Play-off deal ‘can fund Championship clubs’

Cornish Pirates chairman Dicky Evans believes trading away rights to automatic promotion and relegation between the Championship and Premiership would be the best way of generating revenue to keep second tier teams afloat.
Championship clubs meet on Tuesday when discussions will centre on funding – both from television and the RFU – the future structure of competitions and how to improve the visibility of the league from a marketing perspective.
Evans believes a closer relationship with the Premiership clubs is key if future television revenues are to stream downwards and his radical proposal would see bottom-placed Premiership clubs handed an end of season play-off lifeline.
“Championship clubs must start thinking outside the box,” said Evans, a long-time backer of the Pirates who admits to suffering a growing sense of ‘donor fatigue’.
“If Bristol win the Championship they have the resources to remain in the top-flight, which would be good news. But how many others do? Eleven out of the 12 haven’t got a hope in hell, despite what some of them might think.
“The majority don’t pass the facilities test, so what’s the point? Let’s get real. This is a business and I would much rather see the Championship clubs concentrate on getting their funding sorted.
“This, in my opinion, includes trading-off a promotion play-off scenario with Premiership Rugby‘s bottom team in return for substantial financial support which, together with RFU funding and a decent TV deal, means clubs wouldn’t have to rely on benefactors.”
Had such a system been in place last season, Newcastle Falcons would not have been promoted automatically but instead plunged into a fight with the Premiership’s bottom side, London Welsh, to gain their top-flight place.
This season, it would allow likely basement-dwellers Worcester a second shot at survival, while Bristol might see their plans wrecked.
It would be a highly controversial move, but Evans counters: “I’ll probably get slaughtered for these comments but what happens when the likes of me, Geoff Irvine (Bedford) and other Championship backers go toes-up?
“Let’s put the building blocks in place for a properly funded second tier that doesn’t rely almost entirely on sugar daddies.”
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