These are some of the worst proposals to bring this great game back into relevance.
Bare with me as I explain and my personal proposal.
For me. Its simple.
3 or 4 leagues of 10 teams. 1 up 1 down.
No licencing.
1 home. 1 away fixture against each team and a magic weekend fixture determined by league position the week before magic. 1st vs 2nd. 3rd vs 4th etc.
No playoffs.
Every team enters into the challenge Cup in round 1. Yes. There is some blowout fixtures. But instead of 4 games to get to wembley. Make it 8 games to get to wembley. Make it relevant again.
Lanks and Yorkshire cup again. Knock out format with the final being Yorkshire vs Lancashire. Again. What. A maximum of 7 games. And in a way. It brings back the Yorkshire vs Lancashire cup. (Final. 2 games. Played at both teams stadium. aggregate score wins)
That in itself is a maximum of 34 games.
Give some midweek fixtures. For example. Play Thursday, Tuesday and Sunday. 3 games in 10 days. And then Play Friday or Saturday the following week. Add some variation into the mix. Challenge the players as well as well as give fans more of what we want. More rugby.
Bring in a 2nd cup for the 2nd tier and 3rd tier like the 1895 Cup to allow them the same amount of games as the superleague teams to allow there leagues to grow as a result.
It's unique. It goes back to the history of rugby league in Britain and will promote the game alot more than they are planning on for 2024 at the moment. Plus the unique aspect of the Lancashire vs Yorkshire cup being 2 legged aggregate score. That's unique in itself.
Allow for some grass routes rugby to actually happen and prosper. Which may see some actual intrest away from the m62 corridor, so we could maybe get a Leicester team. A Birmingham team. A Blackpool team. Preston team etc. Something that promotes the game. We've lost 2 Welsh teams because of lack of promotion. We lost our chance at a Scottish team when we did bugger all when we went up to murryfield. Newcastle like the game enough for us to go to St James Park each year. Let's promote the game enough to get a Newcastle team in the structure.
Increase the salary cap in line with Australia. Or reduce Australia a bit to bring into a reasonable figure with superleague. So for example. superleague and the nrl has a cap of £3.5 million. (And the equivalent in Australian money)
The 2nd tier has 2.5 million and the 3rd tier has 2 million. (Or 50% of the attendance gate is. The old rule they had in place when we couldn't spend the full salary cap in the 90s because of attendance and finances)
1 last thing. GET RID OF THE FRENCH TEAMS.
Help the French league build a league structure that benefits the whole game and do the same in canada/America. Then maybe we can have a proper world club champions league or something.
Maybe it's time the whole of rugby league. Not just superleague can actually get together. Allow the IRF to unify every league for the nrl and rfl and French rugby federation to go run the leagues in a way which promotes the game properly. And gives the best competition for the world cup to thrive and allow other nations to get involved and grow there national teams as well. (Because. Let's be honnest. Its a Australia vs New Zealand final.)
The game is dying as it is and we need a major change from everyone. Not just superleague. But the IRF. NRL. RFL FRF and others to bring te game back into the spotlight it deserves.
Now. How much of this we can actually genuinely achieve is horse poo. But if people are actually serious about the game and bringing things back into relevance. Things need to change. From the grass routes all the way up to international level. The NRL could survive without the rest of the world. Superleague needs a kick to just make the sport relevant again. Because we are being left behind by football. Cricket. Rugby Union. All the women's games of the same sports mentioned above.
Rugby league at this moment is the 7th sport in England at his moment.
It's either that. Or I fear we will be amateur again within 25 years and dead as a sport within 50.
