for change – if the Bulls go under – presents itself.

Stepping back and burying ones commitment to the mighty FC, there are many things wrong with rugby league. We are familiar with poor and inconsistent refereeing, laughable disciplinary judgements, bizarre RFL decisions - I could go on.

However, if the Bulls disappear from the SL then we will be left with 13 teams. No doubt there would then be a rush to find a 14th team. This should be resisted. A SL of 13 teams offers a golden opportunity to change things. For me one of the weakest aspects of SL is when the two teams take the field – one is not competitive because of injuries. Over the seasons there are many examples of this.

One possible approach to this is to build in weeks with no fixtures to enable teams to deal with injuries and cut down players playing ‘hurt’.

With 13 teams playing each other only at home and away (ditch the Magic Weekend – which I believe will eventually fail in the years to come). This means 24 fixtures per team. The season could be split into blocks of 6 weeks of games followed by a week off. Thus a season would take 4 x 6 weeks of fixtures plus 3 weekends off = 27 weeks. Each team would also have blank weekends when they are the 13th team. (I seem to remember the Aussies had a 13 team NRL recently)

The CC could be put at the end of the season. If the SL play offs were restricted to the top 4 then they should get ‘a rest’ by only coming into the CC at say the round of 16. Teams finishing 5,6,7 and 8 could also be rewarded by coming into the CC later than those finishing 9 to 13. I haven’t really looked into this – someone more able than me should be able to come up with a format that doesn’t deny the smaller clubs a potential money spinner against the SL teams.

During the ‘no fixture’ weeks the SL paymasters (Sky TV) could review the previous 6 weeks of fixtures and preview the next 6 weeks of fixtures.

I am sure that this type of format (or similar) would help rid the game of the curse of the non competitive fixtures and help with player welfare.

[quote="Real Deal FC"]Bull's wont be leaving the Super League. With MP's now involved in safeguarding the club's future, the RFL will step in to ensure they won't exit the league.

I don't think the RFL are too concerned about making an example of what happens when you don't balance the books properly, they want the biggest clubs in the country to play in the top league, and regardless of what anybody says, the Bulls are one of the biggest and well known teams in the competition.

Regarding your ideas on adjusting the fixture calendar....it won't work. More fixtures = more revenue. More televised Sky games = more revenue....see the pattern? I agree with you on dropping the Magic Weekend and reducing the amount of teams who qualify for the playoffs, but reducing the amount of teams in the league is a step backwards imo.[/quote]

I understand that arguement but many sports suffer from over exposure - e.g falling gates at soccer - all but disappearance of snooker - poor attendances at cricket. By having a small drop in the number of fixtures tends to make the 'action' less frequent and therefore more desirable. Scarcity can create desire. Are you better having 3 home games with 10k at each one or 2 home games with 15k at each one?

No wonder football is losing support,paying stupid money to watch players "earning" stupid money is enough to put people off.
Agree what was said about dropping Magic Weekend,but keeping league as it is.

CC should be played at start of season with Final played on May Bank Holiday w/end (ditch magic)

Think we will end up back at 12 teams in a few years time, not enough talent around to support 14 teams with few players now coming from the NRL and potentially more heading in the opposite direction.

Agree with previous poster that there seems a concerted effort to keep the Bulls afloat and if the deal with the Asian businessmen goes through then I'm sure that things will be fudged to retain them in SL next season, the RFL have a vested interest as they own the leasehold on Odsal.....the next couple of clubs to face administration however may not be so lucky.

they'll still need a buyer though first

Think the magic weekend is great, and great value for money as well. If we can actually keep a regular venue we may see attendances improve year on year.

Play-offs favour the higher placed teams but think it was better when restricted to the top 5/6.

Putting higher ranked teams into the cup at later stages sort of goes against the whole fairytale of the cup for the smaller teams. I am sure teams like Sheffield would much rather play Wigan/Leeds/Saints etc than Wakey/London/Salford.

Why would a 13 club SL alter the amount of injuries? Players would get 2 games less a season but the risk of injury is just as high. how would you work out which team has to wait till week 13 to get a rest? Injuries hit at different times thoughout a season and unless the RFL employ a psychic to do the weekly fixtures those games when a team has x amount of players out will still happen.

Magic is not great

The cups death is a crying shame, look at the attendances of the Semi, all the cup gates are down, its poor, really sad to see.

Some like magic some don't.

If you move the cup the attendances will still be poor, people are struggling more and more financially and their commitment to rugby is limited to the odd game or a season pass and they will save their money for a possible final appearance rather than on a semi final.