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Premiership Rugby / Premiership Cup
TRP story - Plans for huge Prem and Championship shake up.
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<blockquote data-quote="higgik" data-source="post: 830552" data-attributes="member: 74704"><p><strong>Start professional rugby again in UK & Ireland</strong></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Part of the plan is to stop the June test series and combine with an international season in Sept-end Oct.</p><p></p><p>The new pro league would start in November and run for 17 weeks, followed by 5 weeks of play offs.</p><p>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)</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Euro rugby cup would be a summer event played in a similar format to current RWC.</p><p></p><p>Now for the detail</p><p>2 conferences of 14 teams playing a 16-game regular season followed by 4 knockout rounds over 5 weeks.</p><p>Celtic Conference</p><p>Eire Division. Cymru Division. Alba Division</p><p>Connacht Eagles. Cardiff BlueDevils. Cornish Pirates</p><p>Munster. Glamorgan Ospreys. Edinburgh</p><p>Leinster. Gwent Steelers. Glasgow Warriors</p><p>London Irish. London Welsh. London Scottish</p><p>Ulster. Western Dragons</p><p></p><p>Anglo Conference</p><p>South Division. Midland Division. North Division</p><p>Saracens. Wasps. Newcastle</p><p>Harlequins. Northampton. Sale</p><p>Exeter. Leicester. Yorkshire</p><p>Bath. Worcester. South Yorkshire (Doncaster)</p><p>Bristol. Gloucester</p><p></p><p>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).</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>By having fewer matches the quality would go up, as international players would not be absent for large parts of the season.</p><p></p><p>There could also be a pre-season during the international season, for fringe and trial players to show promise.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="higgik, post: 830552, member: 74704"] [b]Start professional rugby again in UK & Ireland[/b] 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. [/QUOTE]
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TRP story - Plans for huge Prem and Championship shake up.
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