Re: Salary Cap : Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:04 am  

Forever Blue and white wrote:

Well said Pepe. I think that the RFL are trying to ruin the game outside Super League and trying to use the championship to breed new teams for Super League But look at Celtic Crusaders .

Unfortunately, our great old clubs will become nothing more than feeder clubs. The Championship seems to be destined to be nothing more than a proving ground for new expansion clubs, where they can gain a kind of false credibility, before being fast-tracked to Super League.

Lowering the current salary cap is effectively removing the draw bridge to SL for heartland clubs and slamming the door behind them. One of our clubs may stand a chance in 2012. But after that....

: Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:24 am  

I agree pepe, I do fear for any team who has ambition left in the championship after 2012. I however can't see any of the super league clubs being dumped out of super league, too much financial investment from the RFL, would be wasted and they wouldn't want that cos the ones who dropped out wouldn't survive, and they wouldn't want any of their precious super league club going under.

Here's a radical idea, how's about making 2 super leagues of 12 teams with promotion and relegation between the 2, that way the clubs with ambition aren't left to slowly die. Would something like this happen, I guess not we are talking about the RFL.

Is another breakaway going to happen?

: Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:29 am  

swifty62 wrote:

another way of making sure the teams in SL stay there.

It's there to help prevent club's going bust

SYSTEM FAILURE

: Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:45 am  

Darber wrote:

Here's a radical idea, how's about making 2 super leagues of 12 teams with promotion and relegation between the 2, that way the clubs with ambition aren't left to slowly die. Would something like this happen, I guess not we are talking about the RFL.

Is another breakaway going to happen?

So, what happens to Championship 1, then?

: Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:51 am  

Darber wrote:

I agree pepe, I do fear for any team who has ambition left in the championship after 2012. I however can't see any of the super league clubs being dumped out of super league, too much financial investment from the RFL, would be wasted and they wouldn't want that cos the ones who dropped out wouldn't survive, and they wouldn't want any of their precious super league club going under.

That’s a good point, and you’re probably right. However, if a club really is struggling, They would surely have to drop them, or the whole credibility – such as it is – of the licence process comes into question. This will open up the possibility of legal action, despite the signing of an agreement not to by all clubs applying. The RFL still have a duty to assess all the applications fairly and legally. I’m pretty sure that deciding these things entirely on location would be a breach of EU rules, and that’s where any case would probably end up.

Darber wrote:

Here's a radical idea, how's about making 2 super leagues of 12 teams with promotion and relegation between the 2, that way the clubs with ambition aren't left to slowly die. Would something like this happen, I guess not we are talking about the RFL.

That’s a great idea, but unfortunately not on the agenda. It seems to me that Sky may stipulate that any money they give to the RFL goes to the SL clubs, so that those clubs can exclusively recruit the best players for the main competition they broadcast.

The Championship coverage is merely an after-thought and the RFL get nothing for the rights to broadcast it. If the RFL were to give the Championship clubs half a million each fron the SL pot and keep the salary cap at £400,000, it would enable these clubs to run academy set ups and make demotion from SL less disastrous for the demoted club. It would actually make the Championship a viable league in it’s own right as well.

Sadly this will not happen as expansion clubs also require every penny of that money in order to stay and compete in SL with low crowds.

Darber wrote:

Is another breakaway going to happen?

Not for the foreseeable future. Although I cannot rule it out in 15-20 years time, if things turn out even worse than I expect.

: Sun Jul 05, 2009 2:59 pm  

Fax4Life wrote:

What a stupid idea, why is this going to help clubs like Doncaster, London Skolars and Workington for example???
It will make the gap even bigger between SL and the Championship.

Got told on Fri it`s the clubs like Donny and others in the lower of the league that won`t vote against it.Makes me wonder if they want those from the larger NL1 clubs to be draged downwards rather than trying to aspire to make themselves better.

: Sun Jul 05, 2009 3:34 pm  

Darber wrote:

Here's a radical idea, how's about making 2 super leagues of 12 teams with promotion and relegation between the 2, that way the clubs with ambition aren't left to slowly die. Would something like this happen, I guess not we are talking about the RFL.

Richard Lewis has already said that there is no limit to the number of clubs who could be in Super League and I read that to mean that a Super League, SL1, SL2 etc is not out of the question.

As Super League Europe have all the TV rights to Super League and not the RFL, I would say this is the ONLY good point to having a tiered Super League.

: Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:50 pm  

johnny freeman fan club wrote:

Got told on Fri it`s the clubs like Donny and others in the lower of the league that won`t vote against it.Makes me wonder if they want those from the larger NL1 clubs to be draged downwards rather than trying to aspire to make themselves better.

People should keep their own houses in order, that includes us and we have tried since our last financial disaster.
We need to let ambitious clubs who do it right and legal have a high enough salary cap to be ready for the step up to SL, not be held back by the smaller fish in the pond.
What good will it do?
Only increase the 'back handers' that certain chairman and clubs do thats all.
Keep it high and within the control of the RFL I say.

: Sun Jul 05, 2009 6:24 pm  

I think Salary Caps should be scrapped completely. If a club can attract enough funding, whether it be from a Lottery Winner, Sponsorship, Sugar Daddy or Gate Money, what does it matter?

The Leagues will find their own levels and while money might buy you players, does it buy you GOOD players?

We've seen it our selves in this league that it doesn't mean you're going to have the best squad just because you have a Full Time squad, and a lot is down to the management.

: Sun Jul 05, 2009 8:01 pm  

Yob wrote:

I think Salary Caps should be scrapped completely. If a club can attract enough funding, whether it be from a Lottery Winner, Sponsorship, Sugar Daddy or Gate Money, what does it matter?

The Leagues will find their own levels and while money might buy you players, does it buy you GOOD players?

We've seen it our selves in this league that it doesn't mean you're going to have the best squad just because you have a Full Time squad, and a lot is down to the management.

Unfortunatley is does matter , only gate money from fans is long term sustainable , in most cases all the others are potentially short term fixes

Yourselves , us and Widnes have all been in trouble in the last few years and no matter what any of us have at the moment be they a Steve O Connor or a big name sponsor like yourself you cannot guarantee how long they will be around for

Even the SL clubs are not long term sustainable as almost all of them rely far too heavily on the SKY money , and there is no saying that will be around at it's present level for ever

We need a salary cap both to protect the clubs from themselves [ dont forget the cleverest businessman can lose all his skills when getting involved with a sporting club , he must or he just wouldn't do it in the first place ] and also to help produce as level a competition as we can

What the RFL should be doing is trying to help all the clubs increase the one long term sustainable income they can have instead of trying to do it the ' quick fix ' way via sugar daddy and sponsorship

If you have a bigger fan base you are much more likely to get the sponsorship and private investor to help with the little extra's

It seems to me that everybody is trying to follow the ' model ' originally done by Man Utd , ie corporate sales and large sponsorship deals

But at the time they started doing all this they allready had a full stadium every week and a massive profile

If every club could increase their crowd averages between 50 and 100 % then we would be getting somewhere