Funny you mention that majority of people agreed that super league needs to go to 12 so there is more money not in effect go to 24.

Bradford average attendance is far greater that any of the championship as well and in the past decade they produced far more academy players than any championship team. So they have far more to offer super league in there current plight than any championship team will over spend to keep up with any super league club.

A couple of years ago Leigh would have beat Catalans but for bent referring and have beaten Salford in the cup . .....

It's a start.

At least all the clubs have something to play for.

Whether these changes will increase attendances initially has to be seen. If interest is increased because of the new structures likewise.

I suppose because of this system there will have to be a playoff system because of not being able to play each team home and away under this proposal, but if it has to be it should be a top 4 round robin, I suggest to ensure that clubs do not aspire to the mediocrity that 8th place is success.

Anyway it's a new situation, let's hope it is the success that everyone who follows this great sport would like.

You've clearly got a thing about socialism haven't you. And equally clearly you obviously know sweet FA about it.

Oh please do explain this.

I wait with bated breath for your explanation at whatever level or section you wish to answer on.

Here are few you could reply to

Financial acumen, Reserve sides, Development, recruitment policy, marketing, to be going on with.

This is a genuine request for an explanation if you believe that the sport is currently all inclusive.

According to Hull Daily Mail. 2 season tickets. One for each group.

Clubs in top SL and in the middle 8 are going to struggle to sell any of the season tickets for that group resulting in loss of income by 2 games that they get now.

Why wouldn't fans pay too see a relegation battle or fight for the title?

You mean with all that Sky money? Well done Bradford for contributing more than Championship clubs.

yeah leigh "had all that sky money" nothing come of it.

Exactly. I'm sure Widnes v Leigh battling it out for P/R will pull CONSIDERABLY more than Widnes v London playing for nothing.

Roll on 2015.

Look at this from a fev , fax , Leigh point of view we have all worked hard over the last few years and seen clubs in super league lie and play in sub standard stadiums and we have had no chance to play at higher level.
We now have a system where if we are good enough we can go up if we are not good enough when we get there we go back down its simple.
It's the fact that the door is no longer closed that makes championship fans happy.

They don't. We have had P+R, we have seen they don't. Clubs get better attendances as a mid table SL side than a relegation threatened one, and they are better attended as a struggling SL side than a successful championship side. That isn't my opinion, it's just what history tells us.

Besides not all 7 games in this 2nd part will be an intense relegation battle, it is likely that a fair amount of them will be dead rubbers between teams unable to be promoted and teams already 'qualified' or where at least one of them falls into that camp

Fev fax and Leigh fans aren't that many people.

The very top will be fine, could probably raise their prices. Leeds Wigan, saints, wire, Hudds will all finish in the 8 and get extra games against each other. It's brilliant for those clubs.

The middle clubs will suffer rom the instability in that, having to sell a half season ticket then suffering the drop in the 2nd part

The bottom clubs are now championship clubs in all but name

Yes it's possible to win four games and miss out on the top 4, if five teams beat teams 6,7,8.

Just using them as possibly the main 3 teams, you then have batley who can beat anyone in the league you have dewsbury with a cracking ground and you have the potential at Many other teams.
To me it isn't about how many fans the teams have now we can't judge till after a couple of seasons..

Batley and dewsbury would destroy the fantastic work they are doing by trying to be SL clubs. They would at max get the levels of attendance used as a stick to beat Salford with this year, an attendance which is entirely unsustainable at pro level.

You are right, we can't judge it now, it's in place, in a few seasons we will see its results. People are saying we will see rises in attendance across the board, new interested benefactors and sponsors funding expansion and benefits throughout the game. I think we will simply entrench a split between the big clubs and everyone else, whilst we will bring up the to championship clubs it will force down the lore SL clubs and grow the big SL clubs and forget about everyone else.

I think people have forgotten that if this is to even come close to working the gap between the top SL clubs and the championships is what needs to be narrowed because if it isn't we only have two possible outcomes a 22game season where 4clubs get hammered and an exciting 7 game play off, or a 22game competitive season and an end of season blow-out.

But it's in place now, I hope to god it does work, I just have no faith whatsoever it will.

So because they will play 7 games outside of the regular SL rounds (3 against SL sides) they are effectively Championship sides for being in the middle 8?

When you add it up, every side that starts in the SL will play at least 26 games against SL opposition.
They will likely play at least 2 games against former SL sides.
And a further 2 games against the other two best Champ sides.

They have more games. Just as many against SL opposition. I don't see the big issue in that they're playing considerably more "lower level" games than they were before. It's comparably very similar. Instead of playing 4 games against 13-14th in SL, they're playing 3 extra games against higher SL opposition, and likely 2 games against the 13-14th clubs mentioned.

