Hollywood Jesus
Coach
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- 11,677
OK, this is long, and may not make sense because it should be longer, hehe. I am fully prepared to be called crazy (OK, to have my craziness confirmed even more) but something needs to be done about synchronising the league calendar across all levels.
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(Starting Note: I dont want this to be too big, so I am going to try to be very concise. Thus, every little thing may not be discussed but you should be able to figure out any gaps yourself with only a little thought)
The problem that Rugby League is facing atm is that it is trying to fit three levels of competition into a season (Club, domestic rep, international rep), and trying to make each of these levels top notch football. Obviously this is the goal that every sport should be aiming towards, but other sports arent trying to work towards this same situation and so dont face the same problems.
Rugby Excellent international, good mid-level rep, pathetic Club that no one cares about.
Cricket see Rugby
AFL Excellent Club, pathetic state, non-existent international
Soccer hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, ok but when talking about more than Aussie soccer, World Soccer has no mid-level rep, and both their domestics and internationals are excellent. However, they still face the problem of Clubs complaining about releasing players for internationals, because their two tiers of competition over lap each other.
So from these sports we can learn two lessons:
1) Minimise the number of levels you are trying to use to full potential so as to avoid spreading yourself too thin and diluting the product across the board. Straight up, this is not an option for Rugby League, as it is obvious that they are trying to push a three-tiered system that excels across the board.
2) Do not overlap competitions so that you dont have bickering between the various tiers as to player availability.
Now we all also know that you cannot spend 52 weeks of the year playing football. Off the bat we will look at having a 30-week calendar that covers all three levels. OK, time to cut straight to the chase.
Club Competition Simply put, a 14 week competition where you play each team once, followed by a 4 week finals campaign total 18 weeks. Home and Away is easy to figure out because one year you play team X at home, next year you play them away, meaning you know that you will have a home game with each team every two years. ESL would expand to 14 teams and run a comp that is one week shorter than Australias. It may seem like this is way too short a season for Clubs, but keep reading.
Mid-Level Rep Comp NSW, Qld, Nth Islands, Sth Island, Two English Teams (off the top of my head cant remember what they are called but the play the War of the Roses thing). Play your opposite team once to start (ie, NSW v Qld, Nth v Sth, English teams vs each other), then play each team once, and Top Two teams play in the Final total 8 weeks. Any player eligible to play for a Rep team would be considered, no matter what competition they are playing in ie. English based players who are eligible to play for NSW would be included for selection. (NOTE: The reason you play your opposite team to start is that you play them again later, meaning you have 2 games and thus each of the three groups Aust, NZ, GB can each possibly wrap up their own Origin in this comp, but if its 1-1 you can have a week scheduled later for a decider if need be, but if not answers the dead rubber question that pops up whenever NSW get to 2-0  )
Total so far 26 weeks.
International Just use the current example of the Tri-Nations, you would be looking at a 7 week competition. All countries would participate in international competition during this time, and you could have 4 group comps that also take up 7 weeks (eg, Add Russia to the mix and instead of having a bye the third team would play Russia)
Total 33 weeks, which compared to the current 37 weeks used at the moment takes around a month off the League Calendar.
But we have a problem! If you go with this scenario, then the Clubs would only be playing a maximum of 19 games, and some as little as 14, which would not be acceptable to anyone on any level. The answer is to break Lesson 2 from above, and stage a second Club competition that runs concurrently to the Mid-Level Origin rep comp.
Telstra Challenge Cup Add a 16th team (for this mini-comp only), divide into 2 groups of eight, each groups plays itself once, and team at the top of each group then plays in a final for an 8 week competition. 16th team could be, eg, a minor international team, say Russia, US, Japan, whoever, or possibly a team like NSW Country. Could be rotated every year. To make sure that Clubs all get the same amount of home games every year, they would play 3 at home, 3 away and one neutral to be taken to the country, or an alternate location in order to spread the game.
OK, so you might possibly have:
Weeks 1-18: Telstra Premiership
Weeks 19-27: Origin + Challenge Cup
Weeks 28-33: International Comps
OK, but we have another problem here the 4 weeks of Premiership finals (weeks 15-18). 7 teams would not make the Finals, and so go a month between playing, and then 2 more teams would have a 3 week break, 2 more a 2 week break, and 2 more one week off. The two teams who got one week off probably wouldnt mind, but the rest would not be happy, and neither would their fans, and that is fair enough. The solution isnt one that really looks appealing, but its the only way I can see around it
Weeks 1-8: First 8 rounds of Premiership
Weeks 9-17: Origin + Challenge Cup
Weeks 18-27: Completion of Premiership
Weeks 28-33: International Comps
*Clubs would get a total of 21 games a year 10 home, 10 away and 1 neutral. This means less revenue, but this could be recouped from the Origin level, because .
