Or needing to strengthen / prop up the PL brand with more clubs and a second league in case the Euro breakaway happens. If you’re going to lose half a dozen big players your best shot at trying to offset that damage is by bringing in 20+ in their place.
All brands and businesses want to expand - always. Why on earth would the PL go “Nah, we’re alright thanks” when they could have the first and fourth most watched leagues in the world under the same umbrella to create something so big and powerful it could never be overtaken? On what planet does that ever, ever get turned down?
The Championship and the PL finished their seasons in full while the rest of us just called it quits and did the playoffs. The Championship and the PL both get to put their B Teams into the competition intended solely for L1 and L2. The Championship still isn’t guaranteed to have a wage cap at all, and if it does it’s going to be so out of proportion to L1 (especially when you consider the difference between L1 and L2) that it isn’t even funny. It has already broken away in all but name. It operates differently to the rest of us and in doing so often mirrors and sides with the PL.
If it looks like a duck, if it swims like a duck and if it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. That’s all I’m saying.