Bottom two will go down from Super League

The RFL hosted another Q&A session with fans on Tuesday night, and confirmed that the bottom two teams will be relegated from Super League in 2014.

Around 40 fans were present at the event, with the RFL’s Director of standards and licensing Blake Solly and Chief operating officer Ralph Rimmer, and questions were also fielded via Twitter.

It was in response to a question on Twitter that Sollyconfirmed that the bottom two will be relegated from Super League in 2014, to facilitate the reduction in teams to 12 for 2015, barring any insolvency issues.

He added: “If a club is insolvent in 2014 but finish 8th then it’s not sensible for them to be in SL the year after – that has to be the standard.”

Rimmer said that the core principles of the review were to make the whole game attractive to fans, sponsors and broadcasters, and take the game to a point where “every minute matters”.

Other core principles included creating sustainable clubs, and ensuring that every pound spent centrally needs to create a return on investment for the good of the game.

Another priority is to increase the investment at the top of tier two, to help close the gap between the top two leagues to make promotion and relegation a realistic possibility.

Blake Solly confirmed that Championship teams would see a funding increase from their current £100,000 per year, and stated that they expect average attendances to rise from 1,200 to 1,800 under the new split system. The funding would be based on a sliding scale dependant on a club’s finishing position, with the top four tier two clubs expected to receive revenue around £500,000, to allow sustainability of full time clubs.

It was also revealed that in the middle league of eight, the four tier two clubs would get four home games, with the bottom four Super League teams playing three home games in the seven game split league.

A decision on the Policy Review and the way forward for the game is expected in September.

To see all the comments from last night’s event, see The RFL’s Twitter feed.