My team are one of the few who a) own their own ground and b) don't have a sugar daddy. As such we should be an example to which others aspire, yet because of the obsession with shiny stadiums required to meet the franchise criteria, and our inability to compete with other clubs wrt squad size and quality because we lack a backer with deep pockets we are in a sorry state.
Funny old world...

Most of the people who rail against "shiny stadiums" don't have one. The costs involved in keeping going a tumbledown stadium and the image they give to the sport make new stadiums a very good acquisition.

I'm fed up of people going on about the charm of old stadiums. It's a myth. Standing in urine in the toilets and standing on moss covered terraces struggling to see the game is not my idea of a good night out.

How can clubs be overspending on players?

The cap hasn't been raised since it was brought in. Inflation has already eroded it by more than 30%.

The real problem is the failure of clubs to increase their revenue, despite new stadiums and apparently good TV deals.

As I said, they are more interested in finding ways to spend more money ( beating the SC ) than finding ways to make more money

The real problem is, despite what many of the posters on here believe, is that RL is popular in the UK ONLY in small pockets along the M62 corridor and Cumbria that cannot afford to fund a full time league.

There are more than enough people within the areas RL is played to finance a FT league

10,000 averahe fans at home games + residual spends, combined with TV cash is 5,000,000 quid a year.......that should be the business model that clubs are tasked with achieving.

One of the points of Franchising was that they wouldn't waste money that could be spent on achieving this trying to stave off relegation...all that's happened is clubs have continued to spend money on players and neglect the important stuff.
London have wasted the cap this year.....and spent nothing on attracting fans.....HKA have wasted cash on average Aussies since they came up, Bradford wasted cash on players and cut prices.....that's ending well.....Wakey and Castlerford are chasing the new stadium dream, salford are still 4k short of where thye wanted/neede/expected to be fan wise.....

I am all for Franchises and no P&R, but only if it's for the benefit of the sport....currently, it's for the benefit of the SL clubs currently at the top table......kind of reminds me of the reasons for an earlier split in the code.....

HKR have spent significant amounts rebuilding their jnr programme over the last 5 years (now starting to have something to show for it) have extended the east stand, relaid the pitch, upgraded lights, building a new nth stand etc etc. to suggest all clubs are not trying to become more self sufficient is rubbish.

Reality is salary cap is currently set about 250-300 k more than 75% of clubs can afford.

I should have said @cannot afford a FT league at current salary levels.'

Only if enough of them are interested in RL. Quite clearly there aren't.

You've personally stated that there aren't in Leigh, which is pretty much a hotbed for the game. Same for Huddersfield, the Wakefield MDC, Halifax, South Yorkshire, Manchester, York, Cumbria.......

I'm afraid until people accept this, the game will never grow as it will continue to overstretch and not set itself realistic 'expansion' targets.

We are a great example of the problem at the moment (HKR). On field we have done ok since coming up, off field our crowd avg's are higher than anytime in our modern history, yet we are still losing 300k a year. Taking our crowd avg from 8k to 10k will cover that loss but it has taken a long time to get the investments needed to develop the ground to give us that opportunity. Still no guarantee with the new stand we will reach 10k of course but at least it gives a chance to become sustainable. Fortunately we have some rich backers so have been able to live with the losses otherwise our promotion would have been short lived.

Seems many clubs are in a similiar boat. Only real income growth opportunities are increase the paying audience or increase the corporate support. Neither are easy to do with the sport having such a ltd profile and reach.