Jon Wilkin: Time for 'more sustainable' Super League to be a 10-team league?

Sky Sports Rugby League’s Jon Wilkin reflects on the gradings released by IMG, how the system can make rugby league more sustainable and questions whether it’s time to make the Super League a 10-team league…

I think the grading system for people, who aren’t aware of it, is quite dramatic and sounds such a break away from what we associate with promotion and relegation and winning and losing. The essence of sport is winning and losing, whereas this has taken that out of the club’s hands.

Wakefield, as an example, have been given a very clear criteria of how it is possible for them to get a Grade A licence and get a position in the Super League. That’s important, because whatever sport you follow, it relies upon private investment.

Three rugby union clubs have gone bust over the past couple of seasons. There are football clubs that live on the brink without that private investment. That’s the story, how sustainable – maybe – the grading system will make our sport.

What grading has done is allowed somebody like Matt [Ellis] to come in at Wakefield, spend a couple of million quid and get his team into Super League in a sustainable way. It has ultimately been a positive news story at Wakefield.

I think the game should be commended for doing that. It’s such a depart from what we associate with sport, this grading system. We’ve just seen all of the clubs 1-35 ranked, based on facilities, attendances, community – all of these different facets, so it’s crazy to see.

Sustainable growth for rugby league?

Covid-19 was tough for sports. A lot of sports clubs are heavily leveraged with debt and I think what our game has acknowledged is, after coming out of such a tough period, to consolidate its position, build some solid foundations and decide upon a route to grow from.

I think this grading has just made clubs accountable. Short-termism is a disease in sport, where you’ve got cash and you spend it and live beyond your means. As soon as that cash goes, clubs then disappear and I think that’s a really sad fact of sport.

What this has done is really focused clubs on the finances, on the facilities, on the fan experience and through that focus and the accountability of ranking everybody, I think we’ve seen a real clamour for clubs to improve.

Look at Castleford, for example, they’ve absolutely followed the rules that the game has set out and the grading system perfectly. They’ve made loads of small changes and improved their score dramatically, earning a Grade A licence now because of that.

It’s important for clubs to play the game and, in the first year, it’s looking like the clubs that have played the game have done well.

More teams moving closer to Grade A?

Rhodri Jones, the head of RL Commercial, was saying the appetite for the game is to expand, so Toulouse – for me – is an attractive prospect. It would be a second French team in the competition and I think that’d be an amazing thing for the competition.

London is a different question altogether, but I like having those brands associated with our game. I went and played out in Canada in Toronto and when London came to town, the Canadian people were interested. It’s a bit harder to sell when you’re saying Featherstone or these towns that nobody hears of.

I think London and Toulouse add brand value to us and they’re not far off, are they? They’re right at the top. I put York in there as well – they’re very close to getting that Grade A licence.

The challenge the game’s got is when we get more than nine clubs with a Grade A licence and then you’ve got to start picking, based on that grade, who’s in and who’s out, and that could be tricky.

Should the Super League look at expanding?

Don’t even talk about expanding it, because you’re just dragging other people into that. I think I’d reduce it, I’d have a 10-team top tier. I would not go anywhere near going a 14-team top tier.

We’ve got nine teams with a Grade A licence. Now that’s telling me we’ve got nine good clubs and the rest are developing, so let’s build around what we’re strong at and let’s put 10 clubs in a competition.

It’s played out well for the game that the team who finished bottom London are out and the team that finished top of the Championship and won the play-off are in. It has not been too controversial, now that won’t be the case going forward. You’d imagine the more Grade A teams we get, the trickier it’s going to become.

RL Commercial, who have got IMG to make all these recommendations ultimately don’t have control of what the competition looks like – it’s the club owners. You’ve got turkeys voting for Christmas, you’ve got 12 club owners who are going to vote on what the competition looks like, how many teams are in it.

I’m sure they’d all want more of the TV distribution, so I’d imagine it’s more likely to be less teams than more. They’re not going to put four more teams in the competition, it’s just not going to happen and they’re not going to vote for that.

Either the game has to look at a way in which it can influence that decision or just accept this is the competition and it’s going to be this or fewer teams going forward.

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