*Origin teams would get 6 games a year thus making them more towards real teams and thus more of a marketable brand. 6 games would mean 3 home/3 away, and using NSW as an example these could be played at Telstra x 2, plus Newcastle/Wollongong etc. At present NSW get 3 home games every 2 years on average, and so this automatically doubles this, and thus doubles revenues.
OK, but we have another problem the fact that the Challenge Cup would operate with the Top teams playing minus their top stars eg Roosters get 6 selected in Origin. The Roosters might complain that, without these stars, they wouldnt draw such a large crowd and thus lose revenue. I think this is a) not entirely true and b) can be overcome:
*Not entirely true I simply think people are likely to come to watch their team as opposed to particular players, especially under circumstances where the Club is being challenged. If fans arent being drawn to the Club as a whole package, this is pretty much the fault of the Club not packaging, promoting etc itself properly. Also, fans from the opposition would turn out in larger numbers because they have a better chance to see their team beat the Roosters. Also, making, say, English-based players available for NSW would dilute the draw on individual teams.
*Can be overcome this is the time to move one of your home games to an alternate location, as is becoming the vogue these days. Alternately, promotions can overcome this, as it is a chance to put the juniors on the stage and promote this as a time of challenge when the team needs to stand up and the fans need to get behind their team.
Alternatively, this would more than likely mean that selections would be more spread out and origin teams would be less likely to draw 6 or 7 players from a particular team and instead cut that down to maybe 4 and draw the others from alternate teams. Simply put, I dont think this is as much of a problem as many would say it is, and the problem it did present could be overcome if attacked with the right frame of mind.
OK, Im pretty sure I;ve covered all the bases in laying out the foundations. Ask questions and I will try to answer them, flame and I will try to respond and offer solutions. Perhaps I am just crazy? Whatever 
**********************************
(Starting Note: I dont want this to be too big, so I am going to try to be very concise. Thus, every little thing may not be discussed but you should be able to figure out any gaps yourself with only a little thought)
The problem that Rugby League is facing atm is that it is trying to fit three levels of competition into a season (Club, domestic rep, international rep), and trying to make each of these levels top notch football. Obviously this is the goal that every sport should be aiming towards, but other sports arent trying to work towards this same situation and so dont face the same problems.
Rugby Excellent international, good mid-level rep, pathetic Club that no one cares about.
Cricket see Rugby
AFL Excellent Club, pathetic state, non-existent international
Soccer hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, ok but when talking about more than Aussie soccer, World Soccer has no mid-level rep, and both their domestics and internationals are excellent. However, they still face the problem of Clubs complaining about releasing players for internationals, because their two tiers of competition over lap each other.
So from these sports we can learn two lessons:
1) Minimise the number of levels you are trying to use to full potential so as to avoid spreading yourself too thin and diluting the product across the board. Straight up, this is not an option for Rugby League, as it is obvious that they are trying to push a three-tiered system that excels across the board.
2) Do not overlap competitions so that you dont have bickering between the various tiers as to player availability.
Now we all also know that you cannot spend 52 weeks of the year playing football. Off the bat we will look at having a 30-week calendar that covers all three levels. OK, time to cut straight to the chase.
Club Competition Simply put, a 14 week competition where you play each team once, followed by a 4 week finals campaign total 18 weeks. Home and Away is easy to figure out because one year you play team X at home, next year you play them away, meaning you know that you will have a home game with each team every two years. ESL would expand to 14 teams and run a comp that is one week shorter than Australias. It may seem like this is way too short a season for Clubs, but keep reading.
Mid-Level Rep Comp NSW, Qld, Nth Islands, Sth Island, Two English Teams (off the top of my head cant remember what they are called but the play the War of the Roses thing). Play your opposite team once to start (ie, NSW v Qld, Nth v Sth, English teams vs each other), then play each team once, and Top Two teams play in the Final total 8 weeks. Any player eligible to play for a Rep team would be considered, no matter what competition they are playing in ie. English based players who are eligible to play for NSW would be included for selection. (NOTE: The reason you play your opposite team to start is that you play them again later, meaning you have 2 games and thus each of the three groups Aust, NZ, GB can each possibly wrap up their own Origin in this comp, but if its 1-1 you can have a week scheduled later for a decider if need be, but if not answers the dead rubber question that pops up whenever NSW get to 2-0  )
Total so far 26 weeks.
