www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... ml&BID=480 Hard to believe the RFL are going with the idea of a 9 team Champ 1. Also appears Toulouse will be able to apply for a franchise in 2014.

www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... ml&BID=480 Hard to believe the RFL are going with the idea of a 9 team Champ 1. Also appears Toulouse will be able to apply for a franchise in 2014.

They see their move out of the Championship as making SL more achievable, in that they will no longer have to qualify, on the pitch.

Its not rocket science is it.

RFL have announced today, that there will be ten teams in next year's Championship.



RFL question to the clubs: - What would you like next season?

Clubs' answer: - We want more home games, as we need more income.



RFL decision: - reduce number of teams from eleven to ten - i.e. LESS home games.



QED

perhaps we should just off load the bottom three clubs in champ 1 and just have one division.

And see us lose all our TV income ? , you're just a flat earth cap wearer you are

No doubt we'll play each other more than twice to make those extra games up.

Very wary of owt like that though John - who's to say those bottom three clubs are any less important than the rest of us?

then what do we do matt?.

there arn't enough clubs for two leagues,yet there are to many clubs for one league, consequently a number of clubs are suffering because of it and probably being held back.

what this statement glosses over is that there are no new entrants to Champ 1 despite a number of clubs expressing an interest. Not saying its the wrong decision in view of the Crusaders debacle....

there must be a formula somewhere which could be put into being so that each club could get an even number of home gates, this would make the play offs and grand final worth playing for as a competition, we cant survive on less home games than we have now.

And then what happens to the clubs that are excluded? We're supposed to be setting an example to Super League as to how EVERY club matters rather than the elite, but chopping three clubs in to extinction certainly wouldn't go along with that!



I think merging in to one league would be a huge mistake when you cast your mind back to some of the ridiculous scorelines in 2001 and it just wouldn't give anything for the lower clubs to play for, certainly something to think about when you consider Swinton's crowds increasing during their promotion push etc.



I think the only way to solve it would be to provide some assistance to the likes of Coventry, Bramley, Nottingham, Warrington Wizards etc so that they can be in a position to move up to C1 in the next couple of years, thus improving the base of the competition and that would then feed up to an increase in Championship clubs. I went to a Coventry Bears game earlier in the season and there were 400ish on at a fiver a head at a ground better than plenty I've been to, so it's fair to say there's certainly something to work with.



As it stands though, I don't see what would be wrong in playing each club three times, with the 'extra' home and away fixtures alternating each year.