The reality is Super League in the UK has stood still for the last 5 years or more from a financial perspective, and unless things change our game in its current form cannot be stustained.

The RFL in the UK have to take the blame for the lack of growth in our sport over the past decade. They are paid to oversea the development and growth of the game, to increase its appeal to both supporters and sponsors - they have failed in this task.

SKY TV have a monopoly on coverage and there are no competitors waiting to take their place. Its no wonder TV rights have barely increased over the years and the game cannot attract blue chip sponsors (Engage and Iron Bru for god sake!!).

I know we are a minority sport and in Oz RL is akin to premier league soccer, hence the reason for $7m+ cap over there as TV channels scramble for TV coverage rights.

However my point is that no mater how disadvantages the European game is, it does not excuse the RFL's failure to grow the sport on these shores.

It seems they are either not accountable for their failure or our club chairmen have accepted zero growth as the 'norm'.

the problem with our game is that the bigger teams are carrying the league,
we can never move forward with the cap and the lower clubs as they are, there is no incentive for them to push, for them to become bigger, get more fans and ultimately get more income.
I honestly think that we are being held back by the RFL being a joke, and the smaller clubs hanging onto our coat tails.
I dont have any answers on how to change it but i do feel that we are stuck and in danger of going backwards

Playing numbers are up. Isn't that growth?

The financial mismanagement of the game in the UK is appalling. You're right that zero growth has been accepted as the norm. It's worse than zero growth though, because inflation erodes the SC over 10 years very significantly in real terms.

No one wants to address this issue though. I await the usual abuse from W/L Andy for daring to mention this...

It is, and the fact that the amateur game is doing well shows what a great sport RL is and how badly the professional game is being run.

my thoughts exactly.

One of the main issues is that there is no international governing body, e.g fifa
(please correct me if im wrong)
I think there is an international federation but they do not have any say in the way the games a governed. This means that the rugby league over here and in Australia could be going in two completely different directions. with neither one willing to look at the other and accept best practice.

Realistically which clubs can afford to pay another £500K on wages? If my memory serves me well, Wigan operated at a loss in their last set of accounts.

I would have thought that the current cap, rather than pegging us back is stretching the lower teams.

Not sure how in demand Puletua was back in Aus, but, the new cap over there hasnt taken him back to the NRL, having just signed a new deal at saints

It only comes in to effect in 2013

Don't ask Deano G, only a month ago he didn't realise rugby league clubs generally lose money year on year.

Don't disagree with you, there probably aren't many clubs that could at the moment. The problem is though that we've had about a decade at the current level and if we genuinely can't raise it then that shows that clubs are actually going backwards - wages inflation will have knocked at least 20-25% off the value of the cap since it was brought in. There needs to be some plan as to how we can reverse this trend or else we need to accept that sooner or later the game will be semi-pro.

What's weird is that crowds have gone up at the majority of clubs and yet most clubs appear to still be losing money/barely breaking even, despite the cap reducing in real terms. I suspect some of the modern stadia have proved more expensive than people hoped (and I don't think Wigan have a great deal re the DW) but it is a pretty daming indictment of RL's financial management.