The Future of the Prem

[chipnchase]

Sadly Covid-19 has really exposed how financially fragile the elite game is in this country and hopefully will trigger conversations around protecting clubs and players whilst not putting anyone at risk.

So what would your ideal league look like if we could start again tomorrow?

Expand the league? Ring fence the prem? Reduce the cap and if so by how much? reduce the amount of games played? Scrap the play offs? bring back a proper knock out cup? only play teams once in a year? Cap squad sizes?

The floor is all yours!

[Mark62]

I will get shot down for this but I honestly believe that to protect the game at the professional level , both financially and player welfare wise, we need to set up 5 regional teams, South East, South West, Midlands, North East and North West, who would then enter into British league with the Scottish, Irish and Welsh regions, playing only once against each team per season. That would be 14 games per season, 7 home 7 away, plus revamped European competitions.
Leicester, Northampton Bath etc could continue as semi pro teams maintaining their own identity and acting as development teams for the regions.
Below that the league structure needs reducing in numbers both in number of leagues and number of clubs, with clubs at championship and national leagues being amateur, with them being allowed a maximum of 3 paid players each.

Radical I know, and I feel that the main objection from people will be the lose of club identity, but other countries have managed to overcome this over time

[TigerBoy1880]

I’m happy with how it is, however, if they scrapped the playoffs I’d be fine with it. I don’t think squad sizes should be capped. If anything make the squads bigger and even set a minimum squad size and keep the salary cap as it is or reduce it. That way, every club would have more players to play over the season so better for welfare. This would also shorten the pay range between players, which I know some players have questioned. Probably a crazy idea but oh well!

[TigerBoy1880]

I will get shot down for this but I honestly believe that to protect the game at the professional level , both financially and player welfare wise, we need to set up 5 regional teams, South East, South West, Midlands, North East and North West, who would then enter into British league with the Scottish, Irish and Welsh regions, playing only once against each team per season. That would be 14 games per season, 7 home 7 away, plus revamped European competitions.
Leicester, Northampton Bath etc could continue as semi pro teams maintaining their own identity and acting as development teams for the regions.
Below that the league structure needs reducing in numbers both in number of leagues and number of clubs, with clubs at championship and national leagues being amateur, with them being allowed a maximum of 3 paid players each.

Radical I know, and I feel that the main objection from people will be the lose of club identity, but other countries have managed to overcome this over time

It’s your idea and your choice but I never want to see this done!

[Ian Cant]

Sorry Mark62, you have some good ideas but no way do I want to see the club game go.
Having coached at school level for 40 years( both contact and tag),children, youths, the future of the game, relate more to clubs not areas. I’ve seen great links with the schools in every Premiership Club: children in particular, like having a club to support and aspire to playing for. I remember the days of “The Midlands” etc. It was fine in amateur days but even then the support was spasmodic and apart from a few games the atmosphere was poor compared to today’s Premiership.

Look at the turn out at Nottingham a few weeks ago when Tigers went there with TV and Heyes:great atmosphere. I know most Premiership Clubs do a fantastic job in their communities so if area teams came along this would suffer.The lower leagues too need to stay as they are but with more financial help and support from The RFU.

Furthermore England, in my humble opinion, do pretty well due to the intensity of The Premiership.
The only change I’d make is no relegation in World Cup Years as those clubs that provide England players really do suffer: eg Tigers, Bath, Saints, Quins, Wasps( in the past) and even Sarries!

A sensible salary cap should be in place and adhered to.

Clubs should also be rewarded if they don’t make losses.

[Mark62]

Sorry Mark62, but no way do I want to see the club game go.
Having coached at school level for 40 years( both contact and tag),children, youths, the future of the game, relate more to clubs not areas. I’ve seen great links with the schools in every Premiership Club: children in particular, like having a club to support and aspire to playing for. I remember the days of “The Midlands” etc. It was fine in amateur days but even then the support was spasmodic and apart from a few games the atmosphere was poor compared to today’s Premiership.

Look at the turn out at Nottingham a few weeks ago when Tigers went there with TV and Heyes:great atmosphere. I know most Premiership Clubs do a fantastic job in their communities so if area teams came along this would suffer.The lower leagues too need to stay as they are but with more financial help and support from The RFU.

