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Latest Rumours National League speaking to EFL about 3 up three down change

Regionalised leagues have not place in the professional game in 2022.

Our country really isn't that big
They would have no place for the 60 clubs in the top 3 divisions. But like the rest of the world regional makes financial sense.

The missing 4 home games by going down to 20 would be made up by more TV money to the lower leagues.

Plus Southend v Col U would be far better and more profitable than Altrincham. Even Dover at home on a Tuesday costs the club money. Far lower attendances, no away fans, scratch meal deals and few walk ins means we probably don’t cover the floodlight bill.
 
I am not expecting turkeys to vote for Christmas but looking at League 2 these days I would imagine a few chairman are getting a bit twitchy about the size of the clubs in that division these days. I expect the away attendances for some of those clubs must be in double figures and it might not be long before a few of them start looking at the size of the clubs in the National League and wondering if it might not be a bad thing to welcome more of a turnover.
This is my thinking as well. I suspect clubs would welcome the change if the "League 3" proposal comes back again (without B Teams obviously) but I can't see it being passed through just yet. As mentioned above, the 5 leagues of 20 does make a lot of sense IMO
 
They would have no place for the 60 clubs in the top 3 divisions. But like the rest of the world regional makes financial sense.

The missing 4 home games by going down to 20 would be made up by more TV money to the lower leagues.

Plus Southend v Col U would be far better and more profitable than Altrincham. Even Dover at home on a Tuesday costs the club money. Far lower attendances, no away fans, scratch meal deals and few walk ins means we probably don’t cover the floodlight bill.
But the likes of Wrexham, Stockport, Notts County, Oldham, Scunthorpe etc will bring more than local southern sides as your example of Dover shows.

The real argument is whether there should be 5 professional leagues in this country, for me L2 should be part time
 
What has been suggested is 5 divisions of 20 with two divisions being regionalised

That would mean 100 EFL clubs but still the same 2 up from 4 North and 2 From South
Less travelling/Overnight trips, Tuesday games and less dead rubber mid table games…. Works for me.
This is a great proposal, it should overall reduce cost and increase incomes however too many large supported clubs in the lower divisions in the other side may do the opposite. Far better decision and one the EFL really should seriously consider
 
But the likes of Wrexham, Stockport, Notts County, Oldham, Scunthorpe etc will bring more than local southern sides as your example of Dover shows.

The real argument is whether there should be 5 professional leagues in this country, for me L2 should be part time
They won’t bring more than Gills, Col U, Dagenham or Orient. If it went ahead for say 23/24 we could be playing all those plus Wimbledon , Stevenage and Crawley etc all on a Saturday with more fans and a better atmosphere…. One which would attract many of our towns 10,000 Bored with the PL Arsenal type fans…. Either way certainly more than Barrow or Rochdale.
 
They won’t bring more than Gills, Col U, Dagenham or Orient. If it went ahead for say 23/24 we could be playing all those plus Wimbledon , Stevenage and Crawley etc all on a Saturday with more fans and a better atmosphere…. One which would attract many of our towns 10,000 Bored with the PL Arsenal type fans…. Either way certainly more than Barrow or Rochdale.
Won't work.

You wouldn't be able to visit the Rochdale House of Leather.
 
Won't work.

You wouldn't be able to visit the Rochdale House of Leather.
I prefer the Mistress Boutique on the London Rd….. Anyway there is always the FA cup to tick more northern grounds.
 
But the likes of Wrexham, Stockport, Notts County, Oldham, Scunthorpe etc will bring more than local southern sides as your example of Dover shows.

The real argument is whether there should be 5 professional leagues in this country, for me L2 should be part time

Think you might be on your own with that view!
 
But the likes of Wrexham, Stockport, Notts County, Oldham, Scunthorpe etc will bring more than local southern sides as your example of Dover shows.

The real argument is whether there should be 5 professional leagues in this country, for me L2 should be part time
You on your own! Even in Polish 2nd & 3rd Division, lots of clubs are part time, especially they get crowds avag. of 600, which is fair enough. Our 5th division get more crowds than our polish club in 2nd division only dream about.
 
So if EFL league 2 goes part time......Where does that leave the NL?
 
To be quite honest, I think it's about time that League 2 and the Conference were merged into L2 North and South.

With diesel now around £2 a litre and a coach if it's lucky doing 10 miles to the gallon, a trip to York and back will cost just shy of £400, divide that by 4 for each car doing the trip.

Keep the trapdoor to 4 teams up and down, have the champions go up from each regional L2, create an end of season play off for the last two places and likewise have 2 down from each regional league.

Attendances *should* increase due to the closer proximity to teams (OK Southend to Exeter is still a slog) but the quality of matchday experience in theory increases.

Teams finishing bottom half of the L2 regional go into the FA Vase, teams top half get into the trophy thingy, all of a sudden mid season dead rubbers have some credibility - (right or wrong) you're far more wanting to play against an EPL academy team than a step 4 team who are coming to try and get a scalping and there's going to be a marked difference in prize money.

All of a sudden, L2 is not just the basement. It's a good, entertaining league with more at stake now.
 
So if EFL league 2 goes part time......Where does that leave the NL?
Part time obviously, clubs are going bust or creating massive debts as the money simply isn't sustainable at lower league level
 
But if you were making a 4th division but with div 5 mixed into A/B, Southend would have still been a league club so what's the difference?

I'm not suggesting it as a quick and easy way to all of a sudden be promoted by proxy. It's more a mention about how the whole thing is unsustainable the way it is, costs are rising and frivolous trips up and down the country won't help anyone.

Before we went through the trapdoor it was often said here that the quality of the top half of the Conference was as good as most of L2 so not much would change there.

How many times have we as supporters moaned about the fact that Fleetwood have brought down 50 fans etc? This would alleviate some of that issue at least.

It's pie in the sky thinking anyway - TV deals, sponsorships etc all would have to be torn up and rewritten. Do Sky Bet L2 or Vanarama have the naming rights on the league for example?
 
How did the change of automatic promotion from NL into efl come about? It used to be an election if I recall? So presumably turkeys have voted for Christmas before in the football World.
 
Don’t see the value in merging the Conf into the FL.

You’ll lose the increased profile that the NL has (eg it’s own TV deal with more NL than L2 games shown). The TV money will have to be shared downwards which won’t be popular amongst the Championship sides who are probably pushing for a greater share of the pie anyway.

Including part-time teams in the FL waters down that brand. Regionalising it also diminishes the brand.

The NL doesn’t have enough strength in depth to justify a 24 team L3. The problem you’re all trying to solve is that there is a bottleneck with only two teams going up. Allowing more to go up - with a play-off between the L2 and NL team is the way to go. But if Maher gets us up most won’t care any more.
 
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