Quote ="griff1998"Three years ago there was a huge pressure from supporters to go to twelves and eights, despite the Swiss soccer league (only ones to use it, sfaIaa) saying it was carp. If we hadn't made this change, we'd never have heard the end of it.
As it turns out, it's a nice fit from a competition point of view, =#FF0000but the financials aren't good at all. You don't know the fixtures for the last seven games of the season until July. Ground sharers are always second to soccer for their fixture date picks. Clubs who only sold season tickets for the twelve phase of the season made a huge mistake in thinking they could sell "mini season tickets" for the eight phase.
Toronto can only make their decision on the basis of the situation at the time they made that decision. If the door to $uperleague does close, they may just close the club down. Or they may not. They don't seem to be doing so bad at the moment, crowds still good, sponsorship healthy. Obviously there's a lot which hasn't been made public about their finances, so we'll never know.
The Sky contract is also a factor - it's based on twelves and eights and if there's to be a change before the contract runs out, Sky would need to agree because the RFL have an obligation to provide games on the twelves and eights format.
But - again - if there's some "plot" at Red Hall, it'll be at the instruction of the clubs. They are the masters and the RFL are the servants.
My preference would be for no change for 2018 and, if there is to be a change for 2019, for it to be announced before the 2018 season starts.'"
Spot on Griff.
The bit I highlight is the biggest problem to all the clubs. How do sell sponsorship for the games when you don't know when they are to be played, whether you are going to have 3 or 4 home games, how do you set up the pricing for executive boxes, season tickets, sort out advertising, etc. The casual fans will not necessarily leave the weekends blank to attend games.
On that basis you can see why some chairmen/chairwomen may be saying let's have 14 teams with a 27 game fixture list (13 guaranteed home games)
