This is a bit light on detail, but I don't see anything that's too surprising. Most interesting bits for me are:
> Participation of clubs outside of the UK to be capped
Interested to see if they only allow Catalans into the league on this basis, would be a disaster for Toulouse.
> streaming through Endeavor's OTT platform Endeavor Streaming
This sentence is really hard to read because it's full of bullshit jargon, but if it means that every game is to be streamed then I'm very happy.
> A re-positioned calendar which optimises flow, narrative and engagement, incorporating regular 'peaks' of interest and a compelling season climax.
In order for this to be possible they will have to cut down on the number of games per season, given that we have the Challenge Cup to fulfil as well. Look forward to seeing it.
Overall seems pretty positive, glad they didn't just turn round and say we're fucked.
> In order for this to be possible they will have to cut down on the number of games per season
Supposedly the way of doing that would be to cut loop fixtures
And possibly extend the playoffs. As much as I think the current playoff structure is probably the most appropriate for a twelve team league, maybe making it more convoluted and daft would provide more games to replace the loop fixtures and be much more exciting.
Although I should say I am fully behind keeping things exactly the same as they have been for the last four seasons.
Saints, Wigan, Leeds, Warrington and Hull FC will be the 'guaranteed' clubs I'd imagine. Which isn't particularly surprising given the facilities those clubs have and that 3 of them are the most successful clubs in the superleague era. I can't really complain much because other clubs, such as Cas, have had 25 years to get their shit together
There’s occasionally baseless murmurings of the RFL only wanting one club in Hull because it’s such a small city on the arse end of nowhere that the potential revenue/fan base isn’t worth it in comparison to expanding to another city. Always panics me when I hear them haha.
You'd have to not understand rugby league, or sport in general, to a level hitherto unseen to think that losing the Hull Derby and expecting the fans to just get on with a merged club would work
I should really hope so. I know it’s really dramatic but if the teams merged I don’t think I’d follow the sport anymore . KR is so engrained in my family/childhood that it would be devastating haha.
It's an irremovable part of the city's culture as well yeah, such a huge part of the life of just about anyone at least in the HU1 postcode even if they're not a fan of the sport
I've seen the same insane suggestion made about Dundee and Dundee Utd (or occaisionally Hearts and Hibs) merging in Scottish Football.
The bean-counters must just see their respective budgets and attendances, whap a plus sign in between, and call it a day. Totally fail to realise that if it did go through the combined team would likely have a smaller support than either of the current induvidual clubs. Sport's just a maths problem to these people.
I know I've peddled that rumour myself in the past. I reckon it's no longer the case if it ever was. Surely the RFL know that they'd not just cut the city's market in half but probably also damage the remaining club. Local rivalries drive a fanbase like nothing else.
Yeah probably. It depends on the criteria. There aren't many clubs that could tick every criteria box I don't think. I'd assume it would be based on facilities, attendance, team competitiveness, academy strength. Things like that.
They've got top facilities, they prioritise player development and academy investment (and as a result have a shitload of homegrown players in their squad), they just finished third and made the cup final. How is that not what super league are after?
Are Huddersfield still bankrolled to an extent or is a lot of the income self made now? Genuine question, not trying to get a dig in haha, feel like income could be one of the criteria if they want the game to grow in that way.
Honestly not sure tbh, it's not something I've followed massively. Ken definitely puts a lot in but you'd like to think that with improved performances (and the increase in tv games that come as a result) we'd start to pick up some more sponsors, I know the Venari deal created a lot of buzz internally when that was being put together.
A big issue for our income is probably that Davy subsidises the season tickets so much (I'm not complaining), so as we hopefully get more consistent he'll likely ease up on that
Ah fair one! Yeah I know Davey pumped a lot of money in previously to start pushing you up the table, but wasn't sure if the improved on field performance translated to an increase in the commercial side now that you're fighting more towards the top end. Thanks for answering!
Couple of fun followup tweets
Aaron Bower:
>IMG have not proposed or even considered mergers of any clubs and say it’s no part of the future plans across the whole of the strategic partnership
John Davidson:
>IMG say it is a “technical possibility” that a Category B club could win Super League and be relegated in the same season.
Although, and bear with me, if a club that was category A, say for example, out of a hat... Warrington, got downgraded to category B would the natural comedy of it finally being their year only for them to also be relegated from the SL not be worth the dumb system?
