Quote Raggytash="Raggytash"Utter, utter nonsense. Bradford, London and Wakefield are victims of mismanagement, pure and simple. They spent money they didn't have, and got themselves in trouble. That will happen however many clubs are in Super League. In fact, if the competition shrinks and has less teams, the television revenue will be cut and all the top players wages will increase. After one season, no club would be better off, we'd just have a much smaller talent pool to draw from. The answer is so simple - just spend within your means If you have less fans than another club, spend less!
Everything Hudgell has said stinks of short term self interest from a bloke that cares about his own club, and not for the needs of Rugby League in this Country, and indeed Worldwide. If we can't run our national show-piece competition with 14 clubs, we may as well give up.'"
Running a club at breakeven is extraordinarily difficult when others aren't. I suspect as much of it comes down to owner subsidy as it does good management in most cases. Saints lose more money than Bradford and Wakefield, iirc, but nobody complains about their profligacy, because McManus picks up the tab.
Because he can, so they're living within their current means. And clubs should be allowed to find their level - Sheffield and Featherstone do okay on smaller budgets, as you say, though at a lower level, against clubs with smaller budgets still. It's just the gap between levels is more of a chasm nowadays, to the point that risking falling into in by being prudent might actually be imprudent.
Would the television deal be cut? Did it go up as a result of going from 12 to 14? I genuinely don't remember. I don't see why top players' wages would increase - there are other factors as play, but a higher worker to employer ratio would likely have a deflationary effect in the short term.
Where I think NH was right, was in that the RFL has been too interventionist. To the question, 'so you'd have them stand by and do nothing when a club is struggling?' with minor caveats, I'd say 'yes'. They're governing body not an emergency service for clubs that have imperilled themselves. RL is a competition and by helping one, you're handicapping the others. And then once you've helped one, you make it your thankless duty to help others and it is never ending.