I saw someone mention a few weeks ago about the benefits of combining League 1 and League 2 into one big 48 team division with a North 'region' and a South 'region'. There could definitely be benefits to this as it would prevent things like Carlisle travelling to Plymouth which in ideal conditions is a 12 and a half hour round journey. It would probably lead to most teams being within 2 hours of their opponents on a weakly basis and only occasionally have to travel 3 or more hours. I looked on Google Maps and worked out what the two divisions would look like and this is how it would work: North Division: Carlisle United - League 2 Hartlepool United - League 2 York City - League 2 Scunthorpe United - League 1 Bradford City - League 1 Barnsley - League 1 Doncaster Rovers - League 1 Sheffield United - League 1 Chesterfield - League 1 Mansfield Town - League 2 Notts County - League 2 Morecambe - League 2 Blackpool - League 1 Fleetwood Town - League 1 Shrewsbury Town - League 1 Burton Albion - League 1 Port Vale - League 1 Crewe Alexandra - League 1 Wigan Athletic - League 1 Accrington Stanley - League 2 Rochdale - League 1 Oldham Athletic - League 1 Bury - League 1 Walsall - League 1 South Division: Plymouth – League 2 Exeter City – League 2 Yeovil Town – League 2 Portsmouth – League 2 Newport County – League 2 Coventry City – League 1 Northampton Town – League 2 Peterborough United – League 1 Bristol Rovers – League 2 Colchester United – League 1 Cambridge United – League 2 Crawley Town – League 2 Barnet – League 2 Leyton Orient – League 2 AFC Wimbledon – League 2 Oxford United – League 2 Wycombe Wanderers – League 2 Stevenage – League 2 Southend United – League 1 Swindon Town – League 1 Luton Town – League 2 Gillingham – League 1 Dagenham and Redbridge – League 2 Millwall – League 1 One argument that was made against the idea was that one league would be stronger than the other. You can see that in the 'South Division' there are 17 League 2 teams compared to 7 League 1 teams so you could say this division is 'weaker' and therefore a foregone conclusion as to those who will finish near the top and also the fact that it is not right to have such a massive gap in quality between two teams i.e. the likes of Us, Coventry and Peterborough in the same league as the likes of Dagenham, Stevenage and Luton. What do you think? Would you be in favour of this?
So - what happens when 3 /4 ( however many ), totally northern or totally southern teams get relegated from the Championship ? We can't have a L1/ L2 of 27 /28 teams, with the corresponding division with as few was 20 /2 teams. This situation could arise from the promotion and relegation of just ONE season - and the numbers could be distorted further in the following year. I don't like arriving home at nearly 5 am after a mid week trip to Lancashire - but I'm not sure that we can have a better system than currently exists.
Strange one this. When the old system was around pre 1958 Shrewsbury were invariably in the South Section but it was flexible as they started off in the North Section but to accomodate relegated teams from the north they switched to the South Section. Always happens with Midland teams who have nothing to gain travel wise with regionality. Personally, I prefer the greater variety of opponents in the current set up, particularly if you are a yo-yo club like Shrewsbury.
A topic i have contributed over many a year and have views on; League One should be left alone, but my 'consideration' would be given to a NEW League Two and Conference combined on a North/South basis. The top team from either league (North/South) would be auto promoted to League One. Then the play-off winners from both North and South join the auto promoted to L1, with the current four structure coming down from that division. However, I do not have enough insight, knowledge or experience on how the North/South divide is structured to keep the balance across that bottom tier and relegated League One teams filling in as such on that North/South perspective. KDS has put forward an idea that looks feasible with agreeing clubs or a prior process structure to ensure the foundations are in place before the commencement of such an idea. We need someone with knowledge on how it used to work. Now there are many flaws already in my idea, in that this would reduce competition and the chances of promotion equally across both North/South leagues in that only one team from each would get auto promoted and this could affect attendances based on destroying 'hope' of promotion. The play-offs then become more valuable and creates an unfairness in itself, when an auto privilege should always be first and foremost as otherwise the 'best' team could lose out in a one off lottery game. Yes, that systems currently exists but in the 2015/16 structure at least opportunity is there with more auto places. Some clubs may even argue unfairness, Plymouth, Exeter, Carlisle just to name a few. Finally the biggest flaw i see in my idea is a Conference side winning a North or South League and making a huge step up straight into League One, which realistically will also create a great fall the following season, then teams above L2/Conference may then create an even bigger divide as the cream (Coventry/Wigan etc) will have ultimate security similar to the Prem (but on a hugely smaller scale) will be formed based on financial ability, something already covered in the OP. Based on the above as much has i would like to see something more promising happening with the Conference and an increased interest in League Two games, I'm not sure that I'v seen any ideas that would fulfill the ideal scenario for me therefore the current structure we have is the most balanced and fair one. But returning back to the original idea of a L1 & L2 combine, no way is my view and that would create an even longer jackanory from me! And if anyone even talks of B Teams, then they want shooting hahaha
I have to say that I quite like it the way it is but I would prefer to see two teams come up from the 'National' league into league two with a third via the play offs.