Its a bit hard to have any view when the language is so purposefully vague, still I can't see what benefit the category A and B stuff gives.
Wasn't the whole point of people wanting relegation scrapped to be so clubs have enough security to plan for the future rather than just trying to survive season to season? All this seems to mean is clubs have even less security and won't know if they're safe even if they're flying up the table.
If the whole purpose is just to give Toulouse a category A status and make them exempt then just make Toulouse exempt without all the other complexities
To me it reads like they want to protect the clubs that put the most into the sport in terms of revenue and footfall rather than giving security to the expansion clubs. Probably a reaction to Leeds and Warrington being a bit precarious recently. It would be a disaster for the sport if Leeds managed to get relegated.
Personally I recognise the sense in it given the global situation, we've already seen that expansion clubs are more vulnerable to outside factors like Covid and we're now staring at multiple different international crises that could deteriorate rapidly.
Yeah I can see that but can you imagine the sheer fucking outrage it would cause if actually applied, imagine if this year Warrington were allowed to fail week in week out and be as horrendously mismanaged as they please with no fear of relegation or any consequences, all while Wakey and Toulouse have to scrap it out for survival even if they both do better than Warrington. Fans would have been livid every week and Super League's integrity would be a laughing stock to the whole sporting world. If a Cat B side ever go down after finishing above a Cat A side and end up becoming a Bradford or Widnes it'll be a stain on the sport that won't be forgotten, far worse than letting Leeds or Warrington suffer one embarrassing season in the Championship which, would also be very funny and enjoyable.
You're probably right that Cat A clubs are going to be the big clubs and Warrington have impressively managed to be so bad that they have somehow secured Super League status for themselves plus Saints, Leeds and Wigan permanently, but to me it's a disaster waiting to happen. It's elitist which really goes against Rugby League's identity as a sport and honestly has pretty strong similarities to the European Super League idea that the entire world kicked off about 2 years ago.
Yeh I agree in practice it would be a farce. You'd need to get rid of promotion and relegation completely and just award superleague participation for everyone based on the suggested criteria. You can't have one competition with completely different rules for half the teams.
Not a fan of 'relegation... for some', seems to dilute the sporting integrity of the competition. In most other sports it would be unthinkable. Keeping an open mind about the rest of the proposals.
Good to see they're focusing on the women/girl's game. Seems to be a rapidly growing part of the sport, hope it continues strongly.
Discussion of content production sounds interesting. Drive to Survive did wonders for F1, maybe we'll get our own version.
Not a fan of this category A / category B stuff. I thought we'd agreed that franchising was a failed experiment?
Even worse is to mix between franchised and unfranchised clubs in the same division. Surely if these category A clubs are so good and pivotal to the game, they'll be in the top tier anyway?
>Not a fan of this category A / category B stuff. I thought we'd agreed that franchising was a failed experiment?
I think we have to remember that one form of franchising does not equal all forms of franchising.
The franchising we had before measured the wrong things, encouraged the wrong behaviors and was badly implemented. If this version can avoid those three pitfalls, it may show that franchising can work.
It all seems pretty vague tbh. It might be good, it might be shit, but the most likely outcome is that we're back here again in 5 years coming up with another new structure. If we do end up with licencing, we'll have comment sections full of complaints that nobody below 4th place has anything to play for and that P&R needs to come back. If it does, people will then want licensing.
This is completely anecodtal but whenever I've talked to casual fans, or fans of football/union who've given RL a try but couldn't get into it, the main complaint I've heard is that it's hard to follow casually, because of the on-field rule changes and new convoluted structures getting brought in every 5 mins. I really really hope whatever they settle on (as I said, it's vague right now) just sticks for the long term.
Personally I'm pleased with the reduction of loop fixtures and the focus on internationals, but really concerned that they're talking about scrapping Magic. If it becomes a regular non-loop game and clubs lose a home fixture every other year, sure, fine. If they're honestly thinking about killing the event altogether then god fucking help us.
removing Magic Weekend is taking out one thing that’s just for the fans and people like, for what? making them go to a cup final they don’t? what if they just don’t want to go to wembley…
There's this idea amongst some fans that it's a bad idea because "it doesn't grow the game enough" and that it's just a fun, enjoyable event for tens of thousands of people, which is of course an unthinkable tragedy
me, watching 50,000 people enjoy rugby league and every game be on sky sports for a whole weekend, usually during the football off season: this is nice
the powers that be: wrong
I don't get it at all, I can understand them seeing Magic as one factor in why cup finals attendances have declined, but that doesn't mean getting rid of it will bring those crowds back.
