Super League clubs have been reported to have agreed to give 20% of the TV contract to the Rugby Football League. It is stated to be around £5,000,000 of the total expected £25,000,000 contract money. So even if the RFL keep nothing for their own costs which is unlikely divided equally between the 24 clubs would be around just over £200,000 each. The championship clubs likely to get more than the National League but whatever the amount is it will not be much as we all thought. I can definitely see some clubs folding especially in League 1.
It doesn't get divided equally anyway.
This season, it ranged from £400k at the top to £100k at the bottom in Championship.
Under the previous sky deal, SL got £30m with each club receiving £1.825m a year. This was adjusted by Sky last year due to the reduced number of games, with SL reported to have faced an annual reduction of £280,000. The remaining £10m went to the Championship and L 1 teams, with Championship clubs receiving between £800,000 and £150,000 depending on where they finished in the league. Each L1 club received £75,000.
So it looks like SL clubs looking after themselves again, getting about the same as this year, with the Championship/L1 clubs facing a 50% reduction. Perhaps if SL clubs accepted that they are not in a position to compete with NRL salaries and a tight restriction on the salary cap, there would be a fairer distribution of central funding to give all clubs a chance of survival. As it is RFL/SL are happy to oversee their "expansion" plan for the game by reducing the number of clubs from 36 to 20.
I presume that Rimmer will be accepting a 50% reduction in his salary.
SO, given our rather lowly placing at the moment we could see our funding much smaller next year? 50% or less.
Hope the financial planning has taken this eventuality into account.
Things are likely to be challenging going forward. How will some clubs survive?
The game needs a massive reality check.
Why does it continue to pay over inflated full time salaries for overseas players and coaches in the top flight when the sport clearly cannot afford such luxuries.
Strip out the few sugar daddies there are, and what is the game left with? A bankrupt sport which has little or no interest elsewhere across the country.
It is the economics of madness, and the sooner the Authorities grasp the nettle and sort it out, the better.
But that would be turkeys voting for Christmas - not going to happen!
The game needs a massive reality check. Why does it continue to pay over inflated full time salaries for overseas players and coaches in the top flight when the sport clearly cannot afford such luxuries. Strip out the few sugar daddies there are, and what is the game left with? A bankrupt sport which has little or no interest elsewhere across the country. It is the economics of madness, and the sooner the Authorities grasp the nettle and sort it out, the better.
A depressing but I believe accurate assessment of the game. Don't believe there is the appetite for the game beyond the heartlands - indeed the heartlands interest seems to be declining. I'm not saying things are in terminal decline but the game is certainly stagnant.
Maybe we need the dead wood to drop away - this may well include Widnes! As they say - 'history is bunk'.
Maybe the future is only a fixed SL with no relegation and everything outside of it is amateur.
Certainly, if I had a magic wand I'd make all the teams regional as with RU but it would be too big a shift for most (my self included) to change to that model now.
The sad part is that rugby league at club level was way behind rugby league until around the last 20 years. With good marketing and a development plan over the past 20 years, union has left rugby league in its wake. It is the people who have been running the game who have let the sport down, with their self interest and complacency becoming totally reliant on Sky.
I believe that the RFL should try to re-build the image of the game in the heartlands, including Cumbria; market the game strongly in new areas in the likes of London, Coventry and Newcastle - whilst attempts have been made to develop the game in London game for over 40 years, I think the current set up is probably its best chance with a home ground and a plan to develop local talent.
If that means all clubs living within their means and developing home grown talent in preference to importing highly paid average Australians and players wages being reduced to affordable levels, then that should be the way forward.
We need people running the game to have some vision to market and develop the game as an attractive alternative to rugby union, highlighting the skill levels and the differences in the game. Sadly, it has been the influence of rugby league coaches that has improved rugby union from the one dimensional kick and run game that it used to be, to a more flowing game.
Unfortunately, I don't believe that those currently running the game have the knowledge or vision to save the game, never mind develop it.
As mentioned, some traditional clubs who fail to promote local interest and support to make them sustainable, may fall by the wayside, but there is still chance to breath some life into the sport if the right people were in charge.
There are though still 'sugar daddies' prepared to pay whatever it takes to promote their local team, sadly none in Widnes!
But that funding makes clubs able to just coast along with a SL handout.
That will change imo, and Sky will switch allegiance to whatever they decide will sell contracts. (Maybe SL 12 a side?). Then club finances will have to change and the bubble may burst.
It tells you something when Saints claim that they can't compete financially and are being outbid for players. Now Wigan are financially stretched. What chance poor Widnes?
