Two Tier Super League?

[England87]

I know this has been done to death and ruined by the RFL but does anyone else think a professional two-tier system would actually work.

I like the idea of restructuring the Super League into an 8 team Premiership & 8 team Championship based on a Licensing system (Just to give it a few years for teams to settle in...) with Promotion & Relegation between divisions.

The "every game matters'' Super 8's concept was a sideshow but I believe the two-division system below with inter-divisional matches sincerely makes ''every game matter'' without the same sides playing each other 3 times in the League.

eg:

SUPER LEAGUE Premiership

1. St Helens - LL Shield, Straight to Grand Final
2. WIgan - Grand Final Qualifier
3. Warrington - Grand Final Qualifier
4. Leeds
5. Catalans
6. Hull
7. Huddersfield - Relegation Play-Off 2 Seed*
8. Castleford - Automatically Relegated

SUPER LEAGUE Championship

1. Salford - Champions / Automatically promoted
2. Wakefield - Relegation Play-Off 1 Seed*
3. Hull KR - Relegation Play-Off 3 Seed*
4. Leigh -
5. Featherstone
6. York
7. Toulouse
8. London - Bottom side eventually relegated to what is now called the Championship (After an initial Licensing period)


Every team would play each other in their division Home & Away & the 8 sides in the other division, plus another 4 inter-division fixtures based on previous seasons standings to make 26 total Rounds. One of those Rounds could be the Magic Weekend in a pinch.

A shortened Play-Offs suits the British fan judging by crowds and adds more interest to the Home & Away rounds.

Feel free to take the piss but I do believe this system would give exposure to more important markets and make every game truly matter.

 

[Coastbloke]

Needs Dublin, Crusaders and Edinburgh in Tier 2 at least..

 

[emesssea]

One of the complaints I heard about the middle 8s was that the championship clubs were at a disadvantage competing against super league clubs since they didnt have the same level of funding, so wouldn't we see the same with this?

I just don't understand these fascinations with creating a two tier system where teams in each tier play one another. If they are separate competitions, with one having the goal of being promoted to the other, treat them as such.

 

[England87]

Nope. The same level of funding. A 100% equal playing field. Every club gets their share of the Sky pie.

 

[emesssea]

Then why not just have a 16 team league with a top 8 playoff

 

[adamkungl]

People need to stop trying to find complicated solutions and just go back to basics.

I see the #1 problem with Super League and the RFL's make-up as too much funding, of a limited pool, going into too small a geographic area.

There are a large number of West Yorkshire teams representing small neighbouring towns in the same boroughs. Of the 4 in Super League, 3 are historically the weakest teams in the comp with sub-par facilities, and the other is Leeds. There are many more through the Championship and League One who fall into the same boroughs.
In Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside there's a bit of a wider spread, but still you have examples like Leigh being basically a suburb of Wigan.

There's a decent spread of national teams through the Championship and League One that could make a positive influence on Super League in time. London, York, Sheffield, Newcastle, Coventry, North Wales, etc.
But - going back to funding - the deck is stacked against them ever improving. Roughly speaking, Super League teams get 1.8M, Championship teams somewhere in the range of 200-400k (10-20% of SL) and League One teams a pittance.

The funding model recognises that Super League clubs bring in the TV deal, but it doesnt allow any opportunity for change or movement. By design, it ensures that the current teams are almost certain to never fall unless they send themselves broke through mismanagement. They have a P&R system that doesn't truly function through onfield performance - but through financial luck and mistakes.

The TV deal is about to take a significant reduction in value. Which brings me to the 'back to basics' solution I mentioned:
Super League central funding should be slashed by roughly 40%, 2 teams promoted, with lower league funding staying as is. A smaller gap between competitions will promote more movement between them and spread out some of that funding from West Yorkshire.
SL - 14 teams, 1M funding each.
CS - 14 teams, 250k funding each.
L1 - 10 teams, 50k funding each, aim to expand over time to 14-16 teams (Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Dublin...)
Super League and Championship to have a home and away + 5 team playoff season, 1 up 1 down. No loop fixtures, no contrived formats.