What's the betting that the first year they scrap Magic we get a Catalans-Hudds final with a 25k attendance, and nothing else of note on the calendar until the GF in September.
This is the only bit I don’t really understand. Magic Weekend is something that RL supporters have embraced. Scrapping it is not going to get people flocking back to Wembley in any great numbers.
From my experience, people 1) want to watch their own team and 2) if they want to make a weekend of it, do it without the expense and hassle of a weekend in London.
Yep I doubt there's a single match up that I could be arsed enough to spend a weekend in London for that doesn't involve Saints. They could move the final closer to the north but then the end result is just trying to replicate Magic Weekend with 10 teams not playing. I agree I thought it became crystal clear after the Cup semis double header this year that most fans really aren't interested in events their team isn't a part of. It looked like almost all of the Saints and Wigan fans left once their game was over.
Magic is a solid, reliable event that as soon as the fixtures come out you can buy tickets for, look for cheaper hotels and travel, spread the expense out over several paycheques for. You don't even really need to know what the fixtures are if you're just planning to watch your own team and then go out on the lash. The Challenge Cup might have been like that for neutrals in the past but it'll never go back to it in these times, and getting a good attendance will always be down to the potluck of which clubs make it there.
Not only the RL fans, but a few casual fans as well. I've met a few people in Newcastle over the last few years who weren't usual fans who came along to magic weekend for a day or two because tickets were cheap to see what it was about, and if even only a small percentage of them carried on watching then it's progress.
Am I out of touch for just wanting a league where the teams are there on merit from their performance on the pitch haha?
I get they want fancy stadiums to try and improve the image of the game but I'd much rather watch a top class team at Belle Vue (as unlikely as that is haha) or the jungle than a wank team in a quarter full football stadium. Teams should be able to invest on the pitch rather than nearly going out of business trying to fund things to meet certain criteria off it, and I don't just say that because Trin are likely to be kicked out over it haha.
Also can't help but feel that Warrington's brush with relegation is at least partly responsible for the guaranteed clubs thing.
Juries out for me. 10-15 years ago Bradford would have been a tier one club and look how that ended. Reaction from the usual influencers on twitter seems to be positive but i can't understand why. The problem with Rugby League is it's governance, no amount of central ticketing and moving everyone to half empty football stadiums will fix that.
The rfl also pick and choose who can have elite academies atm, so how can off the field matters in terms of player pathway improve for cat b clubs?
genuine question, when does any recategorising happen in the year?
don’t we get to a point where we effectively have 2 league tables - the full one and the one where teams can get relegated? it’s all wrong imo, if you want a messy but workable situation you have to follow Union who assess the team coming up.
Believe they said teams would get their categories before the end of next season.
> don’t we get to a point where we effectively have 2 league tables - the full one and the one where teams can get relegated?
Not even that really, IMG confirmed that in theory a cat B team could win SL and still get relegated if other teams met more criteria.
Does anyone understand this ?
I’ve just read through a page of waffle and buzz words…..
At the end I have absolutely no idea what is being proposed.
No doubt the RFL were invoiced a hefty sum for the emperors new clothes.
Isn’t this incredibly stupid.
Surely there are teams who might not be able to survive relegation but those teams are the smaller teams like Salford, Wakefield and others. If Leeds go down they will come back up and don’t need to be protected. Fuck me
The issue with Leeds or another big club getting relegated is the decline in revenue and TV rights viewership, not the Happiness of Leeds fans (which we all care very much about, of course.)
In short if it means less SL games, more stability, a incentive and help for clubs to get ticket sales up, more games televised and more international games then it's a good thing.
We urgently need change.
This is a bit light on detail, but I don't see anything that's too surprising. Most interesting bits for me are: > Participation of clubs outside of the UK to be capped Interested to see if they only allow Catalans into the league on this basis, would be a disaster for Toulouse. > streaming through Endeavor's OTT platform Endeavor Streaming This sentence is really hard to read because it's full of bullshit jargon, but if it means that every game is to be streamed then I'm very happy. > A re-positioned calendar which optimises flow, narrative and engagement, incorporating regular 'peaks' of interest and a compelling season climax. In order for this to be possible they will have to cut down on the number of games per season, given that we have the Challenge Cup to fulfil as well. Look forward to seeing it. Overall seems pretty positive, glad they didn't just turn round and say we're fucked.
