https://www.sthelensreporter.co.uk/spor ... ul-3305527 Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere. Really not sure what the future of the game is in a post covid landscape, but a 10 team top tier would be the death knell for me, irrespective of the rest of his ideas. Warrington are cashed up, but not a big club. They just happen to have a rich owner at this moment in time. “A club from Hull” is also an interesting quote. In an ideal world, more teams would be in Super League, as a 12 team league is tedious enough, but that will never happen now.

https://www.sthelensreporter.co.uk/spor ... ul-3305527 Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere. Really not sure what the future of the game is in a post covid landscape, but a 10 team top tier would be the death knell for me, irrespective of the rest of his ideas. Warrington are cashed up, but not a big club. They just happen to have a rich owner at this moment in time. “A club from Hull” is also an interesting quote. In an ideal world, more teams would be in Super League, as a 12 team league is tedious enough, but that will never happen now.

Self evident that 10 teams means one or fewer clubs from Hull. The sport is not viable right now and the last go at this was half-arsed. Change must happen - whether in this way or not.

The last two season will definitely be a catalyst for change good or (probably) bad. Just not sure RL supporters have the stomach for it anymore.

going to cause a huge poop storm deciding which clubs go, do we relegate the bottom 3 and promote the championship winners through their grand final, block promotion and just drop the bottom 2?

make or break next couple of years, id like 14 teams, but owners wont be willing to split an ever reducing cash pot even more!

Owners of some SL clubs wont give up their power easily!

If there's a restructure, 2021 league positions will count for very little. There would be principles applied overlaid with a franchise style assessment on a number of criteria to decide the final 10.

There in lies the issues the sport faces that is likely the case and that way of looking at it is why the sport is slowly killing itself off. They only seem to look at what they will lose out on rather than look at the possibilities and extra revenue that a 14 team set up could bring in. In essence its a professional sport run by amateurs and with all the business savvy within the game its mind boggling that none of them can see or agree on the best options for the sport.

For me personally a league of 10 teams just isn't enough for a meaningful league and wouldn't do much for the sport, I think I'd probably call it a day if it went down that route. All it does is further reduce the appeal and game itself.

SKY money is being reduced by 30% next year, debts are mounting at an alarming rate, and you think the sport can survive with even more teams?

If the game went semi pro would we get any money from sport England ? Every team would then be on the same footing but it would put paid to Aussie pensioners coming over for big bucks.

12 teams isn’t enough to keep people’s interest. 10 would kill the game for all but those 10 teams. The game can’t even afford 10 teams I’d wager.
I know a lot of people where it wouldn’t take much to walk away from the game for good. Really crucial time for the game.
Can also see a number of lower league teams just disappearing.

IMO It's not the number of teams that makes the impact, it's the number of games/repeat fixtures that has the bigger negative impact.
14 teams works because:

26 games, each team played home and away, thus removal of fabricated/slanted fixtures to have more local rivalry matches, it works better IMHO, I gave an example on the VT, 2x sell outs as opposed to 3x with just slightly more fans but more costs overall to host 3 games thus less net income, also multiple/repeat fixtures for the 'derby' games = fan fatigue hence fall off on those repeat big games..

Ditching 'magic' weekend, I've not seen evidence that this benefits clubs financially, given the cheap tickets are significantly less than a std ticlet (less than half the revenue for a 2 day ticket compared to 2 full price tickets) and the effect it has elsewhere including the home teams loss. That's before the some fans investment in travelling/boozing which does have an effect on CC games incl the final when those neutrals might have had a big day out there instead should their team not get there.

Newcastle already had roots and a team that had done ok, when I assessed attendances from pre 'magic' I can't see any influence holding magic in Newcastle has had than if just the normal progression from same input into an area at grass roots/development. You don't need to input grass roots/support to fledgling teams by holding a 2 day repeat fixture event that loses money to clubs.

Ditch the Easter Monday game, this is a player welfare issue IMO and is also fan fatigue, I don't really want to watch two teams flogging themselves when half the team are shattered, no problem with squad rotation but you can't replace everyone in the 17 and as we've seen, player fatigue leads to more injuries and can have a significant effect on the quality of the game itself.

Have your play-off at the end of season but change the format back to what we had of top team are champions. Do top 8, simple 1v8 etc as per old premiership but teams MUST field minimum 50% of players say u23/players or those with fewer than 6 1st team appearances (just a figure I plucked). If we are to have end of season internationals then player fatigue/injury plays a huge part on how the national team/s do in these late in the season games.

Do better at International level equals more exposure, more fans and so on.

Does less TV money per club from more teams playing in SL have an impact, yes, however with more teams but fewer games overall I beleive that that can be overcome through higher overall attendance averages whilst including more teams in the top division.

oh and also scrapping immediate relegation, every two years to have P&R, and more suport for teams coming up so that they get a fair shake regards preperation for the step up. London did amazingly well and not keeping them for the following season has had such a massive negative impact on the club and further the sport as a whole.
A chance to regroup for a second season to consolidate could have seen a resurgance, it might not but we'll never know and now I feel London, or any other club that comes up wil be damaged by the drop back down after getting hammered most weeks. It's so imbalanced. But London particularly because of their circumstances, location, lack of deep rooted history (40 years at the point Fulham came about misses deeper problems regards getting a new team in one of the most diversified populations and congeste social activities areas and of course the 'sport' that dominates.

10 teams is an idea, but not one I could support, I don't think it helps the sport overall longer term to survive never mind flourish.