2015 - a new era

[roughyedspud]

yep....lower league clubs have been screwed over and they all voted for it...


the worst thing about it is with the amount of money our tv deal is worth,if it was shared out properly we could have doubled the amount of full time professionals in RL in this country


theres enough money too..

increase the ESL grant to £2m per club a increase of 66%,they could have increased the cap or spent the extra money developing a proper under 20s/21's league

increased the championship grant to £1m,a rise of 1000%,all the championship clubs could have gone full time

and increased the league 1 grant to £250,000, a 200% increase, which would go along way to stablizing and expanding the grassroots of old & new clubs..


after all that money is dished out....the RFL will still have £5-6m a year to play with to spend on development officers,promoting of games,hiring big stadia for "blockbuster games"...


all in all theres been a monumental misuse of the future tv money..we could have give the big boys that bit extra they are always moaning they need,the middle boys get the massive funding boost they need and the small boys get the money they need to grow...

oh well maybe in 5 years they'll see sense

 

[Wilson1]

1. The new structure is only one round longer than the current format - 23+7+2 (32) vs 27+4 (31)

2. Under the current format teams can likewise meet each other 6 times in a season - 2 H&A games, Magic Weekend, Challenge Cup, and 2 matches in the playoffs.

Also does anyone know which points system will be adopted? I hope the lower leagues just go back to the non-bonus point method.

True. The current format still means more games for most players though as every Super League will play at least 30 games whereas before it was just 27. It's just too many games for most players. Watch teams 11 and 12 just rest players going into the split.

Playing each other 6 times is still too much though, even if it is unlikely to happen.

 

[Sydney Knight]

So reading that how does a team win the Championship? Is it first past the post or is it based on the playoffs to get up to super league?

I couldn't see a separate finals for the top championship teams.

 

[langpark]

...

 

[miguel de cervantes]

Just how the f#@& did they come up with this schmozzle?

 

[langpark]

I guess it was an attempted compromise between relegation and franchise systems...

I kinda like it, as complicated as it does look at first glance... 12 teams all season would get a bit boring (and a bit too short of a season), so it's nice that some teams get to play a whole set of new teams at season's end.... Who knows? Give it a season then we can see how it went...

 

[Evil Homer]

No idea why they are so desperate to bring back that 'million pound game' which was f**king terrible the one and only time it took place in 2006.

 

[roughyedspud]

?? so memorable i've no idea which game you're on about??

 

[roughyedspud]

this is what id have done

SUPER LEAGUE

11 teams plus catalan
top 6 play offs
magic weekend
bottom club plays in the "£1m P&R game"
£2m grant - £2m salary cap

CHAMPIONSHIP

11 teams plus toulouse
top 6 play offs
summer bash weekend
winner of play offs play in the "£1m P&R game"
£1m grant - £1m salary cap


simple

 

[deal.with.it]

I'd have done exactly the same Spud

 

[roughyedspud]

im all for RL being innovative....video refs,2refs,removing corner flags,tweeking rules to make the game etc


but faffing about with the structure to the point where its so convoluted its difficult to follow is NOT going to gain the sport new fans.

 

[CC_Roosters]

this is what id have done

SUPER LEAGUE

11 teams plus catalan
top 6 play offs
magic weekend
bottom club plays in the "£1m P&R game"
£2m grant - £2m salary cap

CHAMPIONSHIP

11 teams plus toulouse
top 6 play offs
summer bash weekend
winner of play offs play in the "£1m P&R game"
£1m grant - £1m salary cap


simple

That's still asking a second tier club to go up against a club with double the cap with only one chance. The
Rfl model at least has a grinding post split series of games that may catch out the bottom four super league clubs.

 

[Wilson1]

this is what id have done

SUPER LEAGUE

11 teams plus catalan
top 6 play offs
magic weekend
bottom club plays in the "£1m P&R game"
£2m grant - £2m salary cap

CHAMPIONSHIP

11 teams plus toulouse
top 6 play offs
summer bash weekend
winner of play offs play in the "£1m P&R game"
£1m grant - £1m salary cap


simple

There are no simple solutions. One of the key things is that 11 home games each probably isn't enough for teams to make a profit. Also the playoff system has been rejected by Super League fans.

I would have liked to see a 12 team, two round Super League. Then I think the competition should split into top 6 and bottom 6. This would provide a 27 game regular season followed by a one off final. It's not perfect but provides a good number of home games for each team - it also gets rid of the playoff system which sees lower attendances than during the regular season.

 

[Wilson1]

That's still asking a second tier club to go up against a club with double the cap with only one chance. The
Rfl model at least has a grinding post split series of games that may catch out the bottom four super league clubs.

I think Spud's idea could be reformed so that the top club automatically goes up and the second top club plays off for promotion. I agree that it isn't a perfect system and promotion will be difficult. I'm not sure what we can do about it though.

 

[roughyedspud]

There are no simple solutions. One of the key things is that 11 home games each probably isn't enough for teams to make a profit. Also the playoff system has been rejected by Super League fans.

how the hell can't clubs make a profit/break even then their biggest expenditure is paid for them via the grant!!!

 

[miguel de cervantes]

 

[Wilson1]

how the hell can't clubs make a profit/break even then their biggest expenditure is paid for them via the grant!!!

Yes, the grant which you plucked out of thin air. All our problems would be solved if money grew on trees. That much has always been clear but it doesn't help us much with our current problems.

Currently Super League clubs get a grant of 1.2 million pounds in redistributed TV money. That number will increase with the new format to 1.7 million. I hope that is understood - the grant increases at the same time as the new format. If the format was not changed then the grant probably wouldn't increase either.

Now you want each Super League club given a 2 million pound grant. So each club gets an extra 800,000 in redistributed TV money. Where does this all come from? If you play less rounds then you get less TV money. Under your proposal the grant money would have to decrease, rather than increase.

If you include the increased grant money to Championship teams your proposal would cost the RFL over 10 million pounds more than their own proposal. Where is all of that money going to come from? What's more you want them to pay out all of that extra money while playing a significantly condensed season? It's just not reality.

It's so easy to sit at your computer and say something is "simple." However, you aren't accountable to anyone and you don't have an income statement in front of you. The RFL's task is to grow a game which has struggled for its existence for mainstream media coverage. I don't think the RFL's proposal is perfect; I think it has many flaws I have already listed. One of them is too many games and the other is the difficulty of getting promoted. However, there is no perfect solution. What they have to do is do a cost/benefit analysis and determine the best course of action and they need to base this upon actual data.

 

[Dogs Of War]

Thinking a bit outside the square, if you did the shorter season format, maybe you could have a few 9's comps during the season to break things up a bit. Could be nice little earners as well, and played in a variety of locations to showcase the game in a different way.

 

[Wilson1]

Thinking a bit outside the square, if you did the shorter season format, maybe you could have a few 9's comps during the season to break things up a bit. Could be nice little earners as well, and played in a variety of locations to showcase the game in a different way.

I'm in favour of a 9's competition to replace the magic weekend. I think the main problem with that weekend is that it means some teams play each other 3 times so it creates disparities. I also think a 9's competition may get more non-Super league fans involved. It would also give a lot of players a week off if it was held mid season.

 

[roughyedspud]

magic 9s and more mid season internationals