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Super League 14

CC_Roosters

First Grade
Messages
5,221
so who's in??? discuss

This has been my favoured structure for a long time. Can we take that tweet seriously?

Twenty clubs I see as fit for the 2x10.

Wigan, wire, saints, Leeds, hull Fc, hull kr, catalans, Bradford, castleford, Toulouse, Toronto, Widnes, Wakefield, Salford, Huddersfield, Halifax, featherstone, London, Leigh.

That's 19. Question is does the second North American Team have legs if so I imagine they would be team 20.
 

deal.with.it

Juniors
Messages
2,086
Based over you avg attendance requirements only 7 clubs from last season would qualify for SL1

The ? question marks were to spark doscussion on what the minimum standards should be. I’ve said this time and again, decide where you want SL to be in 10 years and strategically plan for it.

I guess I’m in the minority that doesn’t want to see in 10 years teams like Salford, Leigh, Widnes in SL 1 ahead of Bradford, London, Toronto etc unless they are bringing big crowds, sponsorship $ and TV viewership.

Most people in UK don’t know what they want. Do we want Toulouse, Toronto, London in SL and chase mainstream coverage, or do we want to stick with our tribal ways across the M62?

Please don’t tell me you want two comps called SL1 and SL2 with teams scattered between both, low crowds, crap stadia, etc. That’s one way to kill a game and encourage bugger all kids to play the game.
 

deal.with.it

Juniors
Messages
2,086
This has been my favoured structure for a long time. Can we take that tweet seriously?

Twenty clubs I see as fit for the 2x10.

Wigan, wire, saints, Leeds, hull Fc, hull kr, catalans, Bradford, castleford, Toulouse, Toronto, Widnes, Wakefield, Salford, Huddersfield, Halifax, featherstone, London, Leigh.

That's 19. Question is does the second North American Team have legs if so I imagine they would be team 20.
Fit for 2 x 10? Based on what? I seriously don’t get it. 2 conferences? First and second tier?
 

emesssea

Juniors
Messages
100
The ? question marks were to spark doscussion on what the minimum standards should be. I’ve said this time and again, decide where you want SL to be in 10 years and strategically plan for it.

I guess I’m in the minority that doesn’t want to see in 10 years teams like Salford, Leigh, Widnes in SL 1 ahead of Bradford, London, Toronto etc unless they are bringing big crowds, sponsorship $ and TV viewership.

Most people in UK don’t know what they want. Do we want Toulouse, Toronto, London in SL and chase mainstream coverage, or do we want to stick with our tribal ways across the M62?

Please don’t tell me you want two comps called SL1 and SL2 with teams scattered between both, low crowds, crap stadia, etc. That’s one way to kill a game and encourage bugger all kids to play the game.

My preference is a 16 team league featuring the current 12 plus TWP, Toulouse, and London then one other be it Bradford, the hypothetical 2nd NA team, Leigh or whoever. Then focus on having a viable healthy, both on and off the field, stable league. In due time, allow for expansion of the league provided the clubs joining will improve the league, on and off the field.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
I agree with a lot of what is said in this article criticising the 2x10 plan

https://uk.blastingnews.com/sport/2...-league-would-destroy-the-game-002412827.html

To me the 2x10 plan is an awkward step between P&R and licencing but with the positives of neither. It leaves P&R open but completely cuts out the legs from it making it basically impossible below 2nd tier, and wastes money on a not-quite-elite 2nd tier that no one will take seriously anyway. Reinventing the wheel isn't necessary, pick the NRL model or the English Football model, implement it properly, and stick to it.

12-14 is the ideal number of teams. Allows for a 22 game home and away season. 10 is too few, 16 is too many, and if the aim is to reduce costs than 12 trumps 14.

If the aim is to have an 1 super-elite comp at the top then just do it that way. Make it a closed league, give it 90% of the available funding, and strategically expand the league as funding and opportunities allow. Basically mirror the NRL. The 2nd tier and grassroots receive the remaining funding with Championship functioning as a semi-pro development league similar to QLD Cup.

If the aim is to have a P&R system, then open it up and fund it properly. Each level below needs to have a realistic chance of promotion. To me that means funding to a certain standard from the bottom up, ensuring the Championship is a sustainable full time league, and opening up the pyramid below League 1.
Regional amateur leagues - enough RFL funding to make participation affordable for clubs and players. (5%)
National League 2 - amateur, RFL funding to cover national travel costs (1%)
National League 1 - part-time/semi pro (2%)
Championship - full-time professional, RFL funding enough to cover minimum salaries (15%)
Super League - elite, receives remaining funding (77%)
 

RedVee

First Grade
Messages
5,856
I find the 2 x 10 proposal odd unless it is for 2 conferences that somehow join for the playoffs.
If they are tiers then they are just relegating clubs and making others ‘elite’.

