The ideal Super League roster for 2022

[David Shepherd]

1 minute ago, WakefieldCityLoyal said:

I was joking David.  But we are and always have been a proud City and a decent sized place getting bigger all the time population and commerce wise due to excellent M1 M62 location.

Up the Trin 

I did post with a big Pomfretian chip on my shoulder 

[Oliver Clothesoff]

You can’t just shove “new” teams into Super League, they’ve got to be putting building blocks in place long before entrance to Super League should even be considered or talked about. We’ve had the PSG’s and the Celtic Crusaders debacles and delusions of grandeur that London will be a force in Super League or we need to have teams in Super League in three and a quarter years that don’t even exist right now are exactly that, delusions of grandeur. 

 

[dixiedean]

1 The

2 Top

3 Eleven

4 Teams

5 From 

6 The

7 Previous

8 Season

9 Plus

10 The

11 Championship

12 Winners.

[jpmc]

29 minutes ago, David Shepherd said:

No they wouldn't.  But what's wrong with giving it away, or giving The Championship away?

The game needs exposure.  Exposure that we're just not getting by hiding away on pay TV twice a week.

There are other options too.  Dave is a fairly popular channel that has dabbled in sport.  ITV7 Racing must struggle for content in the evenings etc etc

If the championship & league 1 have no financial value then they should live stream the games themselves through Facebook & you tube.

It would take time but i think it could be built up into something special that advertisers would want to be part of. 

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

1 hour ago, Wildcat said:

Oh joy - he's here to ruin this forum now. 

Oh yes and posting the same drivel. Unfortunately there's many who'll respond and encourage him.

35 minutes ago, David Shepherd said:

No they wouldn't.  But what's wrong with giving it away, or giving The Championship away?

The game needs exposure.  Exposure that we're just not getting by hiding away on pay TV twice a week.

There are other options too.  Dave is a fairly popular channel that has dabbled in sport.  ITV7 Racing must struggle for content in the evenings etc etc

Tried and failed.

Despite 120+ years of history many don't seem to have realised that the fact that even though they (and I) believe that RL is TGG the vast majority do not.

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, Wildcat said:

Oh joy - he's here to ruin this forum now. 

Does this person Manfred Mann have previous on another site then?

He clearly must be a loner, or else has conversations with the man in the mirror, I cant imagine any one else agreeing with the dross he spouts.

[Bolton Leyther]

8 hours ago, fevtom said:

I think that putting teams in based on names is slightly over played, let's remember that there's not a single sports team in all of Toronto that beats the small town of West Bromwich (smaller than Wigan) playing in the 2nd division of English football for crowds. St Helens is tiny but is comfortably bigger than Salford as a club. (Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal - not even a place, all in the biggest league in the world.) 

I'm an expansionist but we've seen too many times that just putting a team somewhere does nothing if you're not going to grow the game. What the ideal roster for 2022 is not necessarily the ideal roster for 2032 or 2042. In the short term, Bradford, Toronto and perhaps Toulouse would be ideal. In the medium term then Newcastle, London and York but this would require a lot of money.

Long term the consensus seems to be we need the most populous cites and so here is my ideal 2050 Super League roster: 

 

Shanghai

Delhi

Beijing

Mumbai

Dhaka

Lagos

Chengdu

Karachi

Guangzhou

Istanbul

Comparisons with football are meaningless because football is embedded within the social fabric of this country and the rest of the world in a way that no other sport is.

Merely as a counter to your point about “teams based on names” however, it's worth noting that Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal are all located within one of the biggest cities in the world. Without these clubs - and City, United and Liverpool - the Premier League would be worth a fraction of its present value. To take the argument in favour of cities further, we only need to look at where the clubs who qualify for the latter stages of the Champions League each year are based to understand why location matters.

[Harry Stottle]

11 minutes ago, jpmc said:

If the championship & league 1 have no financial value then they should live stream the games themselves through Facebook & you tube.

It would take time but i think it could be built up into something special that advertisers would want to be part of. 

Ar'nt you answering my questions from earlier today JP?

[jpmc]

4 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Ar'nt you answering my questions from earlier today JP?

I seem to remember you asking me the same questions a while back and i answered them then

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

14 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Does this person Manfred Mann have previous on another site then?

He clearly must be a loner, or else has conversations with the man in the mirror, I cant imagine any one else agreeing with the dross he spouts.

Oh yes, multiple personalities on the RLfans forum, all spouting the same.

[DavidM]

And after this we should be looking to expand even further and have a team on the moon 

[deluded pom?]

13 minutes ago, DavidM said:

And after this we should be looking to expand even further and have a team on the moon 

The atmosphere at their games wouldn’t be anything to write home about.

[DavidM]

4 minutes ago, deluded pom? said:

The atmosphere at their games wouldn’t be anything to write home about.

Them tries by wingers diving in at the corner would be awesome

[deluded pom?]

2 minutes ago, DavidM said:

Them tries by wingers diving in at the corner would be awesome

A kick to the corner would see players jumping ten feet off the ground.

[DavidM]

Just now, deluded pom? said:

A kick to the corner would see players jumping ten feet off the ground.

The next time we could have a team on the sun , course all their games would have to be at night 

[Big Picture]

16 hours ago, Manfred Mann said:

The next TV deal would start in 2022. Many commentators fear that the next TV deal will be worth less than the current deal. That would be a disaster for rugby league.

