This is an idea I've been evolving for 15+ years now, and occasionally posting:
IMO what we need is better player welfare (fewer matches/minutes per player) alongside increased interest levels (higher quality/intensity matches, larger geographic spread, greater diversity of opponents…), and re-arranging the season without shrinking it too much… Which is a bit like trying to square a circle.
IMO, decrease the Prem to 10 teams, 5 in each level of European rugby.
Shrink the champ to 10 (IMO: we can sustain about 20 fully pro clubs, even if they need some charity initially).
Increase promo/relegation with the Championship to 1 automatic and another play off.
Ring-fence the top two leagues (with specific criteria to eject under-performers or include ambitious semi-pro.s).
MSCs for both leagues, but looser than currently, predominantly administrative, and basic stadium features (any mention of capacity should be set very low; circa 2-3K;
maybe include plans for increases to 10K over a sensible time period).
Same salary cap for both leagues (but without the expectation of paying up to it for the lower level Championship teams). Salary cap should be based on financial viability, not owner's ego.
TV deal is for both leagues as one deal (ideally 2 Prem and 1 Champ match per weekend, but I'm not averse to more).
RFU academies for all.
Ideally (and this is probably a non-starter) I'd ditch the SF aspect of the Premiership finals (removing international clashes should help with this) and put the top 2 from the league straight into the final. Leagues points difference is translated into score board points at kick-off. Promotion/Relegation match can be played as the curtain raiser.
Create a proper domestic cup competition between the 2 leagues. (I'm unsure if 5 pools of 4, or 6 pools of 4 with 4 invitational teams [ND1? military? England Students? Eng U20? Wales? South Africa
] is the better option).
Knock-out stages to include Cup, Plate and Shield competitions so that everyone gets some knock-out experiences every year. Players are only available for the cup if they played less than x minutes (1800?) in the previous season (may allow a higher number for the Championship teams [who won't be playing EPRC fixtures]).
If the cup "just" has the 20 teams, then Cup and Plate go from pools to Quarter Finals, whilst the shield goes straight into semi-finals. If inviting 4 outside teams, then all 3 can have a QF stage.
This gives us 6 pool + 3 KO weekends to fit into the 10 week international window. We've bought that by reducing the league by 4 weekends and helped player welfare with that game-time limit for the domestic cup - I'd also have a maximum number of minutes for every player anyway.
In terms of home matches, clubs go from 11+2 (Prem), 3+2 (EPRC) and… 0 now that the AWC has become a mid-week squad filler, to 9 (Prem), 3+2 (EPRC) and 3+2 (DomCup) so actually increase the number of home gates per season (now that the AWC has died).
Everyone is also guaranteed at least one knock-out match each year, even if they're not guaranteed a home ground for it (might there be room to play DomCup QFs home and away?).
In terms of variety, Prem clubs go from facing 11 English opponents + 2-3 European to 9 English opponents + 2-3 European + an extra 2 English from a less usual pool of opponents.
Dropping 3 teams from the Premiership increases the quality there, and allows the season to be completed without clashes with international weekends.
Dropping 5 teams from the bottom, and replacing them with 3 big names from the Prem massively increases the quality of the Championship.
The Domestic Cup allows for a greater variety of opponents for the Premiership teams, and a requirement to use the back-up players. The Domestic Cup allows the Championship teams a chance at giant slaying the Prem clubs, and to measure themselves against the bigger boys, which really ought to generate interest from fans and sponsors alike.
Combine that extra interest with a proper TV deal (exposure + money) then that should grow the Championship significantly.
Increasing movement between the 2 levels, and greater cross-over matches between the 2 levels, should reduce the bounce-back aspect of promotion and relegation, whilst that and the extra funding for the Champ clubs (and the ring-fencing there) should reduce the existential fear of relegation for the Prem clubs.
For the champ teams, without European rugby, you could argue that they'd be lacking match numbers, despite the higher quality and TV deal. You could also argue that this is better for player welfare, allows them to rest ahead of their giant-slaying opportunities, and allow for smaller squads (and thus, smaller playing budgets at that level).
If there aren't 7 Championship clubs willing to take on full professionalism with all those boosts, then I'd look for the RFU getting involved and "assisting" 1-3 clubs in unrepresented areas, say Carlisle, Blackburn or Canterbury.
In terms of financing, the Premiership's BT deal, signed during Covid, is supposed to be in the region of
£37M p.a.
The current ***le sponsorship deal for the Premiership is supposed to be in the regions of
£10M p.a.
The current RFU/PRL deal for EPS release etc etc is supposed to be in the region of
£27.5M p.a.
FTR, current funding for the Championship is in the region of
£3.5M p.a.
I would argue that my suggested set-up would see increases to all of those, and possibly a ***le sponsor found for the Domestic Cup (and remember, that BT deal was shrunk from the previous deal, due to pandemic uncertainties and problems)
Currently, those payments are smoothed over 13 clubs, for £5.7M each (or in the Champ, 12 clubs, for £0.288M each)
If spread evenly over 20 clubs, it would be £3.9M each
If split 3:2 it's be £4.7 (Prem) & £3.1M (Champ)
If split 2:1 it'd be £5.2M (Prem) & £2.6M (Champ)
If interest was increased by 20% from current levels, you could split those monies 3:2 and the Prem clubs wouldn't lose a penny, whilst the Champ clubs would see a 13 fold increase. I would also expect increased interest to increase ticket sales, shirt sales, and the value of club sponsorship agreements – especially in the Championship.
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