[urlhttps://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/5610037/super-league-may-be-cut-to-10-teams-under-controversial-two-tier-plan/[/url


Or are these the Lazy Journalists that GH was talking about?
[urlhttps://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/rugby-league-news/super-league-expansion-leeds-rhinos-1200855[/url

What a load of rubbish the 2 x 10 is. It is a deceptive way of reconstituting the Super League and the Championship, with not enough places in the top level for all the much needed expansion teams that are rising up.

We need a 14 team Super League, that includes Catalans, Toronto Toulouse and London, with the option of expanding to 16 if New York and another north American or French team become viable enterprises.

Beneath that you can have a successful Championship with the likes of Leigh, Salford, Widnes, Wakefield, Featherstone, Halifax, Sheffield.

The ideal Super League from 2021 on needs 14 or 16 clubs, to consist of only strongly supported clubs and strategically vital clubs:

[iWigan,
St. Helens
Warrington
Leeds,
Bradford,
Hull FC,
Hull KR,
Huddersfield,
Castleford,
London

Catalans
Toulouse

Toronto
New York

Montreal
Boston[/i

If either the French or north American teams are successful on and of the field, then we should consider adding[i Avignon[/i and [iParis[/i in the French case, and two out of [iChicago, Philadelphia[/i and[i Jacksonville[/i in the north American case. That would then constitute a truly international Super League that would overwhelm the NRL in its significance.

The depressing part of the whole article is that all the funding will go to the 20 clubs.

So all the hard work that has gone into league 1 clubs, will mean nothing. All the spreading the word in Newcastle, London Skolars, Coventry, the keeping clubs like Hunslet, Keighley going after the RFL screwed them over with regards promotion to SL. Will mean nothing because they're aren't going to get benefactors and will struggle to get the finances required to keep them going.

Why are we so keen to kill the heartlands? Destroy clubs with proud histories? Narrow our appeal even more?
Just for the sake of pure money grabbing by chairmen, and on an expansion system that may or may not work.

The fact is that, when it comes to marketing, the game is in the 4th division and has been for a long time (e.g. when the whole super league was set up there was no money held back to market the game and no targets for clubs to expand). As a result there is now not enough money in the game and, as a professional sport, it is now in the doldrums. I don’t know how to fix it but the next 2 seasons may well be the make or break period for the game. We might see the major clubs might either break away or join the NRL as a second tier competition with promotion/relegation opportunities.

I would like to see expansion towards the west coast of America also. Do you think this is feasible and achievable?

Regards

King James

It's a no-brainer.... It's guaranteed.
Santa Monica Maulers.

why dont you get a team on the moon as well.

If they are the teams which will be the future of RL then there is a clear 2 division split (east west of whatever they want to call it).

Surely that would be Sizzling Santa Monica Maulers.

Eh? Did you read it through properly?

Under these apparent proposals, P&R isn't being scrapped, there'll still be P&R between SL2 and the 3rd Tier, providing certain criteria are met, so any of the clubs you mentioned can still aspire to SL, as well as the sport attracting outside investment. Nobody is destroying anything, L1 only get about £50k as it is - if a club can't make up a £50k annual revenue shortfall, do we really need em?

It's fair to assume the 20 clubs will consist of Toulouse, Catalans, Toronto & NY. 20% are 'expansion' clubs.

One step at a time, shadrack. The Mars RL team, backed by a silicon valley tech trillionaire, are first in the queue and could be competing in a 6 team Super league by as early as 2029.

It always amazes me how easily Jean can derail a thread, fair play