Part of the £2.4 million loss was down to extraordinary expenditure on completing the cladding at a cost of £750k. The building of the new ground and the year spent out of town was always going to affect the numbers for a good few years and the benefits were never going to be overnight.

There is no external debt and therefore no pressure from creditors. There are substantial directors loans however I am sure that those providing them are not expecting repayment in the medium term. Most businesses have ' debt' the only issue is when it cannot be repaid when scheduled and give the source of funds there is unlikely to be any demand.

I think we are better placed than most. We own the ground and everything that goes on in it lock stock and barrell including all the catering. The club is growing an excellent reputation for its functions and corporate hospitality. We have a leading academy set up. Crowds are as good as they have been in the modern era. We are on of very few clubs still prepared to pay transfer fees ( Amor and Burns) It all points to a promising future and if the club state they are rapidly approaching a break even position that is fantastic news.

The more clubs that can achieve what we have the better.

Corporate hospitality in St. Helens? Does the club pay people to attend?

No they don't but it could come to that! Seriously I do every Wigan visit in a box at Langtree thanks to the generosity of a mate and I can tell you he is thinking of pulling the plug, such is his dissatisfaction. The hospitality at Knowsley Road was actually much better as far as the food is concerned. However, that is one thing that is easy to fix and, overall, Saints are in an enviable position commercially IMO.

I don't know how it is in the home end but I've been to every Wigan game at Langtree Park as well as the World Cup game last year and I've always found the queues for food and drink to be a nightmare, far worse than any game I've been to at any ground in fact. A relatively minor issue I know but I bet they are throwing away a fair bit of money there with people not buying anything because they don't want to miss a fair chunk of the match queuing up

increasing commitment to expand its online TV opportunity, branding expansion and Community activity and to the rising costs of player wages and development." With the 2014 financial year as good as over has this investment been noticeable?

If I owned an RL club I'd make every effort to reinvest as much of the club's operating profit as possible and build the club, whilst still posting a modest/small profit. In fact, as a fan, I'd be disappointed if we were reporting huge profits at the expense of investment.

I've every faith that the club's "commitment to expand" will reap benefits long term. Hell, a few weeks touring round NZ/Aus can't have been cheap, that's the cost of being a successful club.

In all the posts on this topic no mention has been made of the income from SKY Television. If in the future, for any reason, that income became no longer available, I doubt if any of the clubs would be making a profit.

Hardly exclusive to LP that problem I find it is the case at many grounds.

The big issue there is staff training and retention. There is a huge turnover of staff and to be honest given it is around 2 or 3 hours of work every fortnight for about a dozen times a year I can understand why it would be difficult to find people willing to do it and stick with it for any length of time. It maybe slightly different at a club that share with the football as they will get more regular shifts.

At Salford last season the staff on the concession stalls seemed to have a lack of basic English and appeared to struggle with sterling as a currency!

To the chap that scoffed at the corporate hospitality I know that British Gas are one blue chip business that regularly use the venue for staff training and such like. I went to a wedding in the summer and it was excellent. I cannot comment on match day VIP stuff as not experienced it.

Whereas I have, and often, hence my comments. Also, I see that you only mentioned my "scoffing" and conveniently forgot the bit where I said Saints were in an enviable position. Unless you meant another scoffer, of course?

Anyone else worried about the English Rugby Union salary cap going up to £5.5 million next season with extra provision for signing "marquee players" outside the cap? Can only see this as bad news for RL in this country

I did mean someone else so don't take it to heart! This is a reasoned debate on the whole.