TRP story - Plans for huge Prem and Championship shake up.

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

So according to the rugby paper.

Prem rugby could assume control of the championship to overhaul the top two tiers in English rugby.
The idea is:
- The championship clubs who have no interest in promotion will be encouraged to buddy up with a Prem club to allow them to be able to get 12 senior prem players on loan and by number of Academy players on loan.
- The A League will be scrapped
- buddy up clubs will not be eligible for promotion but those who are not in a buddy up setup are.
- championship clubs will have to state intentions before the season starts and that non buddy teams are only allowed 4 loan players in total.
- Believed playoffs will be stopped and a first past the post system implemented with Prem paying 1.7 million in compensation to champ clubs.
- the idea is that smaller championship teams (such as Nottingham, Jersey and Rotherham) will not have to worry as much about player costs and instead focus money on infrastructure and development etc.
- and it allows more ambitious teams such as Yorkshire, Doncaster and Pirates a route to the top still.
- It also allows the Prem to get rid of the **** poor A league and sort out the issue of game time for younger players.
- the system is also being looked at implemented with some Nat 1 teams like Cov and Plymouth etc.

So I guess using Tigers and Nottingham as an example Tigers could in theory loan out our senior development players aswell as our 3rd/4th choice players not playing to Nottingham who in turn will not have to worry about paying those wages of players.


Not sold on it but could work.

Something needs to happen to stop champ going bankrupt and sorting out the **** poor A league.

 

[j'nuh]

I don't think it's going to work. The whole point of having a large squad is to deal with the attrition of the season. Clubs have big squads because they need them, they'd save themselves the money otherwise. As soon as there's an injury crisis at a club, they'll start recalling the players from their buddy team, shafting themselves (by having players that haven't been training with the squad) and shafting their buddy (by shifting the injury crisis).

 

[Peat]

Works in the NHL. Since everyone's shafted by the injuries, it all comes out in the wash. Obviously you get a lot more practices there, which helps, and less competitions against other leagues, where you might get exposed, so not a guarantee, but the basic principle is sound.

And the Championship is shafted without this. London Welsh are going to the wall. Think Jersey is in financial trouble. Bedford Blues budget for a loss that's made up by generous folk. Yorkshire rugby in general is dependent on a number of men with deep pockets. And Richmond is totally amateur iirc. The Championship is not a financially sustainable model. This would go a long way towards helping that. Having to ride out more injury storms than usual is a small price to pay.

Something like this will happen sooner or later. The Championship *needs* financial relief. The Premiership clubs need a better youth development system. Maybe this is not the right model but it is logically overwhelming for the Premiership to hand money to the Championship in return for that league acting as more of a feeder league.

The main problem I've got is if some clubs will be rejecting the buddy system in their bid to return, not every Premiership club gets one.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Sounds like a complete dog's dinner to me.

Much though I hate the idea, I think the reality is that the prem will have to be ringfenced at some point. Feels like there needs to be a clear delineation between the pro game and the rest otherwise you're going to keep seeing good traditional clubs in trouble.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Sounds brilliant, can't wait for my beloved saints to be a feeder club for either wasps or tigers.

That's all we're good for now

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sounds interesting,
I definitely think a shake up is needed, not sure if this is the right way to go about it but it's good they're thinking about something.

 

[welshglory]

It seems like the only way to get something done. The RFU doesn't want to increase funding on a lost cause and the premiership can't pass the vote for ring fencing the league. Not the ideal solution but the only one which can realistically be implemented.

The NHL and Minor league baseball system they have in America are good comparisons as well as the NRL.

 

[Peat]

And, to be fair, ring fencing the league only solves the problem of people overspending vastly to make it there. There's still the issue of giving kids a path to the top, which the current A League/Championship isn't doing great, and I can't see enforcing strict amateurism on our second tier of rugby.

