Whilst the financial clout is with RU, I would also doubt whether that sport (or Sale) would want a precedent to be set in this regard either.

Also, as some have said, the mere fact that Solomona would be employed in the same role in another sport would suggest that they are close enough to be counted as the same in a professional sense. This isn't a doctor deciding to become a lawyer overnight.

Cas were offered £300k for Denny Solomona and didn't take it?!
Sorry but Denny is a good finisher who benefited from the expansive rugby Cas played last year. He's not worth that.
Cas should have taken the money and bought a superstar with it.

This is what we get when we have a nearly quarter of a century old Salary Cap. The Cap needs upping! We're treading water as a league because the Cap is so out of date.

Only recently have most clubs started spending at or near the full cap. And it's not like the clubs are ploughing money into other areas like marketing or youth production. The salary cap is a red herring. The issue is revenue.

Upping the salary cap would not help Cas Tigers in this situation at all. We pay what we can - which is just under the cap. HIM is correct - revenue is the problem - not the SC.

Here we go again. Why do people always go back to the salary cap.

We can increase the cap as much as we want. It won't matter as the majority of clubs won't spend anywhere near it.

Where do you think Castleford or the other clubs are gonna suddenly find a few extra millions of pounds to spend. Money just doesn't appear out of nowhere.

Until the clubs and the sport in general over here starts generating more revenue a cap increase wouldn't change much.

10 clubs spent up to the cap this year, and it wouldn't surprise me if 12-13 clubs hit it next year.



Cas posted a profit last year didn't it? Nobody is (or should be) suggesting raising the cap to NRL levels over night. However an increase of 80-100k a year for the next 5 years is a good place to start. By spreading it out over a period of time clubs can grow their revenue accordingly. Raising revenue by 100k a year is hardly unrealistic.

We can't allow the sport to be held back in this respect by the smaller clubs.

If 10 of 12 clubs are spending there or thereabouts full cap, whilst at the same time we're seeing a player drain to the NRL/Union, there's surely an argument there to up it?

Plus, it's not a "few extra million pounds" is it? The cap is what, £1.8m(ish?), even a hypothetical 25% increase is only an additional £450k, hardly 'millions'.

Increasing the cap would benefit very few clubs. How many could actually afford to pay an additional 1-2m per season without being bank rolled? You then have the issue of 2 or 3 clubs holding on to the top players without any reason to let them go, those players would also demand higher wages if they left to another club.

Before the salary cap increases the RFL need to invest in the sport, we need higher profile sponsors and more fans through the gates which in turn would give the sport a higher chance at securing better TV rights.

Increasing the cap is a short term fix for a long term problem.

3/4 of all teams spend up to the Cap, which implies that they [icould [/ispend more [iif [/ithey wanted.

See my post above. Where are you getting £1m-£2m from? Nobody has suggested it should be increased by that much.

The cap has remained static whilst TV deals, inflation, other codes have all gone up. The level it's at is way behind where it should be.

Dont think anyone is arguing that the current cap isnt too small.

What some of us are debating is if the majority of the clubs have the ability and the desire to actually spend to a bigger cap at this current time.

I suppose that'll depend on the size of any increase.

Double it to £3.2m+ and I doubt any would spend to cap for a while. Increase it by 10-20% to somewhere around £2-£2.2m, and I imagine there'll be a few clubs able to spend it.

The NRL salary cap is now $7million a year. In todays money, that's £4.262m.
If we say the Superleague cap is £1.8m for arguments sake, that's Just 42% of the NRL budget, 2.37 times higher.

The Union salary cap for the Premiership will be £7m next season (171icon_cool.gif.
3.9 times higher, with Superleague a mere 25.7% of it (again using £1.8m)
Albeit, Union clubs will have larger squads.

SL: £1.8m / 25 = £72k average
NRL: £4.26m / 25 = £170k av
RU: £7m / 30 = £233k av

They're the places some of our top players are going to, and looking at the numbers involved & the earning potential that comes with it, it's not hard to see why. Charnley & Solomona aren't going to Union because they love the game.

The spending power in the NRL and Union is such that the cap level is irrelevant, we simply cant compete.
Even if we put £1/2 million on top of where we are, we still couldn't compete, we would just cause some hefty wage inflation.
Having said that, it should have moved up year on year, at least in line with inflation.
If there are 8/10 clubs that can sustain a higher cap, then clearly those clubs should not be held back to the determent of the game.