Time for an extra NL promotion place?

[MAD_MAGPIE]

If this question had been asked before we had been relegated I'd probably have said leave it as it is. However since we have been relegated the standard and quality and entertainment is much better than what I expected and some games have been as good as league two or league one games.

If it were to become a division 5 or league 3 then I think it should become a full-time league and entry into it be on condition of becoming full time. As I understand there are a couple of clubs in it at are not full time Dover and Maidenhead?

Games are generally good and competitive and it's not the graveyard that I thought it would be after we were relegated. If anything it's almost a place for clubs like ours and Stockport to regroup and rebuild from the bottom upwards before pushing on.

There is clearly a bottleneck and there are some well supported teams at this level including ourselves, Wrexham, Stockport, Grimsby, Southend and Cheaterfurlough who all get average attendances over 5,000. It does drop off a cliff to 2,700 downwards.

Whilst EFL history and the size of a clubs support base is not a ticket to jump the queue back to the football league the six clubs including us have enhanced it considerably so it's a reasonable question to ask is there merit in having 3 up and 3 down.

[Chicken Balti Pie]

If there was a will for it in the EFL heirarchy, they'd probably have to say if they don't accept 3 up 3 down they'd cut the promotion places down to 3 out of league 2. I think one of the issues we have at the moment is that clubs coming up in recent years have really small attendances. There is no guarantee that if they made it 3 up, 3 down that the bigger teams will go up. Just look at the seasons we've been down here. Sutton, Barrow, Harrogate and Hartlepool have gone up. Hartlepool are the biggest of those 4 but hardly have massive attendances and don't really travel with lots of fans.

To get the turkeys to vote for Christmas, you're going to have to sell them something that they will benefit from and that is either take away the easier jump to league 1 or try and convince them of bigger gates (but that potentially comes as bigger competition!)