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 (1718).
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.

Considering we can't get most of the clubs to put aside 100k to fund a reserve grade side I just don't believe they have any desire to raise the cap. Maybe I am wrong though!

We all know the NRL is way ahead. They have a huge TV deal.

As for union in England. BT sport are paying over £150m for Aviva premiership rights. Think they actually pay less than sky do for super league.

Union clubs must be generating some major money to be spending up £7m per year.

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.

Quick calculation done in my head it should be at least £2.6m based on a £1.6m starting cap in 1999

Regards

King James