coco the fullback wrote:
The season needs to be as long as the Sky contract says it must be.
Ideally we would bin the loop fixtures and possibly Magic (if there's little prospect of fans attending). Maybe the structure could be negotiated, perhaps extending the number of weeks by using bye rounds so that more games could be televised.
The stopper for a late start is the World Cup at the end of the year. This has to be the main focus for next year and could turn out to be the saviour of the sport.
Some disruption of the regular season seems inevitable, but we need to follow the money if the sport is to survive. That means fulfilling the TV contracts, the whole season should be planned around this.
The elephant in the room is, of course, how many teams will be competing?
I agree with all of that. The sport needs the World Cup desperately.
I know the club says that the economic model is based upon 14 home games a year, but 11 games with fans might be just as effective than trying to start in February with empty stadiums. Start at Easter, home and away, 22 games, with fans desperate for rugby action.
I could be flippant and suggest that the fewer games there are, the smaller the gap between us and the team in eleventh, so more chance of an escape.