The Rugby Union IRB made a profit of £85 million from the 2011 word cup.

The English union alone made a return of £15m from the autumn internationals alone.

Please do not compare the finances of Rugby League with Rugby Union. They are on a different dimension. The finances of our game should be compared with other minority sports - even cricket is better financed

And

Premiership Rugby has reason to feel reasonably well placed to weather the economic downturn. It made record revenues of £50m in the 2010-11 season, compared with £34m five years ago, while the 12 clubs brought in £114m.

The RFU also made record revenues of £136m last season

Saracens sold more tickets for their games at Wembley than the RFL cup final!!

Rugby league, is a part-time sport in England, the fact that some clubs are not is down to specific modes that work for them and are all slightly different.

Spot on from Mr P
Reflected also thoughout and down to grass roots, they are different sports, one far closer to a fully international game and a true nation wide sport.
And as for Tony Rea's comments, i'll just mention London Monarchs, Londons population density cannot be taken for granted, one would suspect the RFL should focus a little more on retaining its own customers and balance sheet before assuming the world will just fall in love in with RL if we shove it under their noses and spout how great it is. Rugby Union has only half its name and marital break up in common with Rugby League.
Good luck to Salford, but if the business plan ain't right, only a private benefactor can get away with pumping good money after bad in this climate.

from mr wilkinson www.superleaguefans.com/salford- ... ement.html

from mr wilkinson www.superleaguefans.com/salford- ... ement.html

He's on drugs. Why are people making statements that belong to the morning of April 1st?

. . . And he's quoting KPMG as rubber stampmers of their business plan. These are the same cretins that rubber stamped Bradford's.

oh well, everything must be rosy then at salford -

menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... o-takeover

menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... o-takeover

nice to see bradford already picking off salford players.

On a 2 year contract even though they've only been given a 1 year conditional license. Hmmmmm!

Some interesting opinions here.
When you look at the companies, especially financial/insurance, who fight to sponsor RU it makes you wonder why? The sponsorship from state bail outs like RBS/HBOS/Lloyds I find shocking, are the old boy networks in floated banks so strong they can do what they wish ?
Saracens 'sold' all those tickets yet play in a half empty stadium every home game in Watford, how many of those Wembley tickets were handed out by sponsors to folk who never go till the next free 'event'. Less than 6500 v Wasps and less than 6000 v Gloucester the last 2 home games for them.
Why are BT, BBC, ESPN, Canal+ and SKY all bidding for a sport with terrible viewing figures?
What you have to take your hat off to the ERFU is the control they exercise in the media and the City.
What frustrates me is why we do not play to our strengths, a region in which pro RU is all but dead and has a greater population than Wales, Scotland and Ireland combined.
Then you see who runs the sport and you quickly realise why we are where and what we are.

I believe when Sarries played at Wembley they sold tickets for as little as £10. When I went to the Grand Final a couple of years ago when they beat Leicester there were a hell of a lot of people in Saracens Shirts, wearing them little red hats (Fez?) ect, but they were massively outnumbered by people in Tigers gear.

Strangest thing for me after the game having a couple of beers before getting the train back into London was that if you saw all the people in the pub the only thing that gave it away that they'd been to the rugby was they had their shirts on. The Leicester fans didnt seem that bothered they'd lost and the Sarries fans weren't celebrating in any great fashion either, was just like it was another day at the office.

Gareth Walker reporting this morning that Salford have informed Leigh they cannot fulfil their friendly on the 30th December, Martyn Sadler has just tweeted that their players will be paid on time however

""We felt it was better to give the boys an extended break over Christmas and prepare ourselves fully for the Swinton game on 6 January" says the Salford website. Nice of them to decide that nine days before the game was to take place. Hope they'll be compensating us for the loss of income but I won't hold my breath.