Re: IMG Announce Proposed Criteria for Super League 2025 : Thu Jul 06, 2023 9:44 am
The Phantom Horseman wrote:
Just to expand the subject of scoring categories.
Aaron Bower has written an article about the catchment area process and scoring - it's at thirteenrugby.com but behind a paywall.
He explains that the catchment area population for each club is reached by dividing the Local Authority District population for each club and dividing it by the number of SL/Championship clubs in that area.
So the Office for National Satistics figure for the Wakefield area according to Bower is 353,300 which, dividing by 3, means Wakefield, Castleford and Featherstone will all have a "population score" of 117,767.
Bradford meanwhile have an ONS figure of 546,400 and as they share the District with Keighley that has to be divided by 2, meaning Bradford (and Keighley) have a "population score" of 273,200.
Now to the interesting bit. Every club will score either 1.5 points, 1 point or 0.5 points for this sector.
And the threshold to score 1.5 points has been set at 260,000, with the threshold for 1 point set at 130,000. So Bradford will edge into the maximum 1.5 points, and Wakefield, Cas and Fev get the minimum 0.5 points.
Putting my tin helmet on here, but I'd be very interested to know how they reached those seemingly-arbitrary figures of 260,000 and 130,000. Why not 300,000 and 150,000, or 200,000 and 100,000? I hope the management at Wakefield, Castleford and Featherstone are talking to each other about this.
Aaron Bower has written an article about the catchment area process and scoring - it's at thirteenrugby.com but behind a paywall.
He explains that the catchment area population for each club is reached by dividing the Local Authority District population for each club and dividing it by the number of SL/Championship clubs in that area.
So the Office for National Satistics figure for the Wakefield area according to Bower is 353,300 which, dividing by 3, means Wakefield, Castleford and Featherstone will all have a "population score" of 117,767.
Bradford meanwhile have an ONS figure of 546,400 and as they share the District with Keighley that has to be divided by 2, meaning Bradford (and Keighley) have a "population score" of 273,200.
Now to the interesting bit. Every club will score either 1.5 points, 1 point or 0.5 points for this sector.
And the threshold to score 1.5 points has been set at 260,000, with the threshold for 1 point set at 130,000. So Bradford will edge into the maximum 1.5 points, and Wakefield, Cas and Fev get the minimum 0.5 points.
Putting my tin helmet on here, but I'd be very interested to know how they reached those seemingly-arbitrary figures of 260,000 and 130,000. Why not 300,000 and 150,000, or 200,000 and 100,000? I hope the management at Wakefield, Castleford and Featherstone are talking to each other about this.
Have to say one whole point lost for that potentially (and something not in the clubs control to change) is quite a penalty if it proves to be that the clubs will be weighted against each other.
If they are judged against other clubs might be unfair on some level. If it’s against criteria then it’s a bit harsh too on something that can’t be influenced by clubs but means they could have to score higher in other areas to make up an A license. Again probably not fair either. Perhaps the points allocated for this section should be significantly less.
