Said this on the VT but i'll repeat it here - "invest" in this context means "be willing to burn some money". Sports clubs away from the worlds biggest franchises aren't something you typically make any money out of. Hence only huge fans of the clubs involved tend to be the ones who are the rich backers.

Other recommendations include:

Replacing the Magic Weekend

Introducing 2 legged challenge cup games

A mid March start to the season.

Replacing the combined nations team with something else.

Reduction of regular season to 22 games.

Suggests 12 teams.

Not sure about the 2 legged cup ties, it's hard enough to get fans through the gate as it is without trying to repeat the process a week or two later..
..especially if one of the sides is sat on a thirty point deficit from a first leg hiding

I agree. that won't happen imo

Maybe room for another knockout comp similar to the Regal/John Player Trophy of the 80's and 90's. The Channel 4 Cup? Only if there are 22 league games mind.

Everyone goes on about raising the salary cap

Where is the money coming from to do that ?

Virtually every suggestion IMG have come up with so could we .

IMG need to help raise some revenue that is what is needed most

Oh and if you have no relegation , there are going to be plenty of dead rubbers the last third of the season

We already have a lot of dead rubbers at the bottom of the league even with relegation

Extra cup comps, 2 legged ties, mid March start. Some of this is mental, but it’s all just surface level window dressing.

We need to radically redefine the fabric of the game in this country. We need to explore, implement, and perfect innovative and fresh ways of marketing and growing the game, whilst fortifying, replenishing, and refreshing the foundations of the sport on a micro and macro level. <insert other flowery business vernacular and platitudes>.

From what I can see, all IMG have done is consult people within the game who have said “let’s go back to franchising” and they’ve gone “ok yeah, let’s do that”. They’ve then repackaged it. “Slavery with extra steps” (if you don’t watch Rick and Morty you won’t understand the reference).

I’ve seen this one before.

They've rebadged it you fool!

I understand all about investing in sports clubs. I was involved in sourcing funding for a basketball team some years ago from a bunch of high net worth investors. The thing is though that even a loss-making sporting team can be of interest to people with real money, if nothing else for tax purposes. But it has to be an attractive, high-profile thing to invest in.

The pitch will be also be that if you can grow the sport enough, you can make a lot of money if you sell out later, even if clubs aren't making big profits during the growth phase.

Those two reasons are why mega-wealthy people are pouring cash into the Football Championship, probably the most financially unsustainable competition in world sport.

We can't replicate all of that, as clearly we don't have a Premiership pot of gold. But I think RL needs to try to attract some of this money, as there's simply not enough money in the game to be able to just magic up major improvements organically. Otherwise we're just reorganizing chairs on the Titanic.

No partridge fans? Disappointing.