Quote: Dominance "I suppose there are two ways to look at this. One is the conflict of interests argument and why wasn't this offered to Crusaders or Wakefield and it does set a precedent. On the other hand, the Bulls were clearly not going to get an unconditional offer and were probably days from going out of business. This way at least it ensures their existence and SLE will probably be like the administrator until a suitable buyer can be found. I don't think this is a long terms solution. We don't want clubs going to the wall and RFL have said the Bulls could suffer relegation. Time will tell whether they carry this out.
Will other clubs be offered this lifeline in the future...?'"
I think a lot of this is due to the timing of when the B*lls imploded. Crusaders folded at the end of the season. Meanwhile Wakefield were bought out. The B*lls have hit trouble mid season, so it was actually in the interest of the RFL and Super League clubs to bail them out. Had they gone under, other teams would have lost out on gate revenue because of unfulfilled fixtures. Sky wouldn't have been too happy either. It had the potential to create a domino effect.
It's certainly something they need to look at in Super League. The salary cap should stop this from happening. But when only a handful of teams can afford a squad to the full cap and others are getting in to financial difficulty trying to compete whilst also trying to fulfil franchise criteria something is wrong somewhere.