Rochdale CEO has announced that their central funding for next season is expected to be 78% down on this season.
He is calling a meeting for fans and stakeholders to to discuss how to make club sustainable for next season.
This is the state of rugby league in the lower divisions at the moment.
The RFL and Superleague should hang their heads in shame.
I read the other day that Salford are looking for a new home, as they can't afford the rent at the AJ Bell, with Salford City FC taking their place.
Salford & Swinton ground share at Salford City's current ground, Moor Lane, maybe? 🤔
Ultimately super league has under performed as a spectacle in the last four of five years with poor leadership under Elstone and total narcissism by club owners like Ken Davy, Adam pearson, eamon mcmanus and Ian leneghan etc..
With zero focus on the international game our sport is club driven and that is not the way to offer the outcomes we need.
The sky partnership has also been weak and many clubs have simply failed to deliver alternative revenue streams and instead have danced to sky sports tune.
Championship clubs on the other hand have grown and developed and this deal should not be just about 12 super league clubs, it is about the whole of our sport
Ultimately super league has under performed as a spectacle in the last four of five years with poor leadership under Elstone and total narcissism by club owners like Ken Davy, Adam pearson, eamon mcmanus and Ian leneghan etc.. With zero focus on the international game our sport is club driven and that is not the way to offer the outcomes we need. The sky partnership has also been weak and many clubs have simply failed to deliver alternative revenue streams and instead have danced to sky sports tune. Championship clubs on the other hand have grown and developed and this deal should not be just about 12 super league clubs, it is about the whole of our sport
If it doesn't it will be either separate or die for the Championship, and there will be people like Beaumont who will go for the former!!!
Ultimately super league has under performed as a spectacle in the last four of five years with poor leadership under Elstone and total narcissism by club owners like Ken Davy, Adam pearson, eamon mcmanus and Ian leneghan etc.. With zero focus on the international game our sport is club driven and that is not the way to offer the outcomes we need. The sky partnership has also been weak and many clubs have simply failed to deliver alternative revenue streams and instead have danced to sky sports tune. Championship clubs on the other hand have grown and developed and this deal should not be just about 12 super league clubs, it is about the whole of our sport
What you are talking about is effects and not causes.
The state of the game has declined step by step over a period of about 40 years. The long term effects of about five major though, not appreciated at the time, issues have had a gradually increasing negative impact over the years:
1. The decline and cessation of support for the junior game - schools, local clubs etc
2. The removal of the relationship with the amateur game (BARLA anyone). BARLA used to send tours to Australia, now Great Britain can’t muster the finances to tour
3. The absolutely unplanned dive into a professional game, lead by Lindsay and his beloved Wigan and the selling off of the game to Sky for a few shines buttons
4. The onset of the delusional attempts at expansion. To expand the game could have been an excellent idea but to set up a First Division and later SL team without any support framework - junior teams with a pathway into the senior teams, fan base or financial planning other than a ‘wealthy owner’ in a remote geographical area is ridiculous
5. The emergence of the World Wide Web and social media as a massive source of entertainment - computer games, streaming, access to any sport, anywhere in the world without having to get off your bottom to watch ….
The real killer was the first one because nobody really noticed. Killing the game at schools and for junior teams and the forcing out of the amateur game has meant that the gene pool for players in the senior game has all but gone. The last generation, more so this generation and even more so the next generation don’t play the game and aren’t interested or encouraged to watch it so participation in and attendance of games are both in terminal decline, which won’t be effected at all by tinkering with the number of players or format of the game. Well for a short time there may be a bump in people watching but that will be short lived (like expansion teams) as people have no genuine interest in 5he game when push comes to shove.
In my honest opinion the boat has sailed on items 1, 2, 3 and 5/and, as per Primrose’s comments you can only try and address the effects but it is too late for the game in its current guise to address the causes. Item 4 is now an irrelevance as without fixing the other stuff expansion is just a huge waste of money and the limited playing resources we have.
The only solution I can see is to get everyone who wants to save the game to meet in the George and declare a breakaway amateur / semi professional set up with grass roots re-introduction of the game into local schools and junior clubs. To save the game we don’t need to look at the game as it is now, we need sensible people to look at we’re the game needs to be I 5 or 10 years time and to prioritise the steps we need to take to get there. Like
I referred to - it’s been done before, it can be done again.
Well said RV. Depressing reading, but all true. As you say, the RFL has allowed the game to decline over the last 40 years and the advent of SL in 1996 only served to accelerate the decline outside SL.
I would suggest that the points be put directly to Rimmer, who is supposed to be representing the interests of the game below SL, and ask him to outline his vision for the future of the game.