I'm a traditionalist and I like the relegation and promotion situation in principle every time. Everyone, be they supporting Rochdale, Swinton Saints or Keighley have the right to dream and a means of going places ....one day. That's the idealistic romantic scenario but in practise these days it just isn't working. It has been proved that unless you have a millionaire backer who throws money at the club like Leigh, then, the set up is just too challenging for a promoted club to survive and indeed flourish. So big is the gulf between Super league and the rest.
Its sad to say but I think that a franchising scheme would benefit the game at least in the next decade or so, in that more teams would have more time to develop and introduce their young players and although not pulling up the drawbridge completely the making of a broad criteria across performances on the field as well as supporter size, stadium , community involvement and youth development etc would work best. Something that IMG and the majority of the Clubs seem to agree on too. With always the caveat that promotion is possible with teams not making the grade across those fronts demoted in favour of Championship Clubs who do.
For years developing our own players has been hailed as the way to save the British game, but as a sport we do everything we can, with our structure, to detract from that aim. Wakey and Castleford have quite a successful academy and reserve set top this year but with the ridiculous panic buying both clubs have entered into of late what chance have those lads to get a shot at Super league? Who can see either club when relegated being able to afford to run the same level of junior teams anyway?
The set up with only 12 clubs in the competition is just too volatile with just too much jeopody and, with insufficient funds to support a club once they go down and 'super league contracts' that make all players at demoted clubs free agents (and with this year the longer term implications of the IMG scenario to consider as well), panic has set in at the two bottom clubs. The panic buying of any available options and the immediate sacking of a good young coach who was only recently appointed and vainly trying to rebuild an aging team at Cas, is indicative of this state of affairs.
For me This can't be good for the game. As has been said, the quality of Super league is going backwards anyway and we are in essence now becoming the feeder Clubs for the NRL (or somewhere to send their players to develop before they return down under) or a retirement home and final paycheck for their knacked ones. That said this year the competitive playing field of top clubs and also rans in Super League has levelled somewhat (possibly downwards rather than upwards) and at least on any given weekend in 2023 any British Super league club can beat another. Something the game has long needed.
Although it is great for all of us outside the bottom two to watch the high drama of two clubs battling it out to avoid possible oblivion, its hardly good for the game, because as I said earlier the penalties of relegation are just too great for most clubs to bare or at least to give a reasonable chance of getting up again. The only way out of that is to develop our own players in an environment that allows them to flourish (or otherwise) in a stable league system. Our own owner has publicly said (and in fact told me himself) that where we to finish bottom it could have well been the end of the Club. Scare mongering? Well maybe, but with an owner with limited resources, massive debts to repay to the Government covid support fund, a stipulated renegotiating of our lease at The Stadium if we go down, and the removal of most of the TV support, its certainly got some credibility. And we won't be on our own on that one. It will be interesting in fact to see just what happens to the demoted Club this year!!!!
This is however a very subjective issue and I know everyone has a different view but I do think a lot of us agree that this IMG stuff is probably the British games last chance to survive in its present form and too hopefully flourish again, and I guess we have to support it because it is the only way I think that we will get the TV deal we need to survive as a professional game and to try and rebuild again.
