw any kind of meaningful ' corporate / sugar daddy ' support in the Championships ?
You seriously think we can double our fan bases in a couple of years ? , and draw any kind of meaningful ' corporate / sugar daddy ' support in the Championships ?
Not going to happen
Dont be too harsh man, Fax think they are ready now and they will certainly be wanting a spot in 3 years time.
Dropkick Murphy..we actually saw and heard a mass of bouncing and scarf and flag waving to Dale Cavese that drowned out anything we could muster.. It stopped us singing our own celebratory songs, it died out seconds later when we accepted we couldn't be heard over the Wigan lot Celebrations muted from us, job done from them. Most fans who slag them off are jealous their own club's support is nowhere near that good - sally cinnamon..Why not discuss Wigan? It's a rugby league message board. Wigan are the most famous brand in rugby league - Tre Cool..Saints fans are hopeless unless it's a cup final or grand final. Wigan fans are so much more loyal and passionate - the flying biscuit..Wires havent been massively succesful over the years, but I've spoke to Brian Bevan And he spoke to me and i wouldnt swap that for Wigans History, ever - Ande..on the TV i could only hear the Wigan fans with about 10 to go - Saint94..Every team is in your feckin shadow, we all know - FIOS
The gap between tiers 1 and 2 is massive and not bridgable through normal evolution and simple hard work, IMO. There are strong arguments for this being necessary, but it certainly isn't desirable. SL was and is about concentrating the wealth - going to 10 could either partially reverse that by creating a genuine SL2 whose teams would be given a SL grant (albeit a smaller one), or it could extend the process by just keeping all the cash in a ten-team SL1.
A small, genuinely elite SL sounds good if you put the stress on 'elite', rather than 'small'.
With respect, SL was formed to grab Sky nmoney,as the game was on its knees, following the massive overspend by certain super clubs. As time has moved on more and more focus has been on trying to lift the quality in SL so that we can become strong enough as a nation to take on the Aussies, and to expand the game into new areas (to give us a "stronger" product to sell to Sky) The "bigger" clubs are trying to reduce the number of teams, under the remit of "making the league stronger", however IMHO, they are simply tring to have a larger slice of the Sky cake. How can SL need to cut to 10 teams, when only a few years ago, it was deemed so important to expand from 12 to 14 clubs. The sport makes itself look amateurish by changing format so frequently, we want some stability, plus steady growth.
Luck is a combination of preparation and opportunity
Just to avoid confusion Starbug is the username of Steven Pike
SOMEBODY SAID that it couldn’t be done But he with a chuckle replied That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried. So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin On his face. If he worried he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn’t be done, and he did it!
Dont be too harsh man, Fax think they are ready now and they will certainly be wanting a spot in 3 years time.
Not being ' Harsh ' , just being honest , and if they were honest with themselves they would probably agree with me , unfortunatly the other option is what ?, remain in the Championships watching your fans slowly lose interest
Its called the ' stuck between a rock and a hard place ' situation
Widnes with essentially 2 1/2 years to prepare and a reasonable fan base , not to mention sizeable sponsorhip and owner support are already struggling , anything less than they had in the Championship is doomed to failure
'Thus I am tormented by my curiosity and humbled by my ignorance.' from History of an Old Bramin, The New York Mirror (A Weekly Journal Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts), February 16th 1833.
This is meant to be a 'super' league. How many teams/clubs do we actually have that can be classed as super?
Reduce the number of teams to 12, get rid of Wakey and one other. Increase the SC and the player pool at the top level will be much better.
If a club eventually becomes worthy of a franchise then they can have one.
2, maybe 3. 4 at a push. But then 'super' is a subjective term. Perhaps 20.
Get rid of the worst club and somebody else becomes the runt of the litter.
Tbf, 12 wouldn't be in any way mental - but you have to stop culling somewhere, or it is just Leeds vs Wigan every week forever. An absurd extrapolation, I admit.
My preferences, based on a variety of real world factors: 14, 12, 16............big gap..........10.
'Thus I am tormented by my curiosity and humbled by my ignorance.' from History of an Old Bramin, The New York Mirror (A Weekly Journal Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts), February 16th 1833.
With respect, SL was formed to grab Sky nmoney,as the game was on its knees, following the massive overspend by certain super clubs. As time has moved on more and more focus has been on trying to lift the quality in SL so that we can become strong enough as a nation to take on the Aussies, and to expand the game into new areas (to give us a "stronger" product to sell to Sky) The "bigger" clubs are trying to reduce the number of teams, under the remit of "making the league stronger", however IMHO, they are simply tring to have a larger slice of the Sky cake. How can SL need to cut to 10 teams, when only a few years ago, it was deemed so important to expand from 12 to 14 clubs. The sport makes itself look amateurish by changing format so frequently, we want some stability, plus steady growth.
With respect, SL was formed to grab Sky nmoney,as the game was on its knees, following the massive overspend by certain super clubs. As time has moved on more and more focus has been on trying to lift the quality in SL so that we can become strong enough as a nation to take on the Aussies, and to expand the game into new areas (to give us a "stronger" product to sell to Sky) The "bigger" clubs are trying to reduce the number of teams, under the remit of "making the league stronger", however IMHO, they are simply tring to have a larger slice of the Sky cake. How can SL need to cut to 10 teams, when only a few years ago, it was deemed so important to expand from 12 to 14 clubs. The sport makes itself look amateurish by changing format so frequently, we want some stability, plus steady growth.
Jamie Peacock and other proponents of reducing the size of SL assume that there will be the same number of 'quality players' as there are now but condensed into 10 teams rather than 14 thus improving the standard of SL. This may be true in the short term but they also assume rather naively that in the long term the same number of 'quality players' will continue to come through the ranks. What they don't appreciate is that without a SL club on the doorstep kids in Cas for example may not be drawn to rugby league at all and promising ball players might end up in soccer or some other sport. This is of course the reason given for expanding the game with top-flight teams in London, France and Wales. This is a minority sport. If we don't protect and nurture what we already have we'll be over-run by the big boys. I suspect there's a reason why Jamie Peacock is a rugby league prop and not a professor of philosophy. He should stick to what he's good at.
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