And in a move that we'd expect from our own RFL, there's now a dispute with the ERC about the BT deal and the validity of screening the Heiniken Cup matches which have been previously contracted under a seperate arrangement.

Nearly every club is running at a 250-500k deficit so clearly it is not enough.

What is the money going on?

Does anybody have any indicators or figures that could show the income/expenditure of an average SL club? KR, Cas, Salford, Wakey etc.

Im only guessing but I would have thought the top 5 clubs in SL would all be operating at a profit!

I'm sure the owners of Wigan, Wire & Saints would love to have an operational net profit, Saints owe in IRO £6m for their shiny stadium alone.
If clubs were able to operate profitably on gate, sponsorship, merchandising & TV money they wouldn't need backers now would they?

The description of RL vs Union given by littlerich is exactly the perception anybody south of the M62 would give. We've a new Welsh guy at work, who was shocked when I said the statement that 'nobody cares about league' ought to be changed to 'nobody cares south of the M62', and the reverse can be applied when it comes to union based on the fact that there is one premiership club in England north of Leicester.

That's what RL has to battle, and we can compare crowd figures and TV audiences until the cows come home.

I'd pay somebody on a success fee basis to get us more sponsorship and better TV deals - i.e. keep a decent % of anything you earn over agreed targets, but with next to zero for failing to hit targets. A trained monkey could probably get close to the existing deal if we go to market again. A really clever operator would be doing exactly what somebody else suggested - start talking to all the alternative bidders well before the current deal is up - and make damn sure Sky know it too.

The Stobart deal and others suggest that the RFL has historically left these things way too late. If you do you end up with all the power on the wrong side of the table.

I wonder if they are currently negotiating a new title sponsorship deal with numerous bidders, as we speak...

The RU deal includes the "get out from what we committted to" phrase of "worth up to £152M". Checked the BBC report and that bit wasn't included but it's in other reports. I assume BT have clauses for paying less if they fail to attract a given level of subscribers.

I do wonder what the potential effects to RL will be in all of this. Sky generally pay as little as they can whilst still being able to show a quality product. In my opinion Sky currently pay RL what it deems sufficient to have a quality full time competition. Anything less than this and RL probably could not sustain a 12 or 14 club full time competition and the product for Sky would be poorer and less attractive. Even as it is most clubs are on the breadline. If it was just about paying as little as possible Sky could have paid just £50 million over 5 years for RL but the product would be awful, ratings poor and it wouldnt really be a seller for Sky. As far as I am away they dont have any competition for the RL rights and certainly dont need to pay anywhere near as much as they need to. However they do because Super League as it stands gets good ratings and is a great sport to supplement its main seller in Football.

This all brings me to the point of is it possible that Sky could upgrade the existing contract or offer substantially more in the next TV deal so that RL doesnt lose players and become poor, or perhaps that should be poorer, relations to RU. I think with the Sam Tomkins roles at Sky as a interview and pundit, appearances on Soccer AM etc that they do see it as important keeping the best players in the game. It is simply not in Sky's interest for Super League to end up like a glorified Championship which will not be an attractive filler and will not get the ratings/subscriptions needed.

Would be good to see another one or two games screened. Really the SL only needs an extra 10mill a year for clubs to be in much better financial positions.

What International RL are they/have they shown in 2012?

Aussie v Kiwi twice and the exiles games is all I can think of......500k a game is a bit steep, especially when the exiles games only attracted 100k viewers....that's a fiver for each viewer

thats exactly,to the letter,what goes through my head...


TV money pays for a good majority,if not all in some cases,of a clubs biggest cost.....how are some clubs getting it so wrong??

We are not talking about one or two clubs, we are talking ten to twelve clubs losing significant money. That would suggest the financial situation goes well beyond the inability of a couple of clubs to run themselves sustainably.

Great opportunity to go to 2 SL divisions of 10, starting one slightly earlier - Boxing day - to provide 11 month season with annual international comp.
This would allow the promoted side an extra few weeks to prepare for life above, an extra £5m PA from sky would make this work very well

That made me LOL