I’ve been reading about some of the NFL and Australian NRL franchises which failed, folded or never got agreed. It kind of put me into a mind that although Superleague without Cas is unthinkable to us how much does it matter to the wider game?
If you were starting from now, knowing what you do what would you do?
London would be a cert I guess, as would something NE and NW. (3)
France in the shape of Catalans have succeeded and for that to do better, you would need a bigger footprint - so I guess we are talking Toulouse as well. (5)
You’d have to think you’d keep your international venues - Leeds, Wigan, Warrington, Hull, Saints, Huddersfield.
That in essence gives you 11 to start. You would be hard pressed not to include recent finalists - Salford, Leigh, HKR - 14……… I really don’t know. Back to my ideal model, 2 in Hull and the proximity of the West M62 cluster isn’t great.
Cricket are trying to de-clutter with the hundred and go city and region and it is beginning to be successful after two years of complete criticism. The IPL, the richest cricket thing in the world isn’t based on their domestic circuit, it is new franchises invented for the tournament….. If the product is good enough, people will take to it.
I am trying to not be bound by what has always been, trying to think about what I would “invent” if I was going to do it now….. I think I would have liked some real insight like that from the IMG vision, what the perfect geographical and media model looks like before we get in to d15k measuring stadiums people can’t afford and criteria which are irrelevant to most attendees.