Don’t get it.
 

titoelcolombiano

First Grade
Messages
5,276
Bradford
Castleford
Catalans
Featherstone
Halifax
Huddersfield
Hull FC
Hull KR
Leeds
Leigh
London
New York
St Helens
Salford
Toronto
Toulouse
Wakefield
Warrington
Widnes
Wigan
  • The super 8 teams plus the top two from the middle 8's qualify for SL
  • Teams 3 - 8 in the middle 8's join join Championship 5th & 6th placed teams
  • Bradford and New York added as the final two for commercial reasons
  • SL breaks away from the English system as a stand-alone comp with P&R between the two divisions
  • Any club can apply to join SL 2 (or whatever we are calling it). Applications will be assessed on their commerical and strategical merits
  • England similar to France and other nations focus only on their domestic setup with Championship & League 1
 
Messages
11,354
Former Salford owner Marwan Koukash says he is looking to launch a new Super League club in Cumbria.

Koukash, an England-based businessman and racehorse owner, had five years in charge of the Red Devils. He relinquished his controversial ownership of Salford at the end of last year to a community trust. Now the 59-year-old has apparently set his sights on the county of Cumbria.

Speaking on the television program Rugby League BackChat, Koukash dubbed his proposed new club as the ‘Cumbrian Lakers’.

“It’s worth looking at, there is potential for it,” he said on BackChat.

“I was visiting there last weekend and it’s amazing, you walk in the centre of Whitehaven or Workington and you see the number of kids wearing Super League shirts, rather than Manchester United or Liverpool. Obviously there is a lot of potential there.

“If I ever get involved in Cumbria, or that part of the world, I would start from scratch. I wouldn’t be taking over from a club, or taking over a club. Hopefully the new venture that I’m bringing in, with the excitement that I will generate, will force the other three clubs to join in.”

Cumbria is one of the traditional heartland areas of the sport in England, and has three long-standing semi-professional clubs currently in operation – Barrow in the Championship, and Whitehaven and Workington Town in League 1. Despite a strong amateur presence in the region, these three clubs have struggled on and off the field, both to win games and attract fans in recent years.

Barrow, which were founded in 1875, has never played in Super League and neither has Whitehaven. Workington were part of the inaugural season of Super League in 1996 but were relegated that year and have not been part of the competition since. Koukash said a merger between these three clubs, which has been mooted in the past, would not work and that could be used as feeder sides to his new franchise.

“I think that will work,” he said.

“You can’t persuade them to join forces, that’s never going to happen. Whereas if you build a club that belongs to Cumbria, those guys that are travelling from Barrow to go to Wigan, from Workington to go to St Helens, surely they would travel to support their only club.

“So regardless if they want to keep their own identity, their own club, this becomes a team that represents the whole of Cumbria. My dream would be to have a Cumbrian side that’s made entirely, or 90% of that team, to be Cumbrian guys proud to be wearing the shirt.”

Despite not having a club in Super League, Cumbria continues to produce professional players at a regular rate. The likes of Hull KR trio Ryan Shaw, Shaun Lunt and James Donaldson, St Helens pair Morgan Knowles and Kyle Amor, Leeds forward Brad Singleton and Salford front-rower Lee Mossop all hail from the region.

The Sportsman understands a ground is being looked at for the new club and a sponsor, British Nuclear Fuels, is prepared to back it.

“If we’re looking for a new destination for Super League fans to go to, like we travel to Newcastle etc, just imagine asking them go to Cumbria,” Koukash said.

“It’s a natural process – you’ve got Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.”


https://www.thesportsman.com/articl...-plans-for-a-new-super-league-club-in-cumbria
 

Leigh Howlett

Juniors
Messages
661
Can recall watching a 20 year old Doco from the start of Super League where basically all mergers were rejected as the clubs wanted to retain their identity, one Super merged club was to be call Calder?.
 

roughyedspud

Coach
Messages
12,181
Taken from wiki cos I couldn't be arsed typing it all out lol

Initially, several mergers between existing clubs were proposed:

They were to be included with the following stand-alone clubs: Bradford Northern, Halifax, Leeds, London Broncos, Paris Saint-Germain, St. Helens and Wigan.
 

roughyedspud

Coach
Messages
12,181
Here's something I've just knocked up..