There's a lot about this proposal I don't like on second thoughts but Olyy hits it when he says something has to happen. Better to start somewhere than wait for perfection.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Agree with that Olyy...

Any indication of expansion of the Prem?

 

[Zootalaws]

So it has nothing to do with making more money for those holding the keys? OK.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Don't think the championship clubs will be making that much money for the PRL if this happens.

Rugby outside the prem is t a big market.

 

[Zootalaws]

Don't think the championship clubs will be making that much money for the PRL if this happens.

Rugby outside the prem is t a big market.

But that's probably the reason for the change - moar £££

or do you think it's for the betterment of the game?

 

[higgik]

Start professional rugby again in UK & Ireland

If not careful pro rugby will follow the same route as pro football, with a few clubs supported by deep pocketed individuals and the rest going to the wall trying to keep up.

My plan would be to have a joint venture between PRL, RFU, WRU, IRFU, SRU and players union, to create a 28 team championship with strict revenue sharing, salary caps etc. Following the NFL style, in order to create a much more level playing field, hence more entertaining matches.

Part of the plan is to stop the June test series and combine with an international season in Sept-end Oct.

The new pro league would start in November and run for 17 weeks, followed by 5 weeks of play offs.
This shorter season would benefit players, but also the league, as having fewer matches would bring in better crowds overall, as tickets would be more difficult to get. Other things could be done with tickets, such as bringing in min season tickets, where you could only buy tickets for a set of matches, ( e.g. Sarries would be guaranteed big crowds v Harlequins, but a smaller crowd v Sale, so the two matches would be ticketed together)

The 6N would be shortened to 6 weeks and run from end of club rugby or even be more radical and move to August, before international season.

Euro rugby cup would be a summer event played in a similar format to current RWC.

Now for the detail
2 conferences of 14 teams playing a 16-game regular season followed by 4 knockout rounds over 5 weeks.
Celtic Conference
Eire Division. Cymru Division. Alba Division
Connacht Eagles. Cardiff BlueDevils. Cornish Pirates
Munster. Glamorgan Ospreys. Edinburgh
Leinster. Gwent Steelers. Glasgow Warriors
London Irish. London Welsh. London Scottish
Ulster. Western Dragons

Anglo Conference
South Division. Midland Division. North Division
Saracens. Wasps. Newcastle
Harlequins. Northampton. Sale
Exeter. Leicester. Yorkshire
Bath. Worcester. South Yorkshire (Doncaster)
Bristol. Gloucester

The fixtures would be based on the NFL structure with home and away division games, four intra-conference matchups based on previous year's finish within a division, and four inter-conference games based on pairing up divisions from each conference on a rotating basis. The four-team divisions would make up the two game shortfall in division play by playing both of the fifth place finishers within the conference. The fifth place finishers play their division opponents (8 games), all of the teams from the four team division within their conference (4 games), each of the fifth place finishers from the opposite conference once (2 games), and the other fifth place finisher from the same conference in a home and away series (2 games).

The top four finishers in each division play an intra-conference schedule based on previous year's finish. The teams that finished 1st and 4th in a division played the other 1st and 4th place finishers in the other two divisions in intra-conference play. The 2nd and 3rd place finishers played each other. For inter-conference play, the top 4 finishers from a division would play one of the three divisions from the other conference each year, on a rotating basis.

The playoffs include the division winners, plus two wildcard teams in each conference (the two best non-division winners, regardless of division affiliation), who would meet in the wildcard round. The winner advances to the divisional round, to face the highest seeded team. The third-best (lowest seeded) division winner plays at the remaining division winner in the other semifinal. This system would ensure 1 team from each nation would qualify for the play-offs.

The winners of each semi-final would play the conference final at a pre designated venue, then there would be a weeks break before the Super Final between the winners of each conference.

By having fewer matches the quality would go up, as international players would not be absent for large parts of the season.

There could also be a pre-season during the international season, for fringe and trial players to show promise.