What????


The point of my comment is I lost he will to live half way through your explanation... Now add that the game wants me to spend money on supporting this vision... And we might have a problem.

No because their focus changes from long term growth to challenging to short term staying up. Every decision is taken with a risk/reward problem in mind, the risk for a lesser club (relegation) is far higher than the reward(a place in an 8 team comp they are virtually guaranteed not to win from the first kick off). It's a change from now where they are not expecting to get in the 8 but focussing their season on giving themselves the best chance to get in, to having their entire season based around making sure they dont finish bottom four in the 2nd part of the season, the longer the same clubs are involved in those battles the more and more irrelevant the first part of the year becomes

And they may not be playing at a massively lower level than they were before (though it is a lower level) they are playing at a massively lower level than the top 8 which exacerbates the gap

No. I'm a Saints fan and so, without wanting to sound arrogant, it's unlikely we'll face the prospect of not being in the top 8.

My opposition is twofold:

1) I think the principle of 'franchising' is correct. It guarantees stability, allowing SL clubs to plan with a sense of certainty. As I said, the prevalence of younger players being brought through has been tangible evidence of the change of approach. Before this we had the merry-go-round of the same journeyman players jumping between lower-SL clubs and the promoted team(s) because the clubs were terrified of relegation and didn't have the time to build a team from within their own ranks. It acted against the flow of young players being brought through, and as such worked against the longer term interests of the game.
I do recognise that the clubs in SL are there by accident of timing, and it is, I accept, unfair on those clubs outside of the SL club. IMO, their challenge would be to make the Championship a competition in itself which attracts public interest.

2) the new structure is overly complex. I've tried explaining the SL play-off system (and, indeed, that of the WC) to non-RL fans, and I see their eyes glaze over and their interest wanes. The SL play-off is unnecessarily complex (and should have fewer clubs than

, and this new structure will amplify the view of the non-RL fan (whose money we need to attract if we are to progress) that RL is too complicated .

There needed to be 10 clubs present for it to be possible for a vote to take place. Once a vote took place it needed a majority in favour to be passed. The 7-6 vote was just something that somebody mentioned they had heard (a rumour). People had also been talking of a walkout from the meeting when the meeting had not yet begun (another rumour). Some rumours will be true, some won't. There were enough present to allow a vote to occur and that vote approved the proposals. That's all that really matters.

The fact stands that SL clubs and the RFL have brought this about by making a mockery of the franchising system. People take great pleasure in comparing Bradford/Widness/London to Fax/Fev/Leigh but that cant ever be a fair comparison whilst on is on 1.8m of central funding and the other is on less than 100k. If you give either Fev, Fax or Leigh 1.8m a season and competitive games to bring in the fans the comparison would be much less favourable to the SL clubs.

Correct my view exactly

Regarding the season ticket issue, while it is a valid concern some people are making assumptions based on what they think their club will do and then, like the stereotypical daily mail reader are frothing at the mouth based on their own (or sometimes someone else's) assumption without actually knowing how clubs will deal with the issue.

There has been no mention of any centrally dictated method for grouping and selling match tickets. As it has been previously it will be up to the individual clubs to sell season tickets in whatever form they choose to.

There seem to be a few possible approaches they could take.

1 ) A club could sell a season ticket for the initial 12 team phase and then have the 3 or 4 (not seven, away games are not on season tickets unless you are a child) second phase home games treated as pay on the day individual games as with cup and playoff games.

2 ) A club could sell a season ticket for the 11 first phase games and then offer a bolt on group ticket for the 3 or 4 second phase games.

3 ) A club could choose to sell a whole season ticket that covered all 14 or 15 games in both league phases.

4 ) A club could offer a range of options prior to the season starting so that individual fans could purchase the package they wish. Fans could then opt for a whole season ticket regardless of opposition, an initial phase season ticket with bolt on where payment for the bolt on was automatically taken after round 21 (for example) unless they chose to opt out prior to round 21, or an option to buy a first phase ticket only with a chance to opt in to a second phase bolt on.

Individual clubs will decide which type of season ticket system would work best for them and their supporters and use that. There is no certainty that every club in a particular 12 team league will operate or try to operate the same scheme, nor that every supporter at an individual club will have to buy a season ticket under the same scheme. The price and format of season tickets for 2015 will not be known until September at the earliest. If people want to bemoan the system then it will be fine but to whinge now about what they assume will happen based on something else that they assume will happen as if it is set in stone is just pointless and daft.