Super league one - 10 teams
Wigan
Leeds
St helens
Warrington
Hull fc
Catalan
Widnes
Huddersfield
Wakefield
Castleford...edited,yeah I forget them lol

Super league two - 10 teams
Hull kr
Salford
London broncos
Fev
Leigh
Toulouse
Toronto
Halifax
Bradford
New York RL.

ONE UP/ONE DOWN P&R between SL1&2

RFL Championship - 14 teams
Dewsbury
Batley
Barrow
Sheffield
Swinton
Rochdale
Oldham
Hunslet
York
Workington
Whitehaven
Newcastle
Keighley
Crusaders.
Forgot doncaster too...
So maybe add London skolars too create a 16 team league...and look at promoting ambitious NCL teams into the RFL conference to make the league viable

RFL conference - 8+ teams
Coventry
West Wales
Hemel
Bristol
Manchester rangers
A Irish club
A Scottish club
NCL
NCL
NCL
Etc

I could live with that..
 
Last edited:

deal.with.it

Juniors
Messages
2,086
Spud, looking at your teams it appears SL2 is basically second division?

So again, am I missing something? How would the funding break-down work? Would SL1 & SL2 receive the same funding? Why do you need to call it SL2? Why can’t it stay as the championship if it’s basically championship teams and Hull Kr and Salford?

I’m all for one up one down P&R. But why can’t you have minimum standards for SL1 teams? Otherwise, what are you basing SL team inclusion on?
 
Messages
11,354
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/5793...ert-elstone-set-to-take-role-at-super-league/

EVERTON chief executive Robert Elstone is set to leave and return to rugby league to become one of its most powerful men.

The Goodison Park power-broker is thought to be keen on becoming CEO of Super League, with the job of leading the competition into a new era.


GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR
2
Robert Elstone is set for a move to Super League
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Sources say an exit from the Toffees is now in the process of being negotiated after he was pinpointed as the man the 13-a-side code’s top flight want to replace Nigel Wood.

Among Elstone’s first jobs are set to be sorting out the transition to any new structure, with plans to extend to 14 clubs or cut to 10 on the table.

A new television deal is also up for negotiation in the coming years, which is where his experience with Sky will come in handy.

His departure will be a blow to Everton’s new £500 million new stadium at Bramley Moore dock in Liverpool.

Insiders close to the process of appointing a new Super League chief say the 54-year-old as the outstanding candidate among a clutch who were put forward to replace Wood.




GETTY IMAGES - GETTY
2
Elstone will oversee all 12 Super League clubs in his expected new role
Clubs seized more power over the off-season and the former boss of both Super League and the Rugby Football League left soon afterwards.

Now it is likely the major competition will have a different leader than the governing body, much like the FA and the Premier League.

Elstone, chief executive at Everton since 2008, has a background in rugby league after growing up a supporter of Castleford Tigers and eventually became a director.

He was involved in the creation of Super League in the mid-1990s, having a role in the Paris St Germain side, and has maintained close contact with his boyhood heroes.

His experience in TV, after working as Director of Football Business Affairs, is also a big reason why he is likely to take up the chief executive role at Super League
 

Perth Tiger

Bench
Messages
3,022
It will be interesting to see what the long term thinking behind the 10 and 10 concept is?

The Toronto and NA guys have been talking about 4-5 teams in the future to be sustainable. Lets say RL gets things together and is successful enough to attract a few extra bids from NA or Ireland or France or wherever, would they be open to additional franchises or is this a closed shop?
 

roughyedspud

Coach
Messages
12,181
Spud, looking at your teams it appears SL2 is basically second division?

So again, am I missing something? How would the funding break-down work? Would SL1 & SL2 receive the same funding?

The clue is in the name of the two leagues,Yes it's two divisions....as for funding that's for the 20 clubs in the league's to decide how the TV money is split up..good luck getting it split equally though..SL1 clubs will want the lion share of the money...like always
 

CC_Roosters

First Grade
Messages
5,221
I find the 2 x 10 proposal odd unless it is for 2 conferences that somehow join for the playoffs.
If they are tiers then they are just relegating clubs and making others ‘elite’.

Don’t get it.

Your over thinking it I think. It's pretty well a premiership-championship relationship with promotion and relegation except restricted to 2 divisions of 10 teams. Access to the top 20 would and should be controlled by licensing reviewed every 3? years imo
 
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