No I don't think he would agree with that.
Why is their only a need for one team from Hull. Surely you want the best teams, What's the point in replacing Rovers with a worse team simply for geographical reasons?

Very few sports teams make a profit. In the NRL this year, the Titans are in big strife (all their own fault) and 3 other clubs have had to get their annual TV handouts early - including Manly. In other sports look no further than Rangers.

The cap itself (at least the upper limit theoretical spend) is not the problem either. The problem is clubs overpaying players, full stop. That's what tends to happen in sports. If we make more money, players get paid more, regardless of any financial reality. Its not the joe-average players that are the problem either - its the stars. That will always be the case.

This is made worse by budgetary processes that are amateurish at best. IIRC it was Sts a few years ago that budgeted on winning the Challenge Cup? That is beyond stupid.

The RFL can and probably should tighten up rules on cap spend. A couple of quick things should be:

1) No club to be able to budget for a loss for more than one year without personal guarantees from the owners or collateral to guarantee they won't go bust.

2) No club to be able to budget increases in attendances from the prior year. In fact I'd go so far as to say you shouldn't be allowed to budget for more than 90% of the previous year to allow for form downturns etc.

3) No club to include any forecast revenue from Challenge Cup games or Play Offs.

4) No club to include sponsorship deals that have yet to be signed.

5) No club to be able to include non-cash sponsorship (payments in kind etc) as 'revenue' unless it is a direct offset of an unavoidable operating cost. There's a big difference between including a restaurant giving a team 100 free meals as sponsorship and a firm paying for team transport for example.

6) No club to be able to use any tax 'reduction' method that hasn't been approved in writing by the relevant taxation authorities (I'm talking non-standard things like offshore payments for image rights etc, which now look like the piece of cr*p they always were).

The above are ALL examples of dodges I've seen professional sports 'businesses' use in Australia (except the offshore payments part). They are also all easy to police, when you add 7, which probably already happens which is the budgets being signed off by the RFL. The problem there is potential for bias - I'd personally pay a decent accounting firm (using payment in kind sponsorship if required) to provide independent audits of all budgets, with clubs subject to fines for any breaches.

If your crowds grow you'll be able to gradually ratchet up your forecasts based on actual crowds as you go. Sts in their new ground I'd make an allowance for on the basis of their crowds at Knowsley Rd before the move - but again only 90% of that, not some notional increase without backing. You could also allow new SL clubs to uplift their crowds - but again I'd put a VERY tight limit on that - say 10% increase over the previous year. In most cases you can put rules together that allow for some allowances without letting clubs drive a truck through any pretence of reality.

In general I wouldn't allow any exceptions though, because its when you allow exceptions (and probably every team can make some sort of argument to suggest they 'expect' crowd increases) that any system starts to fall apart and becomes a budgetary nonsense.

Bottom line is I'd bet that an independent auditor with experience of looking at the accounts (budgets vs actuals) from sports businesses would be able to tear apart the budgets put together by any SL club.

They wouldn't be replaced in a reduced league, simply dispensed with

Fair enough so his aim is to dispense with Rovers at the expense of keeping a team in SL that offer alot less simply for geographical reason, That's well though out and reasonable.

My ribs are hurting so much after reading these pages,the smoke is bellowing up the ivory towers and the franchise faries think nothing is wrong wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


And now the fans are scrambling around trying to justify there place at the top table....love it

You are correct, however it is a good time for Rugby League to take a long hard look at itself and work out the best way forward for the sport as a whole, not just the few at the "top table"

aren't kpmg involved in the franchise process? i thought they were looking at all bids in conjunction with the rfl, from and independant point of view, or have i made that up (or read it on here and thought it must be true!)?

who leaked the letter and why is a more interesting question!

No, you haven't made it up; KPMG and the rather woolly 'experts' from Leeds Met university are involved in scrutinising the books as part of the franchise process.

More interesting than "what did The Grudge" hope to achieve with this latest hissy-fit"?

You must be joking, especially as he is responsible for over 25% of the "£8 million accumulated losses"

You can adopt an osrich mentality, go bust, then merge with another team, pretending nothing happened or address problems before they become insurmountable.

Typical whinge from a small club chairman

Nothing new

Or not get to these problems in the first place.

I think Messers Pearson, Caddick, McManus, Davy, Lenegan et al will be surprised to hear they are bankrupt.