The £500k loss was on the balance sheet and I certainly wouldn't pretend to know how that stacked up with the actual operating costs, then or now. We did have capital in the bank back then, of course, from the Odsal settlement [originally intended to compensate for taking on responsibility for ground maintenance from the council], which was used to finance the playing side. CC clearly expected the success of the side to attract more support through the gate, and maybe more sponsorship as well, but as with the best laid plans of mice and men, it never actually worked out that way.

We were paying out much bigger wages [and more of them]both for players and back up staff back then but were getting, for round figures, double the gates so it's hard to say how it stacks up now, other than to say I doubt we're making a profit.

much of the odsal settlement cash went on the coral stand and the balance received iirc over a few years, we made a profit in a few of the good years, see my much earlier posts around the time we went pop, and essentially the cash went into the squad either wages or transfer fees. then CC left and Hood turned the squad into cash as the numbers fell. As there are no publicly available figures its difficult to say what the current costs are, but you can see from the way some players have left - Ainscough, Naughton - or not been renewed - Platt & Langley - that the player and coach wages bill is massively less.

the cash put in by OK tells the story. Sponsorship has been decent, but will not have balanced the loss of Sky money. So more sponsorship/investment needed for next year, and more fans. That depends on the team etc. certainly the squad for next year looks as if it will be more resilient to injury, and will play a bit more. So im cautiously optimistic we will see some good games, the thing we have to do is continue the trend of both offence and attack improving over the previous season.

Is our squad wage bill really going to be that reduced? I'm not so sure. We might have lost Langley, Lulia and Platt but Ferguson and Carvell will not have come cheap.
In roughly 12 months, Omar has had to put in close to £1 million just to keep the club going. That is a constant worry to me - how is next year going to be any different? I don't think Mark and Ryan are in the position to be putting in a similar figure.
But if funds were going to be an issue then why didn't they take this opportunity to 'do a wakefield' and reduce the wage bill somewhat. They haven't done that at all, instead choosing to bolster the squad and push for a playoff finish.

and what if it were the case that, in addition, Omar wanted £900k back in instalments over time out of the sky money?




Exactly. AGAIN.

Well, I don't think we need to worry too much about Omar being repaid. I can't see him demanding full repayment over the next 12 months or something ridiculous like that. I'm sure they have agreed to repay the amount in manageable chunks over 5-10 years for example.
If we can make it through this year and get back to full funding then we should - within reason - be ok.
This is why I'm a little surprised at them wanting to be spending the full cap etc.
This paints two possible scenarios imo, we either have the funds in place to be able to do this, or Ryan and Mark are taking a bit of a gamble on their projections.

TBH I have doubts about whether Omar ever actually put the 900k in to the club. It was always carefully worded that 900k was AVAILABLE to club. If it was actually put in then yesterday's t&a story about Omar getting his million back would have been more like 1.8 million.

It was put in defiantly.

Given the club have said they're going to pay Omar back £1 million, it's pretty safe to say he put in £900k

In comparison to the Caisley and the Hood era yes it is that reduced. and Carvell and Ferguson are better value for money as a specialist prop and an experienced 2nd row, just what the team needs. If we end up with a more balanced slightly larger squad thats not much more expensive, thats a step in the right direction.

Don't forget they were talking about Omar spending 840k on club before the 900k extra investment was mentioned. Surely if the full 900k was put in he'd be wanting 1.74m back?. If there only talking 1milion I'm wondering if just enough to cover wages shortfall was put in each month. It could be that the remainder of 900k is still available to club and as it is used the amount to be paid back to OK will rise accordingly.

It might help if the club clarified the state of the club's finances, particularly the £900k.

Does it just cover the operating loss for 2013? If so, will there be similar loss in 2014 and how will that be financed?

Or is it meant to cover expected losses for 2013 & 2014? Essentially plugging most of the gap caused loss of the telly money? If that is the case, does that mean that the club has money in the bank in advance of the 2014 season? Or just a promise to pay more into the club if necessary?

A few people I know have said they're nervous about renewing their season tickets just yet. Not sure if the club's finances are hanging by a thread or not.

Pay for season ticket on credit card and then they are covered if they are worried from a worst case scenario

I'm not sure I agree. We have the odd few that claim to follow both but they are a tiny minority, and in reality we don't have much of a crossover at all.

In Leeds, a city where everyone wants a team with "leeds" to do well (hardly the case in Bradford with your petty egg chasing wendyball bile) even with United spiralling downward, Rhinos only got the odd moron infiltrating the south stand wearing united tops and being cretins. I'd guess statistically of the decrease in United's attendances, virtually 0% went across the city to watch Rhinos win Superleague.

It's important not to forget that next season is actually a P&R season with the bottom club [allegedly]waving ta-ta to super league. It's generally accepted that you have to improve to stand still, so to retain our mid-table spot from last season we need to put more in as, results wise, it's the most important season for years.

Of course, we don't know what is happening elsewhere but it would be very foolish to just assume that some other club(s) are going to drop out. In any case making the eight means we're fireproof for being in the top division, however it's configured...if they ever get round to telling us how it's going to be configured that is - maybe they're leaving that for a little surprise after the season has started.

Given the gusto with which they sing united's songs it rather sounds like the takeover was done and dusted a while back..