FURTHER INCENTIVES FOR NATIONAL DIVISION ONE TEAMS

Dave Angel · Post by **Dave Angel** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 3:29 pm

Such an idea (ND1 & GP club cup on international weekends) would work & would aid development for all parties as long as nobody cared about the loss of revenue & the possible lack of interest from supporters.

Revenue would be far lower than from the EDF as BBC wouldn't want to cover it (due to clashing with the 6N that they already cover) & Sky probably wouldn't want it as it would basically be a development cup.

Less exposure would also mean less money from title sponsors etc.

Supporters would be less interested in going as they would be paying for GP development teams vs other GP development teams (games that are free in the A league!) or vs ND1 teams (which attracted next to no crowd under the old knockout cup format).

As I said, they would be great for player development & for bringing on the strength of the ND1 clubs, but would mean GP clubs were worse off financially than at present.

As tigerfeet said, the last time this idea was tried (as the C&G Cup) it died a death after only 1 season as nobody (club and supporter) could be bothered with it!

Tigerbear · Post by **Tigerbear** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:03 pm

Good points about the ECC not being the suitable mechanism. I like the idea mentioned of 2 promoted and 2 relegated. If the National One winners were promoted automatically and teams 2 to 5 had playoffs to determine the second promotion it would provide the extra incentive, generate more revenue for the teams involved and perhaps give us some fresh faces in the GP.

Bill W · Post by **Bill W** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:07 pm

And bounce the same two teams up and down each season????

Tigerbear · Post by **Tigerbear** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 7:37 pm

Possibly, but playoffs have a better chance of throwing up the odd surprise and the incentive would be there to the end of the season for teams at the top end of the table.

billy_hyslop · Post by **billy_hyslop** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 9:15 pm

yess in a way BILL W. however surely if theres 4 teams switching between leagues instead of the 2 therea moew chance in the teams in D1 having a poor season therefor a different D1 team getting a bite at the cheerry! howevvvvver its not going to be to great an idea because atm the team that goes down tends to own D1 then go up, get a large sum of money, make some big signings and then stay up and a diferent team goes up ( i no it wasnt that easy for leeds) and if 2 teams came up, the D1 team would probably get romped and go straight back down

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