Two-tier Super League?

[markill]

Fiddling with the league structure is missing the point anyway.

It won't bring in any more money. Until they stop messing about with altering the play off structure or league format or whatever and instead start to look at the commercial side of things nothing will change much for the better.

It's all about money and so any gathering of SL bosses and the RFL should have one thing alone on the agenda - how to get more money into the game.

I agree, unless they could find a different structure that will bring in more money. One issue is the fans directly bring in a high proportion of money to our game here, and so many fans want promotion / relegation back because they don't really understands it's problems and pitfalls - like the gap in finances you've mentioned and massive cap differences, and that it actually brings very few new players into the league anyway because relegated players are just recycled and any quality talent will find its way without promotion.

It's not so much the structure of the competition that is the problem as much as the way its all dealt with commercially. A salary cap is good for competition but without greater commercial/financial interdepedence between clubs it'll never really change things enough and we'll see the problem we have of the league stagnating and the best players being attracted to other leagues/sports where there is more money. My answer, as I've said before, would be to cut championship clubs adrift and force mergers between clubs that aren't strong enough alone.

We need to find a way to get a bigger slice of the Aussie RL dollar to SL clubs without it just meaning we sell our players to them. I don't know how its going to happen, an expanded World Club Challenge could help, but I doubt how much demand there is for that in Aus if Leneghan is saying that basically its only viable to play a Syndey club in a WCC over there.

[Mike]

It's all about money and so any gathering of SL bosses and the RFL should have one thing alone on the agenda - how to get more money into the game.

Unfortunately, the agenda is always "how to get more money into my club"

[DaveO]

It's all about money and so any gathering of SL bosses and the RFL should have one thing alone on the agenda - how to get more money into the game.

Unfortunately, the agenda is always "how to get more money into my club"

They don't even do that very well.

In any case there is only so much money a club can generate off its own bat. Even as well a supported one such as Wigan. Clubs only have a certain commercial value to sponsors and so on.

As was discussed in another thread the sport ought to be able to sell itself for more than it does to TV if RU's example is to go by. Get that sort of cash influx and you could have a two-tier SL or some sort of conference format with more teams involved if that was deemed something to broaden the appeal of the game.

You could also support another French side which is rumoured to be IL's bright idea.

I think its a catch 22 situation though. The cash is needed to broaden the sports appeal but no one wants to give the sport the cash because it's a regional sport. I am over simplifying but you get the point. The sport seems stuck on a low income trajectory and the RFL must take a lot of the blame for that IMO.

[medlocke]

The cash is needed to broaden the sports appeal but no one wants to give the sport the cash because it's a regional sport. IMO.

I was sat thinking about how the RFL could promote the game to a wider audience, then i tried to think of all the celebrity fans out there so i googled celebrity british rugby league fans and was surprised to find we had a lot more famous fans than i thought, why can't the RFL come up with a big promotion/advertisement campaign using many of these celebs, surely kids and adults could be enticed into watching then even attending a few games after seeing their favourite Footballer, Actor, Musician dressed in their favourite clubs shirt talking about how great this game is, imagine such ads on tv during Corrie, Wednesday night Football games etc, surely if done right we could raise the profile of the game and gain new fans and maybe even some much needed investment into the sport.

[ian.birchall]

With Leeds being Grand Final winners in 5 out of the last 6 years an unbiased observer might think we have one already!!

[Ron Doran]

medlocke - to save me Googling who were these famous supporters?

[medlocke]

Ricky Tomlinson, Sir Bobby Charlton, Ricky Hatton, Eddy Irvine, Jenson Button, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Roy Keene, Rio Ferdinand, Bradley Wiggins, Eric from Brush Strokes, Johnny Vegas, Michael Parkinson, Angela Griffin, Vic Reeves, Chris Moyles, Alan Halsall, Andrew Flintoff, John Malkovich, Vin Diesel, Johnny Depp, Malandra Burrows, Ryan Sidebottom, Michelle Keegan, Helen Flanagan and more

[Ron Doran]

medlocke - Thanks for that. I am truly impressed.

[butt monkey]

Ricky Tomlinson, Sir Bobby Charlton, Ricky Hatton, Eddy Irvine, Jenson Button, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Roy Keene, Rio Ferdinand, Bradley Wiggins, Eric from Brush Strokes, Johnny Vegas, Michael Parkinson, Angela Griffin, Vic Reeves, Chris Moyles, Alan Halsall, Andrew Flintoff, John Malkovich, Vin Diesel, Johnny Depp, Malandra Burrows, Ryan Sidebottom, Michelle Keegan, Helen Flanagan and more

You can add Michael J Fox to that list. I remember an interview he had on the David Letterman show just after he had made the film "The Frighteners" directed by Kiwi Peter Jackson (of the Lord of the Rings fame amongst other films). The film was made in New Zealand and during that time he had been taken by the cast and crew, to some New Zealand Warriors (as was) matches and become hooked. A clip was shown of him with some Maoris performing a haka for him

[medlocke]

Ricky Tomlinson, Sir Bobby Charlton, Ricky Hatton, Eddy Irvine, Jenson Button, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Roy Keene, Rio Ferdinand, Bradley Wiggins, Eric from Brush Strokes, Johnny Vegas, Michael Parkinson, Angela Griffin, Vic Reeves, Chris Moyles, Alan Halsall, Andrew Flintoff, John Malkovich, Vin Diesel, Johnny Depp, Malandra Burrows, Ryan Sidebottom, Michelle Keegan, Helen Flanagan and more

You can add Michael J Fox to that list. I remember an interview he had on the David Letterman show just after he had made the film "The Frighteners" directed by Kiwi Peter Jackson (of the Lord of the Rings fame amongst other films). The film was made in New Zealand and during that time he had been taken by the cast and crew, to some New Zealand Warriors (as was) matches and become hooked. A clip was shown of him with some Maoris performing a haka for him

never new that like, not a bad film either lol, i'm not sure but i think i read somewhere online while back that Kevin Costner was also a fan, though i could be imagining that one, there is definetly the celebrity fan base out there that could help us promote the game at a higher level than it's getting now, i just don't know why the buffoons at the RFL haven't twigged to it yet