Said this before the cap needs to be st as a % of clubs income up to a maximum of 2.5 million. The idea is good but as seen with the Quins and Celtic it does not do what it was set up to do save clubs from themselves.
If you took off the cap the players that came through the academy system you could be putting the club at risk. A better way would be his wages would not count towards the cap until he was 21 because up until that point most academy players are not on that much.
The % of income rule would make clubs work harder to promote there club and so bring in more income. If you went for no cap or your own talent not counting at all lots of clubs would go to the wall.

The Cap is a good thing as it is a (partial) insurance against Clubs overspending. Having said that, it is in need of an increase, although we should be wary of increasing it by too much. Someone has said £2.5 million would be a good figure to use as a new cap and I would agree with that from next season, but then increases should only be made to the level of inflation.
If you look at some of the current trouble in football at the mement, with several Clubs in administraion and more due to follow at the end of the season, then we don't want to go down that path.
Clubs also have to make big efforts to increase gates and other streams of income. Wigan are doing well with this, as are Wire and one or two other Clubs, but some just appear to hope that the projected move to a new stadium will be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Salford are a case in point re this. The new stadium has been coming for well over 10 years now and I don't really believe that it will ever arrive. Warrington and Hull did all they could to lift their gates in the 4-5 years prior to the move, Salford don't appear to do a thing.

What is / was the purpose of the cap?

To end Wigan's dominance - our financial implosion in 1997 would have done this anyway.
Equalise the competition - Not really, there are still haves and have nots who can't spend anywhere near the full cap.
Stop clubs going bust - Has gone some way to helping this in recent years, but a simple "you can't spend what you don't earn" rule would suffice.
The cap's major failure has been in generating interest in the sport due to a lack of real stars from Aus and RU coming across. It has also caused players to be underpaid thereby denying junior talent a viable career opportunity.
You will never get to a situation with 14 equal clubs - are we saying that Wigan and Leeds should downsize to Salford and Quins' financial aspirations - in football would you expect Barcelaona to spend the same cap as Espanyol?

The cap is a good thing but it justs needs the rules/conditions updating to help move the league forward. Football will eventually follow suit with a salary cap imo because it wont be able to survive otherwise.

If you want to stop clubs spending outside their means then use a x% of revenue limit on wages, but after that clubs should be allowed to spend how they please.

I like the idea of a cap but it does need to change. Clubs like Wigan shouldnt be held back due to performing well financially and producing a wealth of young talent. We should be rewarded for this.

That's exactly what quite a few people in the British game think, and it's the sort of attitude that has held us back for decades. Dougie Laughton used to refer to it as "the tail wagging the dog".

Personally, I believe the cap is now well due an overhaul. Apart from anything else, the financial situation is changing in Australia, so it will HAVE to change here whether people like it or not, because we are starting to lose star players to Aus as well as to RU, and the jury is still out about whether such a development is actually good for the British game.

Many of the other points made in this thread are valid. We need to moderate the cap so that we encourage clubs to develop youth not discourage them.

Given that Wigan now officially support the salary cap, and seem to have regained their status as one of the bigger clubs while living within its strictures, I'm not sure that it's really an issue of debate among Wigan fans any more. But I'm still very dubious about the morality of denying clubs the right to spend their own money, especially if it's money they've generated through having good business models. As for the concerns about the free market ruining football, I think there's something in that - though I sincerely doubt that we'll ever end up in a mess of that magnitude, simply because so few of us are willing or even able to make preposterous pay settlements. If idiot players insist on demanding ridiculous wages, a la Sonny Bill Williams, they can still go to French Rugby Union, where they might hate their deterioration as athletes but at least they'll get rich.

I like the salary cap in that it stops clubs spending more than they can afford, that is a massive pro, and we may have seen a few clubs go under portsmouth style had we not had it in place, however I don't like how it restricts the earnings of some players (we lost Ashton because we could only offer him peanuts, if you believe Mo) and I don't like how there is no incentive to bring your own talent through the ranks.

On a slightly different note, isn't there a proposed salary cap increase in Aus??

For me that could be a disaster, especially considering the RFL are too inept to even consider changes until it's far too late. I was talking to Odem about it, and he's read somewhere that it could go up to A$ 6mil, that would be an absolutle nightmare. Aussie clubs could then offer the best wages, in the best league, and in a beatiful country.

"Hey Sam/Joel/Lee/Liam/Kyle/Any other english youngster with a bit of potential, fancy coming playing in Aus? We can double your contract, give you a house on the beach, and you'll be playing alongside/agianst Inu, Thurston, Folau, Lockyer and any other boy hood heros you have"

Who would turn that down!!

It would be near enough the end of the salary cap in Britain, or the end of RL as a top class British domestic sport.

I doubt it, the proposed rise is less than $1m, and i dont think that money would be used to entice British players, more like clubs trying to keep their own players. They are having all sort of problems with the 3rd party agreements, Scott Prince and the Titans have just been cleared of this.

Has any confirmation of new franchises been announced? They have been talking about this for a long time. Eventually new teams will be implemented but alot will depend on the next round of TV negoations. Im hoping for a new Queensland team and for the Central Coast Bear to come in.

If our best talent went to Aus we'd probably end up with a half decent test side in 5 years! If we want to keep our best youngsters and bring more through we have to make some sort of allowance on the cap for Academy products. Whether it be only 50% of their wages count or whatever.

The CC is a bad idea. End of.

challenge cup?

Hmmm aren't we trying to cut out aussie players coming over for a payday?

I dont agree with the cap even more so when rugby onion come and chuck a big wad of cash at our young players if we are going to keep the cap up it

I don't think there's any way of stopping the Aussies coming over for a payday unless the standard of the league increases dramatically. Why else would someone come and play in the UK rather than Aus, in a less respected league with a much lower profile? Reducing the quota would be a way of ensuring that the clubs should make sure they're getting someone who's going to work as well as get paid as they should be able to afford a player who's just waiting to retire.