TRP

[Neils]

Report that new RFU/Club agreement for season after next will inc a 10 club league.

[WonkyWasp]

That many??  (Sarcasm)

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Will they be able to find that many sugar daddies?

[Wombles]

For this to work you are going to need a thriving Championship at the very least. The Premiership cup is as good as dead so having the younger players develop and gain experience well (and I mean well) away from any interest when the internationals are being played at least gives it some albeit limited value, although I would have the A league back over the cup. Unless we were to develop a UK wide F.A cup style event, which could inspire more interest?

For revenue though focus on the Premiership will still ultimately fail if promotion and relegation is not enshrined, the fallacy of stopping promotion and relegation should never be repeated. Also I think income through tv & advertising revenue would be maximised if the Championship has thorough televised coverage as a package deal, something very much akin to what we get with prem rugby. If the focus remains on the top league only as we have done to date, no amount or manner of changes can save our game.

[WonkyWasp]

Surely if relegation and promotion cease  to exist it will result in fossilization. won't it? 

[NellyWellyWaspy]

10 teams for next season means one has to go. Maybe the much laughed at merger between Falcons and Sharks (plus on Yorkshire club) is going to happen, and soon? The leadership at Falcons seem to want it.

If it does, what then happens if the 'American' buyers that Mick Crossan has lined up to take over Irish do not do so? That might also spell the end of Irish. A 9 team league anyone? Maybe the RFU are looking to appoint a new member to head the board? Anyone play a fiddle?

Maybe they could get Status Quo to headline at Twickenham, they could play, 'Down, down, deeper and down.'

[Shugs]

How can they possibly agree a 10 team league when they have 11 teams and no relegation. 10 team prem = the end of prem rugby.

[Robson9]

For this to work you are going to need a thriving Championship at the very least.

Which simply doesn't exist with the lack of funding, lack of interest from sponsors and tv companies, and general all round dismissal from the rfu.

[Heathen]

Armageddon beckons IMHO for professional club rugby in England.

The only way forward, as I see it is to go to the models that Ireland for years and Scotland, more recently, have adopted.

North, South, Central and West for example. To play in a UK and IRL comprtition.

[JF]

If clubs are going to the wall in a 13-team league, how can a 10-team league be more financially viable?

Can these people not do basic arithmetic?

[Neils]

If clubs are going to the wall in a 13-team league, how can a 10-team league be more financially viable?

Can these people not do basic arithmetic?

No

[Wombles]

For this to work you are going to need a thriving Championship at the very least.

Which simply doesn't exist with the lack of funding, lack of interest from sponsors and tv companies, and general all round dismissal from the rfu.

And if the RFU and all stakeholders don?t change this it could well be the torpedo that ultimately sinks the Premiership and professional rugby as we know it in England.

[westwaleswasp]

It might end the club system. If we regionalise into 4, 5 or 6 regions, centrally funded and joined the URC or similar pro rugby would continue. Sarries or whoever can join the French system. 

[Skippy]

The idea of a ten team league seems to be based entirely on what a few owners have decided is good for the game, without a moment?s thought for the fans.

In truth, what we have is the very essence of a producer-lead service where the owners? invisible hands are acting in their own self-interest, what ever they claim to the contrary.

As the likes of British Leyland have demonstrated down the years, such businesses shed customers ? if they ever had them ? become even more of a basket case and even harder to turnaround.

The ten team league is on a par with the Morris Marina. And, like a car that is more aerodynamic going backwards, it is almost certainly doomed before it gets to market.

[Garuda]

I though PRL clubs were bemoaning the fact that they'd lost out on large sums of money due to two lost home fixtures this season? Now the PRL wants to ensure even fewer fixtures and even bigger losses. Beggars belief really.