Was reading it's been estimated the cost to Championship clubs of Bulls and HKR exiting is estimated to be well over £1m

If you think about that, it basically means that in a sense, all their central funding has probably already gone.

This is not BTW an argument to leave Bulls in, rather a request people look at the precarious financial disaster the promotion/relegation is going to cause to all the Championship clubs, before slagging off their chairmen, who have to pay for it all, when they make noises about "restructure". They must be shii tting their pants on these figures.

And a pop at the RFL, who as ever seem to be just flying the entire league structure by the seat of their ample pants. Especially re the lower leagues, you might as well get Mr Micawber to run it.

The third tier is going to be shambolic in 2018. Most of the teams in it have no comparison with even the present configuration of the Bulls, despite that being the lowest ebb in history, and 2018 looks like being a spectacular and major financial shot to the foot by the RFL, who failed to grasp the nettles of the last Bulls meltdown and in the end took the easy but plainly wrong and unfair option, just so they could put off addressing any hard questions for someone else, in another year. 2018 will see these pigeons coming home to roost

Whereabouts did you read that? Genuinely interested how they get to that figure (I wouldn't think a home game against each plus Summer Bash revenue would come to just that)

I've been catching up on a pile of reading and am pretty sure it was one of (many) articles in 40-20. They didn't give any workings out though, just said "estimated to cost in excess of".

I think its safe to say it will cost the clubs a lot. If I was trying to do a fag packet costing, what about the sale of season tickets, in a league where the big dogs of Hull KR and Bradford Bulls will (or now won't) be coming to town?

Then there is stuff like sale of advertising, hospitality and sponsorship which is a lot easier when there are tasty fixtures. Whatever it ends up as, it is major bad news for them

Won't it mean £1 million between all the clubs?

In other words, a bit less than £100K each. That sounds much more realistic.

Im not even sure that is realistic to be honest. 1500 fans paying £18 each is only 27K and given the average entrance price is significantly less than that I reckon maybe £17k each for Hull Kr and Bradford. Take in to account some more expenses to do with having a larger number of people in the ground and the figure tumbles again. For a team like Fev though who make every penny from their ground I would say it could cost them maybe £40K or so. It is still a significant number to a small team though but nowhere near as big as some people would want you to believe. Leigh coming in to the Championship will cut some of that as they have a traditionally large following but Widnes and Catalan that bring very few away fans would not help the same as Toronto although as a gimmick I think the first season will see decent crowds when Toronto are away.

Not sure who on earth "would want you to believe" figures that are not correct. But it is a modern compulsory feature that there's a conspiracy behind everything, I suppose.

The point is, it is a big financial hole for the Championship clubs, on any view. It's just unfortunate timing that KR go up as we go down, but it's the double whammy that worsens it.

Whilst talking about cost to Ch clubs does anybody know if Toronto are funding expenses for Ch clubs next year?

Worst case scenario is if Catalan replace us (Rovers). As a division with Catalan, Tolouse & Toronto offers not only very little with regards away fans. But problems and expenses with the games at there venues that clubs won't be able to get back.
So you would imagine that that's 6 games that most Championship clubs would be at best breaking even. Without counting the split to the 8's.

Faced with that scenario it's no wonder championship clubs are looking for ways to get in extra money.

I thought the Catalans deal for the SL clubs was that the RFL paid for expenses. Flights, accommodation, food, training facilities for a playing & coaching squad of 25 for 2 days in Perpignan. Paid for by RFL every 2 weeks.
I'm sure the championship chairmen will be making sure that deal continues in the championship if Catalan come down. I wonder if the same deal is set up for Toulouse? Toronto have a separate deal I think.

Toronto agreed to pay the travel for all visiting clubs. It must still cost a lot, what with accommodation, loss of earnings for part time payers breaking time, and what have you but the air fares must be costing them a medium fortune. What would anybody's guess be - maybe 40-50k a week? Shows how minted they are, whatever it is

I believe their sponsors pay for the flights, part of the deal to sponsor the shirts. But your point is still totally valid, I would expect RL has to take off in a big way in Toronto in order to ever recoup the money they must be shelling out to get to that point.