Scottish Rugby Union CEO Mark Dodson confirmed a "six-team part-time professional league," according to David Barnes of the SCOTSMAN. The SRU will contribute £62,500 ($81,500) per year to each franchise for player payments and also direct £65,000 ($84,700) per year to backroom staff, including head coach, strength and conditioning coach, trainer and analyst. Each franchise "must match" the governing body's contribution to player payments for a squad of 35 players, and "can go beyond that if able to prove they have a sustainable turnover to squad-cost ratio." The format will be in place for the '19-20 season and the SRU "hopes to name the competing franchises -- they will be existing clubs and perhaps some amalgamations" -- in autumn '18. There will be at least one franchise from each traditional "district" -- Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Borders and Caledonia -- plus two "floating" franchises. There will be "no promotion to or relegation from the Super Six during the first five years of the competition." Dodson does not envisage full-time professionals from Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors playing in the league at this stage, but added that he "hopes the standard will reach a level at some point where that would be beneficial for centrally contracted players in need of game time." Each team in the "Super Six" will play 20 games per season, "which will be against each other three times (15 games), plus five cross-Border matches, perhaps in the British and Irish Cup." Prize money will be awarded "on a sliding scale" to the winning team in each league all the way down to regional competitions. The cost of the program will be £3.6M ($4.7M) over five years (SCOTSMAN, 8/5).
