The salary cap is clearly failing to prevent clubs going bust. Is it time to remove the shackles and let the well funded clubs thrive?

I think the top & tail is unless you have a wealthy backer or a board that is in it for the love of it you will struggle to keep your head above the rising tide!

It's a shame as some of my fondest memories are ofus playing widnes dezzies rivalry with offiah and with some widnes fans. That fear when we played them n Howard n soeensen were in form going to it to watch them in the WCC Tho even during their successful times there was always a financial emergency around the corner.

Poor management and a bad deal on the stadium in terms of where match day money is going coupled with dwindling attendances in a town that cannot support a club with the aspirations a side of widnes's history should expect. Unless they find a wealthy backer who has time and money I think anything else is just again patching over a pretty big hole.

We've lost some pretty big name clubs from the top flight, Halifax Sheffield widnes fetherstone Bradford and leigh. Clubs come and go for many reasons I'm. Thankful we look secure for the forseable.

W71 I'm with you, the argument that the cap stops clubs going bust is a myth look at Salford Bradford widnes leigh. What it does is limits aspiration of potential investors both in clubs and the game in general. Its kit like the cap is particularly high given that some prole in London earn more than that in a year themselves!!

This is very sad and it’s happening all too often to rugby league clubs.

Feel sorry for Widnes a good local rival. Always looked forward to the derbys and it was usually one of our better attendances.

We must thank our lucky stars that we have the people we have in charge and our club looks like is run sensibly. I remember the dark days at a crumbling Wilderspool when it almost became a duty to follow the Wire as there was little enjoyment in it.

Almost always the highest over the years.

It's not looking good - Sunday's game has been postponed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/47319477

It's not looking good - Sunday's game has been postponed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/47319477

Gone into Admin, 12 points deduction and a whole world of pain.

Makes you grateful for what we have at the moment.

I get absolutely no joy from our neighbours plight, I hope they can get a backer and be back on track quickly.

I'd swap them for Saints all day long.

That bitterness runs that deep after all these years? Not sure what we've done to offend anyone over the last 5 years.

It's moments like this where I feel the likes of Wire, Saints, Wigan, Leeds, the RFL, Super League and Sky have an obligation to help out. I'm not suggesting they buy the club, but just support it at an appropriate level until a new owner can be found and help avoid the demise of the club. Split between 10 or so parties it really wouldn't require a lot of money.

It's a worrying sign for the sport that a club like Widnes can end up here. They've had the Sky money covering their player costs for years, brought the parachute payment down with them and still couldn't operate. It makes you wonder just how many clubs in the sport in this country are on the edge.

I think if the RFL is allowed to continue to degrade the sport, we'll be semi pro in 10 years from now and not far off fully amateur after that.

Licensing needs to come back and there needs to be a very thorough 'proper person' test on the owners and senior management. Scandalous that James Rule was allowed to be involved at Widnes. There should be a proper audit of funds to ensure the club isn't in doubt.

The cap is clearly an issue for the sport. Whilst there are one or two clubs who could benefit from that and bring a level of PR to the sport with big signings, it would only increase the pressure. The likes of Wakefield, Cas, Salford, Huddersfield and Hull KR would be cut off with an enormous gap in spending to some of the other clubs. There would be inflation of salaries across the board if the top clubs were spending a lot more and we'd see a lot more clubs go to the wall. A moderate cap increase linked to genuine commercial income is something they should look at. Exempting players produced by the club's own academy is another area they should look at.

The reality is the sport is in huge trouble. The next Sky TV deal may just see the return of semi pro for some clubs. Failure to attract new fans, falling attendances, sanitized and boring on field performances. Nigel wood precided over a period where we needed imagination, ambition and drive but we got him instead.

Exempting academy players from the cap could make matters worse. The richest clubs already have the best academies and would just have even more cap space to steal all the best players.

Nothing personal to you Saddo.
You're alright. You can be a Wire.

I'd be happy to see Wire run as a partner to Chemics and supply most of the team running it as a feeder club with a stronger link than just a duel registration like with Rochdale.

I'd be tempted to watch Widnes if we were a heavily involved partner/sugar daddy with so many Wire players running out for them.

Nigel Woods salary would have kept Widnes in SL never mind out of administration!