Clearly the re-introduction of P&R is good news for all of us who believe this is the way forward. But there is still a lot of "devil in the detail" to understand before I will give the new proposals a positive or negative view. Amongst which are allocations of cash, second team structure, TV rights, minimum standards, financial stability etc.

Notwithstanding this I love the prospect that three years after it all starts we could see a Grand final between Hemel Stags and Gloucester. It will not happen, but at last everyone can dream. That is what sport should be about.

Eh dear.

What's competitive ? Losing all their games but not by many ?

I suspect your right about 1 (I was even starting to believe it as a possibility myself even though I believe SL as a whole don't want us at the top table) - but I personally would rather see Fev in the championship for the next 20 years and longer if it meant this P&R was introduced in a responsible way, since for me sport should be about what happens on the pitch not in the boardroom (I accept that in modern day they clubs have to be run as sensible businesses at the same time).

As for 2 I believe that Sheffield has the greatest potential out of all the Championship 1 sides (and Skolars even more so). However for whatever reason the Eagles have not been able to sell themselves to the Sheffield public. I know people say that Sheffield is a football city, but I don't fully buy into this, in that the Steelers can pull crowds of 3.5k for a sport that get even less coverage than RL. Biggest problem for the Eagles is to have a "true" home, but suspect that would take 20M from a benefactor or the city council, neither seems very likely at the moment.

I still have big concerns about the Championship 1 level, there is talk about 2 regional (north & south) divisions of 10, but to achieve this would require 7 extra teams which could include Toulouse (though again I am not convinced Toulouse is sustainable unless they were in SL). I just don’t see where these teams could come from to start in 2015, and where would the funds come from to support them?

I will take the 2x12 into 3x8 for the moment hopefully with a better distribution of money), but believe this will have to change again to give us something more sustainable. This just still feels very much a gimmick.

P&R will help to a point, as will a winning side, but as you articulate better than most the clubs have to promote themselves in a greater fashion than they have in the past.

PS I believe it is possible to be moderately successful on crowds of 4,000 if you can maximise other revenue streams. Assuming you need income of around £3M per annum to have any chance of being stable in SL, this could come from:
- 1.2M sky money
- 900k Gate receipts (average of say £15 x 4000 x 14 home games)
- 1M in sponsorship, and other streams
Though to have a real chance at the GL you would need another £1M and this would require gates of 8000-10000

Gate income is only a fraction of SL income shock





Leigh averaged close to 5000 in 2005 with an uncompetitive team, poor coach and at HP

A dozen years on and we have 22 exec boxes, dining for 500 and a state of the arte stadium with 1500 car parking spaces on site - could we draw more than 5000?

It must be really dis-heartening for Leigh fans to see most people who use it park up in one of those car parking spaces, get their bags for life out of their cars & head over to Morrisons at the other side of the car park....