Quote Stu M="Stu M"I've listened to the full interview (14 mins) and he makes no reference to cuts. Also how is fully utilising the salary cap not investing fully in the playing squad? He does mention on the interview that by not investing in the team creates a false economy as a poor product on the pitch results in less fans attending'" He does here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-leagu ... 8d91d1z22o It also depends what the definition of ‘playing squad’ is and the term fully utilising could mean spending £2.1m or spending for example £3m. For example he could spend £250k on Jack Welsby’s contract, which would only count as £50k on the cap, or choose to pay Welsby £150k and save £100k. I am not having a pop at Saints but I never accept anything that CEOs say at face value.

Quote Stu M="Stu M"I've listened to the full interview (14 mins) and he makes no reference to cuts. Also how is fully utilising the salary cap not investing fully in the playing squad? He does mention on the interview that by not investing in the team creates a false economy as a poor product on the pitch results in less fans attending'" He does here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-leagu ... 8d91d1z22o It also depends what the definition of ‘playing squad’ is and the term fully utilising could mean spending £2.1m or spending for example £3m. For example he could spend £250k on Jack Welsby’s contract, which would only count as £50k on the cap, or choose to pay Welsby £150k and save £100k. I am not having a pop at Saints but I never accept anything that CEOs say at face value.

Didn't Saints have a good deal with the NHS in that the stadium was used as a base for delivering covid jabs to the public. I realise that won't cover all the losses but it must have been a decent deal to help out in hard times.

We broke even as morally (and something I agree with) we didn’t want to be seen to be making money out of a national pandemic so we just covered our costs.

That's fair enough.

So no MPs or anybody from the House of Lords was involved then?

It wasn't point scoring. It was firmly tongue in cheek. Ours didn't make the headlines. I think the 2024 season might be the last as an entertaining spectacle. We (the game) are being ran into the ground by our paymasters (Sky) but the powers that be roll over and let it happen. We allow the games rules to be changed to a point where it doesn't look like RL anymore and we keep being fed 'Nobody would insure us' yet Boxing and basically street fighting (MMA) have no issues and are raking it in. Eddie Hearn wanted to come on board and he was quietly nudged away. he saw something that could grow and now we are stuck with what we have. ALL the clubs are losing money, next season they basically aren't allowed to tackle each other, the revenue is going down, crowds aren't improving and IMG are doing sod all either. We are reaching the end.

Lost me on that one?

Thats been scrapped hasn't it???

Sorry mate, many of those who sit in the two Houses made plenty of dosh from COVID.

Oh behave - They are in a cage, there are rules, gloves, weight classes, drug testing, athletic commissions.

Quote bazdev="bazdev"Thats been scrapped hasn't it???'" Seems to be a maybe depending on how discussions go after the end of the season. This article is literally the only thing i could find on it which is odd. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/artic ... his%20year.

Quote bazdev="bazdev"Thats been scrapped hasn't it???'" Seems to be a maybe depending on how discussions go after the end of the season. This article is literally the only thing i could find on it which is odd. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/artic ... his%20year.

Not what i would call gloves, kicks and knees to the head, beating your opponent to a pulp until they are knocked out and bleeding out everywhere. Some sport that. Regardless of what I think of it though. They aren't struggling to be insured and the competitiors of it will be fit for nothing in 20 years.