Championship rugby

[teds]

I always forget London Irish aren't in Reading any more, they are currently playing home games 3 miles from Ealing. Bonkers to have so many Premiership clubs so close to each other.

I kind of agree but it’s difficult to think of any legitimate alternative unless you go down the franchise route.

It’s not inconceivable that Coventry rugby could be promoted in a few years time. Would anyone dare deny them because Wasps got there first?

[Tiglon]

I always forget London Irish aren't in Reading any more, they are currently playing home games 3 miles from Ealing. Bonkers to have so many Premiership clubs so close to each other.

I kind of agree but it’s difficult to think of any legitimate alternative unless you go down the franchise route.

It’s not inconceivable that Coventry rugby could be promoted in a few years time. Would anyone dare deny them because Wasps got there first?

I don't have a solution either, but with a niche sport it is a real shame to limit exposure to such small regions. Especially when there are strong rugby fanbases in areas like East Anglia with no top level clubs.

[TigerFeetSteve]

I always forget London Irish aren't in Reading any more, they are currently playing home games 3 miles from Ealing. Bonkers to have so many Premiership clubs so close to each other.

I kind of agree but it’s difficult to think of any legitimate alternative unless you go down the franchise route.

It’s not inconceivable that Coventry rugby could be promoted in a few years time. Would anyone dare deny them because Wasps got there first?

The fact that Coventry have had games with higher gates than Wasps, if they get promoted I doubt it'll be them that are struggling for support.

[Old Hob]

The stumbling block seems to be that their ground does not have the minimum capacity ie 10,001. The team promoted from the championship last time has a ground capacity of.... 8,500. Welcome back Saracens!

[GETHIN EXILE]

The stumbling block seems to be that their ground does not have the minimum capacity ie 10,001. The team promoted from the championship last time has a ground capacity of.... 8,500. Welcome back Saracens!

The problem is that Saracens are a shareholder in Premiership Rugby so they were allowed to bypass the requirement !!!!

[wigworth]

The stumbling block seems to be that their ground does not have the minimum capacity ie 10,001. The team promoted from the championship last time has a ground capacity of.... 8,500. Welcome back Saracens!

The problem is that Saracens are a shareholder in Premiership Rugby so they were allowed to bypass the requirement !!!!

Is there an odd ball club that is no longer in the Prem that is still a shareholder? If memory serves I thought it was Leeds, but I don't think that is correct.

[GB72]

I always forget London Irish aren't in Reading any more, they are currently playing home games 3 miles from Ealing. Bonkers to have so many Premiership clubs so close to each other.

I kind of agree but it’s difficult to think of any legitimate alternative unless you go down the franchise route.

It’s not inconceivable that Coventry rugby could be promoted in a few years time. Would anyone dare deny them because Wasps got there first?

I don't have a solution either, but with a niche sport it is a real shame to limit exposure to such small regions. Especially when there are strong rugby fanbases in areas like East Anglia with no top level clubs.

The only answer is one not palatable to many and that is that clubs are invited to join the premiership rather than win promotion. Could be an existing team or could be a franchise option with a backer invited to put together a proposal to start up a team in a region. Without that, success is going to come from clubs in areas already strong with rugby support.

[TigerFeetSteve]

The stumbling block seems to be that their ground does not have the minimum capacity ie 10,001. The team promoted from the championship last time has a ground capacity of.... 8,500. Welcome back Saracens!

The problem is that Saracens are a shareholder in Premiership Rugby so they were allowed to bypass the requirement !!!!

Is there an odd ball club that is no longer in the Prem that is still a shareholder? If memory serves I thought it was Leeds, but I don't think that is correct.

Leeds used to be a shareholder, but sold their shares to Exeter to generate funds. Now only 13 shareholders (the current 13 clubs in the prem)

[Tiglon]

I kind of agree but it’s difficult to think of any legitimate alternative unless you go down the franchise route.

It’s not inconceivable that Coventry rugby could be promoted in a few years time. Would anyone dare deny them because Wasps got there first?

I don't have a solution either, but with a niche sport it is a real shame to limit exposure to such small regions. Especially when there are strong rugby fanbases in areas like East Anglia with no top level clubs.

The only answer is one not palatable to many and that is that clubs are invited to join the premiership rather than win promotion. Could be an existing team or could be a franchise option with a backer invited to put together a proposal to start up a team in a region. Without that, success is going to come from clubs in areas already strong with rugby support.

