I don't blame them. English rugby should be strong enough to have 2 fully pro league's like France does.
Below is my view on the situation.
There isn’t the depth in English club rugby to sustain two top flight divisions. Looking at the current 12 Championship clubs, their support and financial backing are in most cases far short of being tenable in a Premiership set-up where the second division was automatically a promotion path to the first.
The Championship crowds are in general very poor. For the most part the grounds are tiny too in terms of spectator capacity, viz:
Bedford 6,000
Cornish Pirates 4,000
Coventry 4,000
Doncaster 5,000
Ealing 3,000
Hartpury College 2,000
Jersey Reds 4,000
London Irish 24,000 (they play at Reading FC ground but intend to move to Brentford FC’s new stadium)
London Scottish 4,500
Nottingham 3,000
Richmond 4,500
Yorkshire Carnegie 21,000
To maintain the Bristol forum connection, the three Bristol sides (Clifton, Dings Crusaders and Old Redcliffians) in English rugby's level four National League 2 South possess grounds that hold as many spectators as some of the Championship grounds, and at times they see crowds approaching those of the less well supported Championship clubs, but none of these three Bristol sides would ever get anywhere near the Prem.
Some of the above Championship clubs have appeared in the Prem in the past but in the days when it was a far different beast than it is now, commercially-speaking. London Welsh were relegated from the Prem in 2015 having lost every match. They ceased to exist as a professional club in January 2017 and now play as an amateur side in a regional London area league. Coventry, like London Welsh, were a giant for much of the 20th Century but their fortunes diminished quicker than London Welsh's and they’ve spent most of the past two decades in the second and third levels of English club rugby.
One of the few areas of England where rugby is more popular than football is Cornwall. It would be a marvellous fillip for the game there if Cornish Pirates could find their way into the Prem. Their current ground is far too small but there are moves to build a stadium for the joint use of Pirates and Truro City FC. Capacity would be 10,000 which I think is the minimum allowed by the Prem - I seem to remember a proposed change a few years ago to increase the minimum capacity for Prem grounds but I’m not aware of the idea progressing. Currently five Prem clubs have ground capacities between 10,000 and 13,000: Worcester, Saracens, Sale, Newcastle and Exeter.
The reason that most club owners don’t like the threat of relegation each year is that it cuts across the substantial investment many have made in their club. The Championship is so far beneath the playing standard of the Prem that, as I said in an earlier post, the same promoted and relegated teams swap position each year. There is no chance of a consistent period where an owner is guaranteed a number of years to build their team into a strong, financial and sustainable entity . A consistently strong Premiership is good for English rugby and for the league itself and, it can't be denied, for the clubs that would be ring-fenced.
If it was like football where many Championship clubs do have the wherewithal to compete in the Premier League then I’d have no sympathy with those who want to ring-fence the rugby Premiership. As it is, the relegated team just keeps leap-frogging up and down to the benefit of no-one.
One idea is to increase the Prem from 12 to 13 or 14 clubs. Currently, only London Irish is a contender. The other possible one - Yorkshire Carnegie - is languishing near the foot of the Championship table.
They could extend to 13 now with Irish almost certainly going up. A 14th place could be left open to any other club winning the Championship in the future and meeting all the criteria required for a Prem club. Having 14 clubs might mean a reduction of the cup competition - this season the Premiership Rugby Cup that has replaced the Anglo-Welsh Cup - but whatever it’s called the cup isn’t really a priority for Prem clubs.
If the Prem was eventually sealed at 14 clubs there could still be a future option for any Championship-winning club with the right credentials to play off against the bottom Prem club at the end of a season.
Were there 20 or 22 English clubs with the ability to compete in the Prem then great, and let’s have promotion and relegation, but there aren’t.