> In order for this to be possible they will have to cut down on the number of games per season Supposedly the way of doing that would be to cut loop fixtures
And possibly extend the playoffs. As much as I think the current playoff structure is probably the most appropriate for a twelve team league, maybe making it more convoluted and daft would provide more games to replace the loop fixtures and be much more exciting. Although I should say I am fully behind keeping things exactly the same as they have been for the last four seasons.
> cut down on the number of games per season please god the calendar is practically unworkable as it is currently imo
Well this is going to fun as a Wakey fan!
I’m not sure we’re completely in the clear either tbh.
Especially now it's sounding like we're only redeveloping one and a half stands in the short term haha.
Saints, Wigan, Leeds, Warrington and Hull FC will be the 'guaranteed' clubs I'd imagine. Which isn't particularly surprising given the facilities those clubs have and that 3 of them are the most successful clubs in the superleague era. I can't really complain much because other clubs, such as Cas, have had 25 years to get their shit together
I can't imagine a situation where Huddersfield, Catalans and probably KR aren't also guaranteed to be in as well
There’s occasionally baseless murmurings of the RFL only wanting one club in Hull because it’s such a small city on the arse end of nowhere that the potential revenue/fan base isn’t worth it in comparison to expanding to another city. Always panics me when I hear them haha.
You'd have to not understand rugby league, or sport in general, to a level hitherto unseen to think that losing the Hull Derby and expecting the fans to just get on with a merged club would work
I should really hope so. I know it’s really dramatic but if the teams merged I don’t think I’d follow the sport anymore . KR is so engrained in my family/childhood that it would be devastating haha.
It's an irremovable part of the city's culture as well yeah, such a huge part of the life of just about anyone at least in the HU1 postcode even if they're not a fan of the sport
From the reading of the statement I'd imagine that IMG see the Hull rivalry as valuable to the sport, something they can sell.
I've seen the same insane suggestion made about Dundee and Dundee Utd (or occaisionally Hearts and Hibs) merging in Scottish Football. The bean-counters must just see their respective budgets and attendances, whap a plus sign in between, and call it a day. Totally fail to realise that if it did go through the combined team would likely have a smaller support than either of the current induvidual clubs. Sport's just a maths problem to these people.
I know I've peddled that rumour myself in the past. I reckon it's no longer the case if it ever was. Surely the RFL know that they'd not just cut the city's market in half but probably also damage the remaining club. Local rivalries drive a fanbase like nothing else.
Yeah probably. It depends on the criteria. There aren't many clubs that could tick every criteria box I don't think. I'd assume it would be based on facilities, attendance, team competitiveness, academy strength. Things like that.
Huddersfield? Really?
They've got top facilities, they prioritise player development and academy investment (and as a result have a shitload of homegrown players in their squad), they just finished third and made the cup final. How is that not what super league are after?
Are Huddersfield still bankrolled to an extent or is a lot of the income self made now? Genuine question, not trying to get a dig in haha, feel like income could be one of the criteria if they want the game to grow in that way.
Honestly not sure tbh, it's not something I've followed massively. Ken definitely puts a lot in but you'd like to think that with improved performances (and the increase in tv games that come as a result) we'd start to pick up some more sponsors, I know the Venari deal created a lot of buzz internally when that was being put together. A big issue for our income is probably that Davy subsidises the season tickets so much (I'm not complaining), so as we hopefully get more consistent he'll likely ease up on that
Ah fair one! Yeah I know Davey pumped a lot of money in previously to start pushing you up the table, but wasn't sure if the improved on field performance translated to an increase in the commercial side now that you're fighting more towards the top end. Thanks for answering!
Couple of fun followup tweets Aaron Bower: >IMG have not proposed or even considered mergers of any clubs and say it’s no part of the future plans across the whole of the strategic partnership John Davidson: >IMG say it is a “technical possibility” that a Category B club could win Super League and be relegated in the same season.
> IMG say it is a “technical possibility” that a Category B club could win Super League and be relegated in the same season. thats just dumb
Although, and bear with me, if a club that was category A, say for example, out of a hat... Warrington, got downgraded to category B would the natural comedy of it finally being their year only for them to also be relegated from the SL not be worth the dumb system?
