Its very strange you decided to post this minutes before this came out: www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/4237 Its a shame youre wrong, but hey ho, well timed.

Its very strange you decided to post this minutes before this came out: www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/4237 Its a shame youre wrong, but hey ho, well timed.

No figures, no - but rather the way the figures should be interpreted. I havent seen the accounting sheet - put id put good money on the majority of the "losses" to be consist of the overheads from the stadium (which is in the "pr piece"icon_wink.gif and depreciation of the major asset. In essence both are right, breaking even in Cash value is what theyre getting at. Where youre wrong is the suggestion its not sustainable.

St Helens was a bad example. They have had a massive outlay On their stadium and if their chairman says they are likely to break even this year and become profitable from 2015 and beyond we should believe him.

There does seem to be a significant number of badly run clubs from a financial point of view and a number relying on the owners cash to keep them afloat but that is the same in most sports. It wasn't that long ago we were on the brink.

I don't think the depreciation on their stadium is the main factor in the £2.4m loss. It will be interesting to see what the operating loss position is when the accounts are available.

Hopefully they can turn things around as their Chairman believes. I guess we'll see next year.

What worries me is that so many clubs aren't run on a break even basis (let alone trying to make a profit to reinvest), the game is on a knife edge. Bradford didn't have a chairman like McManus and as a result one of the greatest clubs in the game has been reduced to a parlous state. If that can happen to Bradford it can happen to any club, big or small, and as you point out, it almost happened to us.

Don't get me wrong, I really don't want Saints to be in dire financial straits (one thing we can all agree on is that the Saints v Wigan derby is one of the best things in British sport, not just RL, the rivalry between the clubs is a big part of why we support our clubs). Obviously Saints aren't at the moment in a financial crisis despite another big loss, your directors (including I think McManus) are very generously supporting the club with their own cash and I've seen no signs they are not prepared to or can't keep that going as long as necessary, but it just isn't good for the game to have clubs being propped up in this way. Just because it used to happen at Wigan under Dave Whelan didn't make it right then, even though his support was also generous.

IL gets flak from Wigan fans for not waiving his chequebook around, but he's doing things I think in the best, long tem, interests of the club. We have to remember that RL isn't football, we can't assume that very wealthy people will step forward to bail out clubs, not even sides like Wigan or Saints will necessarily find a benefactor like IL or McManus - just look at Bradford, the dominant club in the early SL era, now reduced to financial ruin.

Hopefully Saints directors and management will put the club on a sustainable basis going forward, with a big improvement in this year's figures being the starting point when they are announced this time next year. It is worrying that the losses have widened this year, I would have thought that now things would be settling down and the club would be on an even keel, but we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Not just depreciation. Read the article - work has only just been completed - the cladding alone will account for 800k of it. It also makes financial sense to keep the outlay for as long as possible (cough tax cough)

As with all these things, if both chairmen walked away tomorrow, Id feel far more comfortable as a saints fan - but I dont want to turn this into a Saints/ Wigan row - financially speaking, Saints have never looked better.

I think Saints have to be applauded for what they have done and in many ways should be a model for RL clubs going forward. Owning a new purpose built stadium with all the income streams that go with that will pay dividends for years going forward. They were very lucky to have McManus there to raise the finance and get things going but there is no reason that other clubs couldnt do the same.

Not sure Wigan are in "decent shape financially". Last set of accounts showed assets of £1.887m against liabilities of £4.123m. I would expect Wigan's 2013 figures to be very good given a Wembley appearance and income from Sam Tomkins transfer however in last year's accounts there was a warning that 2013 would be a "challenging one in tough economic conditions with increased operating costs arising from .... setting-up Wigan TV" so they should make interesting reading.

As for other clubs in decent shape financially then Warrington have just posted a profit for 2013 which I think makes it about 5 years in a row whilst Warrington's assets exceed its liabilities by around £9.7m so as far as rugby league clubs go then I'd say Warrington are in decent shape financially.

Haven't the Wolfs' profits fallen dramatically?

They have, from 366k to 19k, but to be fair the Wolfs do seem to be run on a prudent basis, hopefully that drop isn't a sign of problems to come.

Yes the word profit giving you a clue to Warrington's parlous state. How many sporting clubs post a profit these days?

Figures include transfer fees paid of £215k in 2013. Seems a lot to spend on Anthony England who was our only signing during the year

Leeds

Turnover reduced from £10.7m in 2012 to £10.03m in 2013 mostly due to not reaching a final in 2013.

Profit reduced from £692k to £406k.

Amount owed to the club = £1.643m

Cash at bank = £1.99m