Another simple question - are Leeds too big to go down?

Whilst they are one of our main rivals and I detest Hetherington, I personally think Leeds going down would be an absolute catastrophe for the game.

The game, imo, needs it's big teams like us, Saints, Leeds, Hull and Wire not only in the tip division, but also battling it out for top honours too. The league is at its undoubted best when these teams are strong and the big games keep coming.

Those five teams, imo, contribute more to the game than the other 8 + championship clubs combined with their fan base, academies and rivalries. The game isn't big enough to loose anyone of them We could lose a Hudds or London and not bat an eyelid, as let's face it - what do they contribute or add? Could the same really be said about Leeds?

The game for me lost something when Bradford collapsed and it would be another death blow if we didn't look at the fixture list next year and see Leeds Vs Wigan/Saints/Wire etc.

I think we're now at a point where we have 14 teams strong enough for SL. Ideally keep them up, bring in Toronto and Tolouse (which helps expand the game, but would also come at a time when they're the two strongest Championship sides anyway). Then we could have everyone play each other twice rather than playing some teams thrice, which naturally creates an unbalanced league.

It would be a real blow for the league to see them go IMO but they’d quickly bounce back unlike Bradford.

I think they’ll be fine anyways because there’s talk they’re going to spend their way out of it with an early bid to get Hastings for this season. I believe the signings deadline was pushed back as well which seems massively convenient for them (maybe I’m cynical).

I'm afraid I agree with the OP.

The British game is diminishing at a rate of knots.

We never got Widnes back. We never got Bradford back. At one time they were giant clubs who could put top teams on the field and, whenever they faced Wigan at least, attract a huge crowd. We miss both of them badly.

Do we want Leeds to go the same way?

The mere thought is appalling.

If we look at the competition this year, it's a two-horse race ... and it's boring frankly. The bottom end of the table is way more interesting than the top, and that's always a bad sign. But this could be the future of the British game. A couple of front-runners and the rest of the league fleshed out by total also-rans.

The game's controllers are very good at contrivance when it suits them. Via the mechanism of the salary cap, they contrived to turn SL into a poor man's game, which now struggles to keep its star turns. Via the mechanism of fudge, they contrived a situation wherein several Yorkshire clubs who met almost none of the SL franchise criteria stayed in SL. Now it's time for them to find some mechanism by which to contrive a competition that can't just lose its best supported and most productive clubs purely because they've had a bad season.

No I hope they go down and stay there

When I look at the fixture list certain fixtures jump out. You look for Saints, you look for Wire, you look for Leeds. Without those fixtures it just doesn't generate the same excitement. They are the ones you mark in the calender and really look forward to. The game needs genuine rivalries. The top flight badly misses Bradford and Widnes. Not just for the fixtures in general but also for the derbies they create. As much as its great to point and jest at Leeds for having a bad season I don't want them to go down. It would be a massive loss to super league on every front

They won’t go down, and also they’ve flirted with relegation the last few years.

What they need to do is look at what brought them success in years gone by and that’s home grown talent supplemented with good overseas players, at present they have got the good overseas players but not the homegrown ones and the overseas players are copping the flack.

They’ve not got a proper halves partnership, Lolohea is a fullback, Sutcliffe isn’t the answer and antler is a support player doing it on his own. They need another half, if Jackson Hastings had signed for Leeds to play alongside Myler they’d do well. But some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to play Lolohea at 6 alongside Myler and it hasn’t worked, so they move Lolohea to fullback when they have Jack Walker who is home grown and one of the future stars of the game.

They’ve got two good hookers, though Parcell seems to have fallen out of favour for some reason.

Leeds need to get a decent coach and rebuild their squad for the future, they’d be aswell signing Powell or Chester and bring in Trueman/Gale/Lilley as their halves and bin off Myler and Lolohea.

I’m still stunned Richard Agar is in charge. Rightly or wrongly he’s been bagged everywhere he’s gone and whilst there’s been a slight pick up, I think they need to act and get a full time head coach in sharpish.

Appoint Wane, Flanagan, Danny Ward etc and I think they comfortably stay up.

That would be an absolute disaster. Imagine getting a run of home games Vs Tolouse, Toronto & Catalan. You'd get about 50 away fans over three games! Worst still imagine getting a that run but away and asking people to dip into their pockets for three trips away to watch games against teams there's no rivalry with.

Wouldn't most other clubs love to see us relegated? Then yes they would because of who we are and in my opinion Leeds can go down they have brought nothing to the league this season apart from a few laughs for me anyway others may think the same but I don't

Dont think many people wante us to stay up in 06

Especially Cas fans!!

Now now dont make them start crying again!

its a tough call. we need to grow and bring in new teams, and sport should always be competitive with a seat at the top table based upon performance not sentiment. we dont want to go the same way as football where fans of 'big' clubs believe they are owed success due to their alleged history.
however, Leeds have a good fan base, so losing that income would be a blow.
on balance, they will come back up because unlike widnes and bradford, they have a stable financial core, and on that basis - if they get relegated i wont worry too much

The other SL chairmen did ... they saw the actual value we brought to the league.

It's the same with Leeds.

We can loath them as our rivals and detest their fans as mouthy Yorkies, but Wigan will lose out if Leeds get relegated.

The easy solution will be to increase SL to 14 teams with no relegation this season.

Gets rid of the loop fixtures for a start.

TBF to Agar he’s just a front man, the team selections, substitutions, tactics still look very similar to the back end of last year when Lowes was “Head Coach” under Sinfield. You only have to see that Sinfield has sat right next to Agar every single game whereas he didn’t with Furner to work out that Sinfield is calling the shots. Furner getting sacked because of a breakdown in his relationship with Sinfield....aka Furner wouldn’t put up with Sinfield trying to run things.

Mixed feelings... Of course the bigger setups are VERY important to SL, but they would laugh their c0cks off if we were relegated...

Super League needs Leeds (and Wigan etc.)

It would be funny for a week or two. But with the Sky deal looming, losing Leeds would likely mean lower attendances, lower viewing figures and therefore lower funding. We’d soon stop laughing when we couldn’t afford to keep our best players (which we already struggle to do).

I get your sentiment on this and whilst I agree that big footy clubs like Utd don't have a given right to success on pitch, they do have claims to wanting a bigger share of the financial pie.

Quite simply you lose a big team and everyone suffers. Take someone like myself who isn't really a footy fan, but I will tune in for the big game i.e Utd Vs Liverpool etc. Casual fans like me that push ratings up by watching the big games drive the £££ on the TV deals with sky.

I know loads of people who aren't RL fans, but they will watch the big matches on a Friday night or over Easter. SL imo can't afford to lose 6 games or so that would be Leeds Vs another top team.

One thing they can't do is change the rules mid season. If Leeds finish bottom they should go down (and it would be funny if nothing else to see Sinfield's face!) but my preference would be we go to 14 teams in 2021. Would be good timing for a potential TV deal.

they bring nothing to away grounds especially in Lancashire their travelling support is awful for a big club

But have the biggest social media following of any rugby league club in the world. It’s not all about away attendances, Leeds do bring a lot to the league, love them or hate them. (I hate them).

who cares about how many social media followers they have really? What do they bring to the league ? Think every one secretly is chuckling at them at the moment they certainly were on wish fm and that was just the saints commentary guys

You are joking? No offence but that’s a very outdated view, in this day and age social media is absolutely huge.

Go have a look at the followings of United, Barcelona, Patriots etc. It’s indicative of the size of the club but also a correlation with how many viewers they bring to the sport. Everyone is hung up on away support but in terms of Sky funding that means nothing in comparison to viewers.