Rugby League Commercial confirm when Super League expansion teams will be revealed

Rugby League Commercial have confirmed the plans for when Super League expansion will be confirmed this week.

Thursday 16th October has been the date in the diaries for a long time as that is when the official IMG grading scores are confirmed, however, that will only determine 12 of the 14 teams in Super League next season.

The thirteenth and fourteenth teams will be decided by an independent panel chaired by Lord Caine and it’s now been confirmed that the panel will confirm their choices on Friday 17th October at 10:00 am, 24 hours after the initial IMG grades are released.

As well as that update, Rugby League Commercial have also confirmed that 13 clubs have improved their score from 2024 with three of those doing so by one point or more.

Clubs expected to make improvements include Super League Grand Final winners Hull KR after they claimed one whole point in bonuses for winning that and the Challenge Cup.

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News of these dates was confirmed by RL Commercial and Tony Sutton of the Rugby Football League spoke on the improvements the sport has made under IMG.

He said: “Rugby League broke new ground for British sport when Club Grading was introduced as part of Reimagining Rugby League and IMG’s long-term strategic partnership with the sport.

“It had six stated aims – driving clubs to grow their fanbases, to better engage with their fans, to grow their top-line non-centralised revenue, to generate greater investment in the club and the sport, to be run in a best-in-class way, and to ensure that strong governance is in place.

“The steady increase in scores across the majority of pillars, despite an increase in some thresholds, shows that Club Grading is delivering against those objectives.”

One major positive of grading is that 18 clubs now meet Super League minimum standards, up from 14 in 2024, whilst 15 clubs improved their finance score as well.

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