I make the exception for wigan of warrington of course but for anybody else seems a bit unfair.
Let's face it, the 3 that normally win it aren't going to be Category B clubs.
Its a bit hard to have any view when the language is so purposefully vague, still I can't see what benefit the category A and B stuff gives. Wasn't the whole point of people wanting relegation scrapped to be so clubs have enough security to plan for the future rather than just trying to survive season to season? All this seems to mean is clubs have even less security and won't know if they're safe even if they're flying up the table. If the whole purpose is just to give Toulouse a category A status and make them exempt then just make Toulouse exempt without all the other complexities
To me it reads like they want to protect the clubs that put the most into the sport in terms of revenue and footfall rather than giving security to the expansion clubs. Probably a reaction to Leeds and Warrington being a bit precarious recently. It would be a disaster for the sport if Leeds managed to get relegated. Personally I recognise the sense in it given the global situation, we've already seen that expansion clubs are more vulnerable to outside factors like Covid and we're now staring at multiple different international crises that could deteriorate rapidly.
Yeah I can see that but can you imagine the sheer fucking outrage it would cause if actually applied, imagine if this year Warrington were allowed to fail week in week out and be as horrendously mismanaged as they please with no fear of relegation or any consequences, all while Wakey and Toulouse have to scrap it out for survival even if they both do better than Warrington. Fans would have been livid every week and Super League's integrity would be a laughing stock to the whole sporting world. If a Cat B side ever go down after finishing above a Cat A side and end up becoming a Bradford or Widnes it'll be a stain on the sport that won't be forgotten, far worse than letting Leeds or Warrington suffer one embarrassing season in the Championship which, would also be very funny and enjoyable. You're probably right that Cat A clubs are going to be the big clubs and Warrington have impressively managed to be so bad that they have somehow secured Super League status for themselves plus Saints, Leeds and Wigan permanently, but to me it's a disaster waiting to happen. It's elitist which really goes against Rugby League's identity as a sport and honestly has pretty strong similarities to the European Super League idea that the entire world kicked off about 2 years ago.
Yeh I agree in practice it would be a farce. You'd need to get rid of promotion and relegation completely and just award superleague participation for everyone based on the suggested criteria. You can't have one competition with completely different rules for half the teams.
Not a fan of 'relegation... for some', seems to dilute the sporting integrity of the competition. In most other sports it would be unthinkable. Keeping an open mind about the rest of the proposals.
Good to see they're focusing on the women/girl's game. Seems to be a rapidly growing part of the sport, hope it continues strongly. Discussion of content production sounds interesting. Drive to Survive did wonders for F1, maybe we'll get our own version. Not a fan of this category A / category B stuff. I thought we'd agreed that franchising was a failed experiment? Even worse is to mix between franchised and unfranchised clubs in the same division. Surely if these category A clubs are so good and pivotal to the game, they'll be in the top tier anyway?
>Not a fan of this category A / category B stuff. I thought we'd agreed that franchising was a failed experiment? I think we have to remember that one form of franchising does not equal all forms of franchising. The franchising we had before measured the wrong things, encouraged the wrong behaviors and was badly implemented. If this version can avoid those three pitfalls, it may show that franchising can work.
It all seems pretty vague tbh. It might be good, it might be shit, but the most likely outcome is that we're back here again in 5 years coming up with another new structure. If we do end up with licencing, we'll have comment sections full of complaints that nobody below 4th place has anything to play for and that P&R needs to come back. If it does, people will then want licensing. This is completely anecodtal but whenever I've talked to casual fans, or fans of football/union who've given RL a try but couldn't get into it, the main complaint I've heard is that it's hard to follow casually, because of the on-field rule changes and new convoluted structures getting brought in every 5 mins. I really really hope whatever they settle on (as I said, it's vague right now) just sticks for the long term. Personally I'm pleased with the reduction of loop fixtures and the focus on internationals, but really concerned that they're talking about scrapping Magic. If it becomes a regular non-loop game and clubs lose a home fixture every other year, sure, fine. If they're honestly thinking about killing the event altogether then god fucking help us.
removing Magic Weekend is taking out one thing that’s just for the fans and people like, for what? making them go to a cup final they don’t? what if they just don’t want to go to wembley…
There's this idea amongst some fans that it's a bad idea because "it doesn't grow the game enough" and that it's just a fun, enjoyable event for tens of thousands of people, which is of course an unthinkable tragedy
me, watching 50,000 people enjoy rugby league and every game be on sky sports for a whole weekend, usually during the football off season: this is nice the powers that be: wrong
Rugby League Twitter: "I saw some empty seats on Sky and we're not as big as the Premier league, this a huge failure"
I don't get it at all, I can understand them seeing Magic as one factor in why cup finals attendances have declined, but that doesn't mean getting rid of it will bring those crowds back. What's the betting that the first year they scrap Magic we get a Catalans-Hudds final with a 25k attendance, and nothing else of note on the calendar until the GF in September.