International Just use the current example of the Tri-Nations, you would be looking at a 7 week competition. All countries would participate in international competition during this time, and you could have 4 group comps that also take up 7 weeks (eg, Add Russia to the mix and instead of having a bye the third team would play Russia)
Total 33 weeks, which compared to the current 37 weeks used at the moment takes around a month off the League Calendar.
But we have a problem! If you go with this scenario, then the Clubs would only be playing a maximum of 19 games, and some as little as 14, which would not be acceptable to anyone on any level. The answer is to break Lesson 2 from above, and stage a second Club competition that runs concurrently to the Mid-Level Origin rep comp.
Telstra Challenge Cup Add a 16th team (for this mini-comp only), divide into 2 groups of eight, each groups plays itself once, and team at the top of each group then plays in a final for an 8 week competition. 16th team could be, eg, a minor international team, say Russia, US, Japan, whoever, or possibly a team like NSW Country. Could be rotated every year. To make sure that Clubs all get the same amount of home games every year, they would play 3 at home, 3 away and one neutral to be taken to the country, or an alternate location in order to spread the game.
OK, so you might possibly have:
Weeks 1-18: Telstra Premiership
Weeks 19-27: Origin + Challenge Cup
Weeks 28-33: International Comps
OK, but we have another problem here the 4 weeks of Premiership finals (weeks 15-18). 7 teams would not make the Finals, and so go a month between playing, and then 2 more teams would have a 3 week break, 2 more a 2 week break, and 2 more one week off. The two teams who got one week off probably wouldnt mind, but the rest would not be happy, and neither would their fans, and that is fair enough. The solution isnt one that really looks appealing, but its the only way I can see around it
Weeks 1-8: First 8 rounds of Premiership
Weeks 9-17: Origin + Challenge Cup
Weeks 18-27: Completion of Premiership
Weeks 28-33: International Comps
*Clubs would get a total of 21 games a year 10 home, 10 away and 1 neutral. This means less revenue, but this could be recouped from the Origin level, because .
*Origin teams would get 6 games a year thus making them more towards real teams and thus more of a marketable brand. 6 games would mean 3 home/3 away, and using NSW as an example these could be played at Telstra x 2, plus Newcastle/Wollongong etc. At present NSW get 3 home games every 2 years on average, and so this automatically doubles this, and thus doubles revenues.
OK, but we have another problem the fact that the Challenge Cup would operate with the Top teams playing minus their top stars eg Roosters get 6 selected in Origin. The Roosters might complain that, without these stars, they wouldnt draw such a large crowd and thus lose revenue. I think this is a) not entirely true and b) can be overcome:
*Not entirely true I simply think people are likely to come to watch their team as opposed to particular players, especially under circumstances where the Club is being challenged. If fans arent being drawn to the Club as a whole package, this is pretty much the fault of the Club not packaging, promoting etc itself properly. Also, fans from the opposition would turn out in larger numbers because they have a better chance to see their team beat the Roosters. Also, making, say, English-based players available for NSW would dilute the draw on individual teams.
*Can be overcome this is the time to move one of your home games to an alternate location, as is becoming the vogue these days. Alternately, promotions can overcome this, as it is a chance to put the juniors on the stage and promote this as a time of challenge when the team needs to stand up and the fans need to get behind their team.
Alternatively, this would more than likely mean that selections would be more spread out and origin teams would be less likely to draw 6 or 7 players from a particular team and instead cut that down to maybe 4 and draw the others from alternate teams. Simply put, I dont think this is as much of a problem as many would say it is, and the problem it did present could be overcome if attacked with the right frame of mind.
OK, Im pretty sure I;ve covered all the bases in laying out the foundations. Ask questions and I will try to answer them, flame and I will try to respond and offer solutions. Perhaps I am just crazy? Whatever 
.....I know u touched on it briefly, but I think it falls down a little when it comes time to examine the revenue and financing for clubs issue....clubs pay players - they want their money's worth and they want their gate takings and merchandise revenue.
