Just for a little bit of fun in these negative times it would be interesting to find out people's opinions on how to save this £400,000.

The first step I would take and it wouldn't be an easy one is to cut players who maybe aren't a necessity. The first one I would sell would be Luke Gale. No disrespect to the fella but he hasn't been the commanding half that we needed and has been patchy/injured in his 2 year stint. Sell him for close to £50,000 (Hull are interested apparently) plus we save his £80,000-£100,000 wage (estimated). Gaskell and Sammut in the halves with Addy and Kearney as a back up half.

The other would be Purtell, I know he had a heart attack but he hasn't played well enough consistently. Sell him or let him go and we get another £80,000-£100,000 shaved off the wage bill. With Blythe, Henry and George signing we can afford to lose Purtell. Plus it gives us another quota space should any money be available to us later on in the season (doubtful).

I am unsure on how to cut the remaining £150,000-£200,000 but out of the squad these are the ones I think we can 'afford' to loose in order to cut costs.

RHP ? Another £50- £60 K.

How about trying to raise 400k, or at least significant proportion of it, rather than 'save' it?

league Express apparently have a piece on which player is going first in tomorrow's paper

It would have to be through additional sponsors as getting fans to raise it won't work due to what happened last time :/

You can't just 'let somebody go', Purtell would be quite within his right to demand we buy out the remainder of his contract. And let's face it, nobody will be making an offer for the bloke, we're stuck with him.

I'm hopeful that Purtell will have a much greater impact this year anyway. You simply cannot judge him on last season after the problems and disruptions he had to overcome.

Hopefully RHP and his team have some ideas to improve revenue streams in merchandise. It's been pretty dire for sometime IMO so some definite scope to improve that side of the business. And perhaps the lottery might get another look at? I was in it from the BigOne launch but admit that after they doubled the price and made the prizes pretty crap I decided it wasn't worth bothering with. I was also contributing to BULLBUILDER so supported the academy via the Trust. Wonder what numbers are like for the lottery nowadays?

Saving £400K looks a lot more feasible if you think in terms of saving £200K, and generating an extra £200K in some way. I hope they are thinking of generating more income, as well as reducing the spending.

Also why are we assuming that we need to shed £400K off the playing side? It has already been made clear that they are going to look at savings 'in all departments'. I've honestly got no idea who actually works behind the scenes at Odsal, or even what 'departments' exist. But I'm assuming that there are some savings to be made there - which might reasonably reduce the savings on the playing side down to less than £100K - which is only going to be a couple of players.

In fact, haven't they already said that the playing staff are ring fenced and that savings will be made elsewhere first?

Which seems the sensible way of doing things, after all, how can you raise any money if no one wants to come see a team of no hopers who get tonked nearly every week? That business plan certainly hasn't worked for London.

The club need to get people through the gates. The reduced season ticket deal would have worked but for the fact that, IMO, it was TOO cheap. Clearly, the club had the idea that people would buy the cheap ticket and turn up every week to spend money and thus make up the short fall. However, it seemed more like people bought the cheap ticket and just turned up at the games they felt like.

Cheers, this is loads of fun

'Fun' was meant as a bit of irony considering we have done this plenty of times over the past 2-3 years :/ Sorry if that wasn't clear enough.

I think the wording was "the first team squad will be ring fenced [ias much as possible[/i"

The board have said that 2014 will be "survival mode". Which means increased income (sponsors - old & new) and decreased expenditure (wages, suppliers).

Which should stand us in good stead for 2015 after we get next year out of the way.

At least we will have £600,000 more Sky money next season providing we stay in SL as well!

Not guaranteed, remember the proposed restructure!

Which proposed re-structure?? First I've heard of this :/

What about if the fans could buy shares?

*cough*

New league proposal (2 leagues into 3 etc. ). There are rumours that the £600,000 will be lower as the sponsorship will need to be shared between more clubs.

Maybe cut like has been said if London miss the start or get relegated which looks very likely.

If this happens i can see other SL clubs having money problems.

Selling players and reducing wages (as we did) is a double whammy as far as cutting the gap in the shortfall, tackling debt is a little bit harder.
Lge Exp mentions Gale to Hull and Sammut also leaving and the playing squad having to take a 10% salary cut in order to satisfy the RFL that you are doing your level best to avoid administrsation.
I wonder if, as we were you, have been told to avoid administration at all costs or face relegation?
Clearly both clubs seem to be taking a more responsible approach to sorting matters in house than taking the easy (?) route.

This always comes up though. Whenever anyone is perceived to be ' not very good' or 'rubbish', they cry goes up that we should "let them go" or more succinctly "get rid". Truth is, the ones we will be able to "let go" are the ones someone else will want to take.

If both Gale and Sammut go who's our 7? Addy? Obrien? Henry? Losing Gale and Purtell better for the balance of the squad, but realistically Purtell would find a 10% wage cut a small price to pay for the chance of proving he can make a contribution, and get another contract. The comments from the directors sounded like they were asking for voluntary redundancies, which is a mixed blessing, I would guess Sammut was at the front of the queue.
On the debt reduction, I havent seen anything about OK demanding his money back from the club over and above any agreed repayment terms, so it looks as if the £400k is to break-even including any debt servicing/repayment.

Club said if anyone leaves, they would replace them, albeit with someone on a lower wage. So if both Gale & Sammut left, I would assume we'd have our eye on a replacement half, just of lesser quality than Sammut. Having Gaskell with one of the above just doesn't work.

Perhaps Kearney will move into the halves and one of Kear or Foster to full-back?

I'd also take a look at a loan (Gareth O'Brien?) or a Championship player.

FWIW I think Kearney and Gaskell would be an awful half-back partnership.

I agree, although i think Kear is probably our best player under the high ball. Kearney into the halves for a couple of games won't hurt but not as our first team choice, i think Addy would be further up the list to play there over Kearney?