No championship promotion.

[Shugs]

No promotion from the championship at the end of 22-23. Apparently a 14 team league would have been welcomed but neither Doncaster nor Ealing (the only two to register) do not have sufficient capacity (need 10,001 and only have 5,000). A shame - I’d have liked a 14 team league.

[hookender]

Seems to be that they need to be the minimum size in order to get a particular , or be subject to , safety licence or authority re public stadiums. Does this mean that these smaller grounds and are unsafe? Ridiculous.

 The two clubs must have submitted a proposal that indicated they could afford to compete on a par with the rest of the Premiership for a prior of time at least, otherwise surely they would have been rejected on a financial basis. Or would saying this leave Premiership clubs open to counter criticism of their own finances?

[Neils]

Bear in mind that this season the EAs pit is significantly lower than 10K due to the new stand construction (and when finished will only add about 500 extra).

[InBetweenWasp]

Non-sensical and short-sighted rules by the RFU/PRL (Is this an RFU or PRL condition?).  If there wasn’t enough financial pressure on these Clubs if/when/should they get promoted on playing squads, salaries and the additional staff and travel overheads that go with it, then surely the financial burden on a Club either having to build additional seating or rent at a football stadia must be the straw that breaks the camels back.

There’s a big push on making PRL clubs financially sustainable - this goes completely against it.

[Peej]

The whole point of rigging the draw in favour of Sarries being re-admitted was to balance it out at the next opportunity. Which they have now kyboshed because the teams that would apply don't meet the standards? Surely they knew this last season?

So what now? Back to relegation and a return to a 12-team Premiership? I think that would be a good idea

[Neils]

The whole point of rigging the draw in favour of Sarries being re-admitted was to balance it out at the next opportunity. Which they have now kyboshed because the teams that would apply don't meet the standards? Surely they knew this last season?

So what now? Back to relegation and a return to a 12-team Premiership? I think that would be a good idea

Final point - totally agree.

[MarleyWasp]

Doncaster appealing: https://www.drfc.co.uk/doncaster-knights-statement-on-rfu-minimum-standards-findings/

[DGP Wasp]

So what now? Back to relegation and a return to a 12-team Premiership? I think that would be a good idea

Should have kept it at a 12 team league a year ago and made Sarries sit out for another season.  The logical extension of suspending relegation from the Premiership due to the lottery of points awarded for COVID cancellations was to suspend promotion into the Premiership.  It's what they would have done if the Championship winners had been anyone other than Sarries.

[Shugs]

Purely selfishly I’d like to stick with 13 or move to 14 - just because you get to enjoy more games.

[DGP Wasp]

Purely selfishly I’d like to stick with 13 or move to 14 - just because you get to enjoy more games.

12 or 14 for me.  13 with teams getting arbitrary weeks off is an unsatisfactory solution that was supposed to be for 1 season, officially to bridge the league from 12 to 14, but in reality was a means to allow Sarries back in at the earliest opportunity.

I wish Doncaster well with their appeal.  They would be a welcome addition to the Premiership, adding to the league's geographical reach, rather than diluting it in an already saturated area.  I have nothing at all against Ealing, and certainly not against promotion on merit, but the last thing the Premiership needs is another club in west London.

The purely selfish view from me is that Jersey should be promoted, and that Wasps' away trip there should always be very late in the season.

[Rossm]

Excellent tweet from Ryan Mills:

Poor Poor decision…🤦🏼‍♂️

Many reasons to argue for and against a promotion etc. But a 10k seater stadium surely not one of them ? 🤷🏼‍♂️

6/13 teams haven’t averaged 10k fans this year. With 4 of them not even achieving 10k once !
And between those 6 teams. They have 14 Prem Titles !