first off, this stupid league should never have been developed.
the state teams were becoming self sufficient on the back of T20, then they kick them for a franchise system
the standard is very poor in comparison to the previous state-teams
a much better way would have been to introduce a few expansion sides (such as the old cannons, and auckland knights)
reducing the ryobi cup was a bad move, and having such a large break in shield will affect the country in its rebuild, let alone effectively moving it to a much colder timeslot, how can players last 5 days in 35+ weather when all thier match practice is in weather under 20 degrees.
now, ontop of that, where will they play? 5 of the 6 grounds used during the shield season are AFL grounds, and most of the back-up grounds host aussie rules and rugby league games