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Ring fencing premiership and championship

Rinkadink said:
It was the RFU who removed several teams from the league (then nat1) and aimed to make it "fully professional" whilst expecting this to happen with 500k (or less) paid to each club in central funding and no league sponsor.
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Again, your recollection differs from mine. IIRC there was a vote among member clubs and enough of them were in favour of casting their peers out into the wilderness that it was allowed to go through.
 
TRF_Olyy said:
I've heard that Cornish Pirates are going semi-pro next season, not sure if that's confirmed or just rumour

Ealing are spending astronomically beyond their means - their current owner is happy to pay out of his pocket but he's 87 and I saw somewhere that his family have said they're not interested in taking over the club when he passes, so that's very shaky ground.
Not too dissimilar to the situation that most Prem clubs are in (relying on a sugar daddy) tbf, but Champ clubs even less enticing to investors/sponsors than Prem ones
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This article explains the situation:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/66960363

Pirates' situation isn't entirely dissimilar to Ealing's with their major benefactor of 25+ years ceasing his financial input into the club. It's somewhat ironic that in one of the articles linked to from the above, Evans talks about the people who bought his stake in the club having the will and capacity to see the Pirates into the Premiership. Eighteen months later, talk is of reverting to a semi-pro model.
 
Just seen Bill Sweeney talking on BBC sport. He should think of going into politics with those answers. It was the standard "not my fault" response .
 
www.coventryrugby.co.uk

Statement by the English Championship Rugby clubs - Coventry Rugby

The Championship clubs together with their various owners and benefactors met in emergency session on the morning of Wednesday October 4th to discuss the way ahead in the context of both the progress of the Professional Game Partnership and the sad news relating to Jersey Reds. They agreed on...
www.coventryrugby.co.uk www.coventryrugby.co.uk
 
TRF_Olyy said:
How much oversight does the FRU have on the Top 14? Whenever I've heard about it it's always the FRU and LNR (their version of the PRL) at loggerheads
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The basis of the pyramids sucess is mainly down to top 14 clubs coming together and collectively bargaining and then sumplementing the second division with that deal with the view that a structure that allows for movement up and down more likely to bring ivestors if they feel they can actually get a club into the top division (they were right). FRU obviously made the whole thing more sustainable by implementing Jiff as well.

www.telegraph.co.uk

Inside the journey which took France from global laughing stock to World Cup contenders

The moment of truth is nigh – after a decade of careful curation and systemic change, a team has been assembled with one aim in mind
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
Has the best breakdown on how frances clubs did this best that I have read. It comes down to the top 14 and D2 working together as one entity in commercial deals for tV right primarily, with all putting the health of rugby before the immediate benefit to any one individual. So basically if you want a pyramid you need premiership teams to stop acting like franchises and put the betterment of the game first. The RFU could supplement this with a jiff style policy and a financial governing body that works on a year to year basis like france has as well, where every team submits their financials every year and if they are pinged they either get fines, point deductions or relegation if extremely unsustainable.

So TLDR they work together to get the most money, propper up the D2 initially and still do to a degree but now they have investors of their own and are very strict on business every season.

Most of this would be on prem clubs putting short term selfish gains behind long term profits, but the RFU could help in implimentation and management.
 
www.coventryrugby.co.uk

Autumn 2023 Statement from Executive Chairman Jon Sharp - Coventry Rugby

State of the game We now have a two-week break to pause and reflect on the Premiership Rugby Cup and to look forward to the Championship and what the future holds for Coventry Rugby in our 150th year. The Cup Competition I am extraordinarily proud of our team and what they achieved particularly...
www.coventryrugby.co.uk www.coventryrugby.co.uk

Statement from Coventry, the second bit is around plans etc but the first bit is really Laying into the RFU.
 
Happy with that. Hopefully he'll get something sensible on the table as most of the stuff coming out the RFU these days is terrible
 
I'd be interested to hear what their plans are etc. but sceptical anything will come of it

Dimes is a proper rugby man, from grassroots up, so he'll definitely be passionate about trying to get something sorted but as with most things it'll likely come down to money (and PRL votes)
 
TRF_Olyy said:
I'd be interested to hear what their plans are etc. but sceptical anything will come of it

Dimes is a proper rugby man, from grassroots up, so he'll definitely be passionate about trying to get something sorted but as with most things it'll likely come down to money (and PRL votes)
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I might be stupid in saying this, but if if the rfu create a prem 2, then start attracting teams and making it commercially viable (big statement there i know). Then could they get the premiership teams to join it and therefore the end result would be the RFU owning the premiership and being out of the CVC deal?

I know the RFU is all about trying to control things and this is a plan for them to do so. They could have the prem 2 include welsh teams or whatever they wanted. They could build it to rival the prem not support it.
 
TRF_Olyy said:
I'd be interested to hear what their plans are etc. but sceptical anything will come of it

Dimes is a proper rugby man, from grassroots up, so he'll definitely be passionate about trying to get something sorted but as with most things it'll likely come down to money (and PRL votes)
Click to expand...
This is maybe part of the problem with someone like Dimes leading this, being a bit too passionate and forceful to make any real change, its a fine balance, I feel like the perfect combination of steam roller and tack would be required just not sure Dimes has both.
 
Championship clubs have rejected the P2 proposal

www.coventryrugby.co.uk

Championship Clubs Statement | 17th November 2023 - Coventry Rugby

The 11 Championship clubs came together today to debate their collective future: whether our league will be best served by capitalising on the potential of its commercial rights and its brand-identity to underpin a truly “whole-game solution” to tier two, or by considering a putative...
www.coventryrugby.co.uk www.coventryrugby.co.uk
 
Up the Knights!



Speaking of: Just saw Jack Metcalfs name on their most recent teamsheet, he's had a frustrating career

He never should have left us, think he'd have been a starter in his 2nd season with us but Ealing offered him crazy money so he went there - hated it, transferred to Doncaster mid season and is now on the bench for them behind Joe Bedlow who's on loan there from us, and was his academy teammate
 

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