Welcome to your new league member

[An Tarbh]

The thing with the current format is that it suits us as we get the home and away derbies with all the teams whereas in the first few years Munster and Leinster were kept apart in the 2 divisions and given the crowds those games get there's not much chance of going back to that situation.

That's probably one of the main arguments against having a Super 14 format if the number of teams were increased.

 

[Prestwick]

Having two divisions or conferences in the ML would be illogical anyway, especially when we are (trying at least) to work towards an ad-hoc unified European league with the existing leagues as they are acting as conferences.

Sadly, in order to make European rugby competitive, you won't be able to introduce new teams. Sad but thats the fact.

 

[An Tarbh]

There's too many competitive teams in Europe for a Super league to be viable. It's a nice idea and all but we're getting as close to a permanent system with the way it is now, most likely looking at reducing the number of teams in both England and France which will take some doing.

 

[RoyalBlueStuey]

If we had the ideal conditions for the entry of one or two new teams however, Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland would be fertile territory although expect similar crowd numbers to that of say Border Reivers and expect most of them to be Students initially!

Occasional games at places like Stonehaven, Peterhead, Dundee and Inverness would be a good way of spreading the name of the team and selling it to the North East of Scotland.

The very last thing you want to do however is to just call it "Aberdeen Rugby" as that would essentially kill any support for it outside of Aberdeenshire.
[/b]

I'm sure some of that tacky Braveheart nonsense could be employed to come up with something suitable. Something along the lines of The Highland something-or-others

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

There's too many competitive teams in Europe for a Super league to be viable. It's a nice idea and all but we're getting as close to a permanent system with the way it is now, most likely looking at reducing the number of teams in both England and France which will take some doing.
[/b]

I think the big clubs might be in favour of it given certain conditions. We regularly hear how Connacht, Newport Gwent Dragons and Border Reivers aren't viable entities in the Magners League. Assume those three teams are permed from a new European Super League. Add two Italian teams to the mix and that brings the representation of those four countries up to 10. Then say for example the league is going to have 36 teams. That would allow the Top 14 and Guinness Premiership remain en bloc. Split the league into four conferences of nine teams and have conference rivals play each other twice. That's 16 games. Play two teams from each of the other conferences (once off games) and you have a 22 game regular season followed by an eight team knockout competition.

Perhaps the Conferences could look like this:

Magners Celtic Conference
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Llanelli
Cardiff
Ospreys
Leinster
Ulster
Munster
London Irish (here due to the Irish exiles connection)

Guinness Conference
Newcastle Falcons
Sale Sharks
Northampton Saints
Leicester Tigers
Gloucester
Bath
Worcester
Bristol (west country clubs kept together)
Wasps

Anglo-French Conference
Saracens
Harlequins (keeps both genuine London clubs together)
Paris Stade Francais
Clermont Auvergne
Toulouse
Brive
Montauban
Narbonne
Agen

Franco-Italian Southern Conference
Biarritz
Perpignan
Castres
Bourgoin
Bayonne
Montpellier
Albi
Treviso
Calvisano

I know it's all pie in the sky (and 99.9999999999% certainly wouldn't happen) but it could potentially draw more money than the current system. It also erases about 10 needless games from the calender (EDF Cup, GP and Top 14 playoffs along with the dead wood in the ML are gone) each season while maximising local derbies. The system placates Serge Blanco in his bid for a higher representation in the Heineken Cup (for Top 14 teams) and effectively ring fences the Premiership. If the league took off, an additional 4 teams could be added in places such as Barcelona, Madrid (with both cities now seemingly getting the backing of football clubs), a return of some of the Celtic teams cut adrift (Connacht, Dragons, Borders) in this plan, a new Italian team or a team based out of Bucharest.

The primary hurdle to overcome would be that of TV deals having to be torn up which would result in legal action.

 

[RoyalBlueStuey]

(keeps both genuine London clubs together)
[/b]

Don't Sarries play in Watford?

Can this plan not include a South West team too? If we are going down the road of franchises then Yorkshire and the South West really need to be covered.

 

[Prestwick]

Yes, the best team in the GP do indeed play in Watford

 

[RoyalBlueStuey]

Yes, the best team in the GP do indeed play in Watford
[/b]

Does that mean you qualify for Mockney status?

It was the same at the Everton v Luton game....you'd think Luton was down by the Bow bells (guvna, cor blimey)

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

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(keeps both genuine London clubs together)
[/b]

Don't Sarries play in Watford?

Can this plan not include a South West team too? If we are going down the road of franchises then Yorkshire and the South West really need to be covered.
[/b][/quote]
My apologies. So are Quins the only remaining London club? My geography of London and the south of France is hazy at best!

I'm sure there are better proposals which are more region oriented. My proposal was drawn up in less than 5 minutes. It's only one man's hurried "solution" to the current fixture build up. And, yes, Yorkshire (Leeds possibly?) and the South West (Cornish Pirates? Plymouth?) could be prime candidates for expansion or relocation of teams.

 

[Prestwick]

There's too many competitive teams in Europe for a Super league to be viable. It's a nice idea and all but we're getting as close to a permanent system with the way it is now, most likely looking at reducing the number of teams in both England and France which will take some doing.
[/b]

Oh yeah, thats true, but think about it. How did the NFL and the NHL come into being? By symbolic merging of leagues and divisions.

We already have the leagues (the GP, the ML, the French and Italian leagues) and thus the divisions. We already have a center piece cup competition: the Heineken cup!

Thus the answer is pretty easy: a four division super league with the top two teams from each league get to play in the playoffs. The winner gets the HC and wins the league!

We preserve the existing league structure, cut back number of games all the way back by removing the pointless domestic competitions and still preserve the high octane competition of the HC!

Also it'll get rid of the stupidly uncompetitive situation in the Magners League where at least one team from each of the Celtic nation gets into the HC. If this system was put in place, teams in the ML would for the first time have something to compete for other than bragging rights.

The European Challenge Cup can be downgraded for all the little teams outside of Western Europe and maybe a similar sub-super league for the Spanish, German, Romanian, Georgian and Russian teams can be set up too!

 

[An Tarbh]

It's a great idea, but do you fancy selling it to the Clubs and Unions?

 

[Prestwick]

Well that should be easy!

The Unions are too much in turmoil to notice and the clubs are too bone idle to object to anything that doesn't harm their bottom line.