Furthermore England, in my humble opinion, do pretty well due to the intensity of The Premiership.
The only change I’d make is no relegation in World Cup Years as those clubs that provide England players really do suffer: eg Tigers, Bath, Saints, Quins, Wasps( in the past) and even Sarries!

A sensible salary cap should be in place and adhered to.

Clubs should also be rewarded if they don’t make losses.

Ian I obviously respect your opinion as you are kind enough to respect mine.
I agree the clubs should continue as I’ve put, just at a lower level, where they could all continue the community work they do.
As for money from the RFU in principal great idea, but where is this money coming from, look at the recent uproar when they reduced funding to the championship games.

I understand your view point but amongst the many other things this also virus has brought to light is the incredibly fragile state of our game financially from the top right through to the very bottom

[ay2oh]

Keep the Prem the way it is but do away with the Premiership cup and play the six nations during the spare week-ends so that they don’t clash with league matches . Also do away with the play-offs if needs be to enable rest break for players. Play all European group games in a block.
I would happily sacrifice the home premium cup games if it meant that we had our international players available for all League + European games. Resounding NO to regions replacing clubs

[Scott1]

Ringfence ASAP ,doing away with the PRC will give the time to play the extra games. And hurry up and implement the World Club Cup at the expense of the RCC. A man can dream....

[sk 88]

I don't see how an unforeseeable forced stop exposes anything.

You have to play games to make money, no sherlock.

No business ever makes enough margin to drop nearly half its income without repercussions.

We'll cut our cloth to suit our needs, but that doesn't change anything fundamental.

It might be used as an excuse for changes people want to make anyway but it won't be the reason for anything. With that in mind I'd be pushing for the club and international game to separate and stop overlapping. Start the club game in last week of August and play for 25 weeks through to middle of February. Play a reduced Prem 18 game league (no pay offs) and reduced European Cup (6/7 weeks) in that period.

Then break for the 6N. We may play a development cup or something for non-internationals and younger guys. After the 6N play your other internationals in April & May, some home, some away. Max is 32 games, the same as the current limit but with no crossover.

No crossover means we can have smaller squads, my estimate based on players used is 43 rather than 54, but perhaps might need even less than this.

[BFG]

The old arguments of how to restructure will obviously return but it's about survival currently in my opinion.
Covid-19 has exposed the fragile finances of many businesses and households.
A recession is predictable.
How to protect against it?
The first thing to do is to get sport back on the television.
Matchday attendences will suffer for quite a while yet in my opinion, sadly any immediate restructure has to be television orientated in the short term.
Big games with proceeds shared to help all recover.
I saw an idea of a Lions v All Blacks decider, more matches like this are needed.
Northern Hemisphere versus Southern etc.
Origin matches with special dispensation given to play, Samoa Select including players such as Tuilagi versus Tonga Select including players such as Vunipola, likewise with Fiji and others.
Basically anything that is interesting enough to buy on a global scale to then be filtered through and shared by all.

[Jimmy Skitz]

a ring fenced 14 team premiership will be what occurs with Sarries, Newcastle and one other joining the 11 clubs currently certain to be playing Premiership Rugby whenever the 2020-21 season starts

[BFG]

a ring fenced 14 team premiership will be what occurs with Sarries, Newcastle and one other joining the 11 clubs currently certain to be playing Premiership Rugby whenever the 2020-21 season starts

I think yours is closest to the most likely outcome.

[Scott1]

Dont think theres a chance of that Jimmy,two words Tony Rowe.

[BFG]

Dont think theres a chance of that Jimmy,two words Tony Rowe.

Television will be calling the shots.
Sarries star players are wanted on it.

[Jimmy Skitz]

Dont think theres a chance of that Jimmy,two words Tony Rowe.

all they need to do is wait for Sarries to get back promoted, so in a year, and then announce the revamp and invite the likes of Ealing and Cornish Pirates to apply to be the 14th side and have the Premiership be more like Super Rugby nothing Rowe can do as they won promotion and are their by right