I'm quite concerned about the rumours/news emerging. I was originally supportive of the SL clubs taking a more directive role, because it seemed to me that they had perceived the problems correctly.
The problem we have is that there are too few clubs which are large enough, or have the potential to be large enough. SL needs more clubs who can compete for honours, generate good crowds and profile upon which to sell decent TV rights, and produce future players through a good talent development system. So the key questions we had facing us were:
1) How do we increase the competitiveness of SL?
2) Linked to that, how do we grow the game in terms of players, fans and sponsorship?
Based on the rumours emerging today, the answers appear to be:
1) How do we increase the competitiveness of SL? We won't. We'll just chuck out two of the less competitive clubs and hope nobody notices that there are still a majority of also-rans in SL with no incentive to improve.
2) Linked to that, how do we grow the game in terms of players, fans and sponsorship? We won't. We'll just take the existing fanbase, playerbase and sponsorship, and try to concentrate it amongst 10 clubs rather than 12.
Essentially they're hoping to spread the same jam thicker, rather than making more jam. That's a recipe for the sport's demise into increasing irrelevance, and not in the long-term either.
