Don’t try to keep up with richer leagues
IN response to Neil Edwards’ letter of Sept 29 and further in support of Jeff Gage’s letter of Oct 6, crowds in any second tier will always be lower because it’s not the premier competition. We see this in soccer as well.
Look at Exeter Chiefs who in the 90s had a stadium which seated only 750 for a semi-pro side. Now they have a stadium capacity of 15,600 which regularly sells out.
If there was no promotion then this would not have happened and they wouldn’t have been European and English champions.
The goal of the RFU should be to turn the Championship into an English ProD2 and where relegation is not such a drop as it is now. Also stop trying to keep pace with foreign richer leagues.
I would do the following: 14 teams each in Championship and Premiership. Reduce salary cap to manageable levels so they can survive sudden frights. Get rid of having players outside the salary cap. Bring in player welfare rules such as a rest week every six games. No caveats promotion and relegation from both. And then just leave it alone. What will be, will be.
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