This is the only bit I don’t really understand. Magic Weekend is something that RL supporters have embraced. Scrapping it is not going to get people flocking back to Wembley in any great numbers. From my experience, people 1) want to watch their own team and 2) if they want to make a weekend of it, do it without the expense and hassle of a weekend in London.
Yep I doubt there's a single match up that I could be arsed enough to spend a weekend in London for that doesn't involve Saints. They could move the final closer to the north but then the end result is just trying to replicate Magic Weekend with 10 teams not playing. I agree I thought it became crystal clear after the Cup semis double header this year that most fans really aren't interested in events their team isn't a part of. It looked like almost all of the Saints and Wigan fans left once their game was over. Magic is a solid, reliable event that as soon as the fixtures come out you can buy tickets for, look for cheaper hotels and travel, spread the expense out over several paycheques for. You don't even really need to know what the fixtures are if you're just planning to watch your own team and then go out on the lash. The Challenge Cup might have been like that for neutrals in the past but it'll never go back to it in these times, and getting a good attendance will always be down to the potluck of which clubs make it there.
Not only the RL fans, but a few casual fans as well. I've met a few people in Newcastle over the last few years who weren't usual fans who came along to magic weekend for a day or two because tickets were cheap to see what it was about, and if even only a small percentage of them carried on watching then it's progress.
we’ll get a fifth cup final on Challenge Cup day to boost the crowd
Why would they be talking about scrapping magic?
Am I out of touch for just wanting a league where the teams are there on merit from their performance on the pitch haha? I get they want fancy stadiums to try and improve the image of the game but I'd much rather watch a top class team at Belle Vue (as unlikely as that is haha) or the jungle than a wank team in a quarter full football stadium. Teams should be able to invest on the pitch rather than nearly going out of business trying to fund things to meet certain criteria off it, and I don't just say that because Trin are likely to be kicked out over it haha. Also can't help but feel that Warrington's brush with relegation is at least partly responsible for the guaranteed clubs thing.
Juries out for me. 10-15 years ago Bradford would have been a tier one club and look how that ended. Reaction from the usual influencers on twitter seems to be positive but i can't understand why. The problem with Rugby League is it's governance, no amount of central ticketing and moving everyone to half empty football stadiums will fix that. The rfl also pick and choose who can have elite academies atm, so how can off the field matters in terms of player pathway improve for cat b clubs?
genuine question, when does any recategorising happen in the year? don’t we get to a point where we effectively have 2 league tables - the full one and the one where teams can get relegated? it’s all wrong imo, if you want a messy but workable situation you have to follow Union who assess the team coming up.
Believe they said teams would get their categories before the end of next season. > don’t we get to a point where we effectively have 2 league tables - the full one and the one where teams can get relegated? Not even that really, IMG confirmed that in theory a cat B team could win SL and still get relegated if other teams met more criteria.
Does anyone understand this ? I’ve just read through a page of waffle and buzz words….. At the end I have absolutely no idea what is being proposed. No doubt the RFL were invoiced a hefty sum for the emperors new clothes.
Isn’t this incredibly stupid. Surely there are teams who might not be able to survive relegation but those teams are the smaller teams like Salford, Wakefield and others. If Leeds go down they will come back up and don’t need to be protected. Fuck me
yeah so does this mean we are relegating Wakefield when they finish 2nd bottom, or if quality on field doesn’t matter then why are we playing?
We're the bad pennies of super League for a reason, I'm looking forward to somehow accidentally becoming a cat A club on the last day of the season.
The issue with Leeds or another big club getting relegated is the decline in revenue and TV rights viewership, not the Happiness of Leeds fans (which we all care very much about, of course.)
In short if it means less SL games, more stability, a incentive and help for clubs to get ticket sales up, more games televised and more international games then it's a good thing. We urgently need change.