The structure of funding in the championship is a disgrace to the sport. There will hopefully always be more then 4 decent clubs in with a shout and the gap between 4th and 5th in central funding is almost impossible to deal with from a commercial planning point of view. Get relegated from SL and you get a parachute and all contracts void. Plan for top 4 in champ and fail or get demoted from top 4 and you are stuffed. The funds should be allocated on points earned and if teams are bunched then they share what’s going and would probably be able to guess next years funding a few weeks out.
From what I’ve gleaned on here it’s also not possible to create contracts acceptable to RFL that base the ongoing rewards with pitch performance.
The two scenarios create an almost impossible basis on which to run a business - to survive just aim low and try not to miss.