It does sort of make sense to do it that way. I mean teams currently effectively buy their way into the league anyway, the only difference would be that the league gets to choose where they are based.

I.e. instead of Mr Whoever ploughing loads of money into Ealing to get them promoted, Mr Whoever has to first talk to the Premiership and they can say "no thanks, we don't need another London team, but if you fancy spending a big wad of cash up in Yorkshire or Norfolk then we'll be happy to let you in".

If people are buying their way into the league, the league might as well have some say in it...

[Cagey Tiger]

I don't have a solution either, but with a niche sport it is a real shame to limit exposure to such small regions. Especially when there are strong rugby fanbases in areas like East Anglia with no top level clubs.

The only answer is one not palatable to many and that is that clubs are invited to join the premiership rather than win promotion. Could be an existing team or could be a franchise option with a backer invited to put together a proposal to start up a team in a region. Without that, success is going to come from clubs in areas already strong with rugby support.

It does sort of make sense to do it that way. I mean teams currently effectively buy their way into the league anyway, the only difference would be that the league gets to choose where they are based.

I.e. instead of Mr Whoever ploughing loads of money into Ealing to get them promoted, Mr Whoever has to first talk to the Premiership and they can say "no thanks, we don't need another London team, but if you fancy spending a big wad of cash up in Yorkshire or Norfolk then we'll be happy to let you in".

If people are buying their way into the league, the league might as well have some say in it...

Logical, so no chance it would happen

[westwinds31]

Last night summed up the Nottingham season, lots of fight and endeavour but ultimately beaten by the better side. Lost count of how many penalties given away. Bedford will cruise through with their home leg in two weeks time. As for the Tigers, Chessum the younger showed up well, although a few errors, Ilione showed flashes of what he can do but picked up a yellow card. Not much else to shout about, Richardson started well but the scrum struggled and he got carded second half.

Great to see some of the Tigers down there - JVP, Chessum, Dan Kelly.

[johnthegriff]

I don't wish to defend Saracens but Old Hob is wrong, the Saracens ground has a capacity of over 10,000, they were briefly below that level until their new stand was completed, personally I would ban them for the plastic pitch but not ground capacity or facilities which they are stage by stage improving. Ealing have not bothered to put anything in place for improving their ground and its facilities up to Premiership standards. Clubs like Exeter, Worcester, Bristol. Sale, London Irish and Wasps have moved to improve their grounds, others like Leicester, Saints, Quins, Gloucester, Newcastle and even Bath have spent to improve facilities. Our sport to have credibility as a major professional sport cannot go back to the days of standing in mud on the edge of a pitch to watch, if a Championship club wants to operate at the top level they must come up to standard both on and off the pitch, the RFU have a responsibility to help them do this and the Premiership should possibly show some latitude in ground criteria if plans are in place to develop to that standard over a couple of years.

[Tiglon]

I don't wish to defend Saracens but Old Hob is wrong, the Saracens ground has a capacity of over 10,000, they were briefly below that level until their new stand was completed, personally I would ban them for the plastic pitch but not ground capacity or facilities which they are stage by stage improving. Ealing have not bothered to put anything in place for improving their ground and its facilities up to Premiership standards. Clubs like Exeter, Worcester, Bristol. Sale, London Irish and Wasps have moved to improve their grounds, others like Leicester, Saints, Quins, Gloucester, Newcastle and even Bath have spent to improve facilities. Our sport to have credibility as a major professional sport cannot go back to the days of standing in mud on the edge of a pitch to watch, if a Championship club wants to operate at the top level they must come up to standard both on and off the pitch, the RFU have a responsibility to help them do this and the Premiership should possibly show some latitude in ground criteria if plans are in place to develop to that standard over a couple of years.

Good points. It seems like there needs to be a longer term relationship/conversation with clubs like Ealing when they express the ambition to join the Premiership. This whole "apply in the season before and we'll say yes or no" process seems slightly counter productive and rather muddled. When you've got clubs being rejected and saying they'll appeal etc, having a full blown argument about it, then it seems like something is broken.

Either Ealing or the Premiership (or both) need to take a much more collaborative approach to it.

[Rugbygramps]

I do agree that there needs to be better collaboration and planning for the future. However nothing will change the fact that due to their close proximity to 3 other premiership clubs they could have the best stadium in Europe and they are highly unlikely to attract more than 3k fans. That however is a whole different debate

[Scott1]

Iirc Sarries have just added capacity when they've needed,added detachable seats to hit the 10k and did the same to hit the European 15k capacity. Happy to be corrected