maurice wrote:
This is why the 2 x 10 concept could tick all boxes if clubs took a wider game approach and not paying yesterdays overdue bills.
The second tier of SL MUST be a full time comp with a minimum salary spend, and would need 5/600k funding to allow a 1.2m min spend. At this point relegation into SL2 is not the death bell it currently would be for a Wakefield or Salford going into the Championship, but more importantly the skill gap between comps would be reduced and the extra funding used to strengthen rather than replace completely a part time squad.
HullKR are a classic example of adding to a FT squad that was largely kept after relegation. Leigh are a classic example, 2017, of adding to a competitive full time squad that beat 3 SL teams in the middle 8's to win a place - competitive in all but a couple of games and really shouldn't have gone down. Keeping FT on a near SL cap without the expensive imports means you become competitive
A full time SL2 is a logical step to move into and up from, that allows 20 teams fans to have a vested interest in purchasing the product from Sky and allows Sky to show more games and watch a promotion/relegation battle unfold - something UK sports fans are used to and watch
Thanks for a very interesting post. Can you clarify the funding is it say 12 SL2 clubs on £600K and 12 SL1 clubs on £1.780 Million (I think that makes the £25M a year)........
This is far from "Supergreed" and sounds good.... However in the current "second 10" as per the league tables sit
Sheffield, Whitehaven, Batley and Halifax so would superleague really take a small cut in their funding and give clubs who have no real chance of competing in Superleague half a Million each to waste??
How would SKY feel about this? They are not happy with the elite product so how does Batley.v.Sheffield go on Television wages paid for by SKY??
To me there has to be quality well funded clubs at the top of the championship to replace those who have a bad season, but the scenario you pose wastes a lot of valuable SKY money on clubs who can maybe sneak promotion if the gods are with them but would collapse against the big boys.
Most of the money needs to be in Superleague and only a small portion to be available to potential SL clubs in the championship probably paid as prize money for coming say top two.. With respect this is the real world and Lenegan would be shot at dawn by SKY if there was a repeat of the last set up currently breathing it's last.......
