Thankfully the competition managed to find First Utility for the current season, but maybe the warning sirens have already begun to sound, as League officials must surely now know that they do not have a hugely sought after product. In my eyes the decision to revert Super League from a franchise system back to a promotion/relegation structure was taken to make Rugby League more exciting to the wider public, and more attractive to the wider commercial world. The prospect of relegation and promotion deciders on the final day of the season is sure to have bosses at Sky giddy with excitement, but I believe it is a short term fix that will have large repercussions on the future of the game.
The re-implementation of promotion/relegation into Super League is akin to throwing a grenade into the room. In this era of financial difficulty, the broadcasting money and local interest - that spawns higher gate figures – provided by Super League is almost vital to the survival of many clubs. Do we really expect to see teams like London Broncos and Bradford Bulls existing in two years if they are relegated this season? This is the major problem facing Super League as a whole, if two teams are to be demoted every season from Super League henceforth, then we are putting severe strain on these clubs to survive. The teams that have been cherished by generations of rugby fans all over the country will be put on the brink of administration and winding up orders, simply by the prospect of relegation. And because of this prospect, teams will ultimately spend more carelessly in order to try and stave off the threat of relegation, further pushing them into the red. It is this toxic and dangerous cycle that in my eyes represents the biggest threat to Rugby League’s premier platform. In fifteen years it is entirely possible that Super League will still exist and it might be flourishing on a massively successful scale, but if the competition is to suffer gravely in the future through a lack of quality and competition then we know what will have caused its decline.