The RFL and Super League need to prepare a roster of clubs to not only maintain the current value, but to enhance the TV deal. A solid roster consists of English clubs with strong fan bases (e.g. Bradford) or strategic location (e.g. London), and an expansion of clubs into France and north America.

A solid roster that will enhance the TV deal can only be guaranteed through licencing. I would propose a return to licencing by 2021 and the following list of clubs:

 

Wigan

St. Helens

Warrington

Leeds

Bradford

Hull FC

Hull KR

Huddersfield

Castleford

London

 

Catalans

Toulouse

 

Toronto

New York

 

Montreal*

Boston*

 

* possible additions

An interesting idea, but a totally unviable one.  Let's be frank, no one in English RL is competent to manage all the issues surrounding such a league.

[Big Picture]

15 hours ago, Manfred Mann said:

"Pie in the Sky" is what many cynics first said about Toronto. Now look at them.

The extra 75+ players would come from the NRL plus local recruits from rugby union and/or NFL.

The RFL could take over London, as has been mooted already. Otherwise News Ltd, the owners of Sky, could take over. (Lachlan Murdoch is a huge rugby league fan).

If you think that a league with mostly teams from the north of England could attract serious interest from RU or gridiron players, you must be on drugs of some kind.

[Big Picture]

10 hours ago, jpmc said:

A financially well back and promoted club in Manchester would transform rugbyleague in the Northwest beyond anything we have today.

And without opponents with box-office appeal for them to play, who'd invest in such a club?

[Big Picture]

4 hours ago, Casually said:

My ideal is a return to licensing in a 16 team format:

Wigan

Leeds

St Helens

Warrington

Hull FC

Bradford

York

Newcastle

London

Catalans

Toulouse

Toronto

New York

Welsh Dragons

Scottish Bravehearts

Irish Wolfhounds

 

Getting a representative team from the other home nations will be difficult, no doubt. Wales are on their way, Ireland are struggling but if the amateur GAA could be tapped then there's a playerbase there. Scotland would need to get their situation sorted, but there's a lot of good player potential. The other teams I chose for historical markets & good growth areas.

Format wise, have every team play each other once, then have the top 8 and bottom 8 split into two separate groups, playing the other 7 either home or away, whichever they didn't in the first round. Then top 4 playoff. So the winning team plays no more than 24 games in the Super League, meaning more can be given to each game/CC, OR a serious annual international set of games with the home nations and France can be established.

Get TWP on the phone and ask how they got such good crowds so early, and try to emulate that everywhere. Aim for 10k crowds at least and go from there. Every 4 years evaluate the format/teams, so if say a Coventry team is performing good in the Championship, have good crowds, and a reasonable plan for the future, consider booting out an underperforming team with poor crowds like York or whatever.

You don't have to call TWP, the answer is apparent.  The Greater Toronto Area has a big population of residents whose ethnic heritage is English, including many recent immigrants/immediate descendants of earlier immigrants, and Torontonians are accustomed to having the only Canadian team in foreign leagues in baseball and basketball.  They just needed to attract a fraction of those groups and that was enough to have a small stadium like Lamport more than half full.

Emulating that elsewhere won't be nearly as easy though, because those factors only exist in Toronto.

[Hemi4561]

15 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

An interesting idea, but a totally unviable one.  Let's be frank, no one in English RL is competent to manage all the issues surrounding such a league.

Edit for accuracy, not enough people in North America are incompetent enough to back your numerous fictional teams. 

[absentee thoughtlord]

16 hours ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

There’s not enough talent to go around the eleven British Super League clubs at present, where would the extra 75+ players come from for the three new teams? In the space of four years we’re not going to unearth enough talent for an elite level of 14-16 teams.

Completely disagree with the sentiment if not your assessment of the status quo of talent procurement.

The raw talent *is* there. I could point you at a quarter of that number within 20 miles of my home in Cornwall, but they haven't played for Wigan St.Pats so won't get a look in. Instead they will probably wither the vine of local RU, never to get the chance to play a game more suited to their strengths.

Until SL and championship clubs get over a reluctance to look beyond the end of their noses, the talent deficit will remain.

[Mr Wind Up]

12 hours ago, fevtom said:

I think that putting teams in based on names is slightly over played, let's remember that there's not a single sports team in all of Toronto that beats the small town of West Bromwich (smaller than Wigan) playing in the 2nd division of English football for crowds.

Toronto Blue Jays - 29,981

Toronto FC - 26,302

West Bromwich Albion - 24,520

To say nothing of the fact the only reason why the Maple Leafs and Raptors don't beat WBA is because they play in an arena.

[Kayakman]

4 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I'm gonna have a rub of this lamp and see if a genie pops out. 

I'm just back from kayaking up North...real hot and I melted...what do you want?

[Big Picture]

2 hours ago, Hemi4561 said:

Edit for accuracy, not enough people in North America are incompetent enough to back your numerous fictional teams. 

ROFLMAO.  The only persons with the means to back the teams which I envision would be very competent, otherwise they'd never have accumulated the necessary net worth to be able to afford to get involved.

[deluded pom?]

4 hours ago, Big Picture said:

ROFLMAO.  The only persons with the means to back the teams which I envision would be very competent, otherwise they'd never have accumulated the necessary net worth to be able to afford to get involved.

Not necessarily true BP. There are lots of examples of highly successful businessmen who behave like silly schoolboys once they get their hands on a sports team.