Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 11:53 am  

Salford missed a trick a few years ago for me. They are a manchester team and for me should have looked to expand there fan base across manchester, using the name Manchester for starters might have helped, it certainly didnt do the Salford football team any harm

Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:29 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

No. If you wiped out four teams now, the quality of the remaining sides would be increased. Competition for places would be more intense and standards would go up. That would lead to more high quality games and with almost every game being a big, exciting prospect. I'm also pretty sure that with a competent management team in place, the RFL could negotiate a TV deal bigger than the one we have now.

Each playing eachother twice, equalling 18 games? This would mean a huge loss of revenue for teams that they wouldnt be able to afford.

Alternative is playing eachother more than twice per season, which causes a lack of interest in games, and devaluing for instance the derbys that are a never ending feature.

SPL has suffered from this for years, and see where that has lead them?

Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:40 pm  

I've never understood why Sky don't dip into their enormous pot of cash a bit more. They pay an insane amount for football and despite never having watched a game of football on Sky or ever intending to I have to pay for them all so that I can to get to see the RL.

If they paid a bit more (or a lot more) for RL they could make the competition a lot more stable and better paid and thereby raise the standard of players attracted into and retained by the sport. And it'd cost them about as much as they pay to televise QPR v Bolton on a Wednesday night in February.

Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:51 pm  

Harry Pinner wrote:

I've never understood why Sky don't dip into their enormous pot of cash a bit more. They pay an insane amount for football and despite never having watched a game of football on Sky or ever intending to I have to pay for them all so that I can to get to see the RL.

If they paid a bit more (or a lot more) for RL they could make the competition a lot more stable and better paid

That last part of your statement sums the situation up completely! in what we should call the golden cash years when the first Big Money from Sky came into the rugby league & brought around Super League what did we do with all the cash inflow on PLAYERS! average players were getting major money all of a sudden, it is the same position as with the country at present money was just spent and spent! it did not even go on grounds. Sky will never do that so we should stop dreaming! we have missed the post as a game, those in charge at the top and at clubs were simply not good enough to run the game.

Then the dream that Sky will pay more for a reduced side league, with teams playing each other more and more which bores the pants of viewers & supporters is a non-starter! We would end up with less Sky money and as I said the introduction of part time players once again with just those at the top super stars full time and they would have to work harder, on promotion and others jobs at the club.

Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:58 pm  

I think if the salaries could be sustained at a better level it would improve standards but not overnight. As you say initially you'd just be paying the same players more but over time the better pay and stability should improve standards. I think it should still be controlled by a salary cap though.

Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:03 pm  

Very sad if true but a sign of the times nevertheless. I've been saying for years that British RL's inevitable fate longer term is as a semi-pro game at a much lower financial level than it currently exists at, and will take no pleasure at all in eventually being proved right. A lower salary cap for me seems the only realistic way forward at the moment to have any chance of a competitive league and more than half a dozen teams left to play in it...

Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:19 pm  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

Very sad if true but a sign of the times nevertheless. I've been saying for years that British RL's inevitable fate longer term is as a semi-pro game at a much lower financial level than it currently exists at, and will take no pleasure at all in eventually being proved right. A lower salary cap for me seems the only realistic way forward at the moment to have any chance of a competitive league and more than half a dozen teams left to play in it...

I think the first check shouldnt be the salary cap, but to make sure that clubs are breaking even. If they are, then the second check should be the salary cap. We have seen numerous clubs sticking to the salary cap, but making huge losses. The game has to be sustainable, and at the minute, it isn't.

Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:20 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

I see there is talk Salford will enter administration if a buyer is not found soon. Added to the Bradford fiasco, the farcical lack of competition sponsorship and the ridiculously low Sky TV deal and it seems Super League is about to go over a cliff financially. Eamon's calls for a 12 team Super League might happen as soon as this season at this rate. It makes you wonder just how many clubs are on the brink at the moment. There are rumours about Castleford being in a similar situation, Hull KR have been muted as being in serious debt and London must be wracking up debt at an astonishing rate, even if it is all paid off by their owner, he won't suffer that for long when they are getting crowds of 2,000.

So on Salford, I'd take Holdsworth, Broughton, Williams and Moon off them. Overseas rules would be waved and everything, it'd be a goldmine.

Today has also seen a rather mysterious press story about Wigan and how Eric Pollard reckons their cup exit has cost them a quarter of a million pounds and how distraught this made him feel. One sincerely hopes they are not basing their budgets and spending on getting to finals, that would be terrible.

That's who I was on about when I posted that a team not so far from here was in financial trouble.

It's been in the cards from last year and it's got to the point they they don't even put food on after their games.

Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:39 pm  

WidnesExile wrote: What a sad story this is an unfortunately indicative with the state of the game. I'm afraid RL is a dying sport and I don't see how it is sustainable. Very sad. http://www.code13rugbyleague.com/2012/0 ... ke-profit/

WidnesExile wrote: What a sad story this is an unfortunately indicative with the state of the game. I'm afraid RL is a dying sport and I don't see how it is sustainable. Very sad. http://www.code13rugbyleague.com/2012/0 ... ke-profit/

Re: Time to harvest Salford/SL finances : Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:34 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

No. If you wiped out four teams now, the quality of the remaining sides would be increased. Competition for places would be more intense and standards would go up. That would lead to more high quality games and with almost every game being a big, exciting prospect. I'm also pretty sure that with a competent management team in place, the RFL could negotiate a TV deal bigger than the one we have now.

And there would be the flaw to that plan