Players not getting paid tomorrow. Heartbreaking and hope they get through this.

"
Widnes Vikings would like to update members, supporters and partners on the club’s current financial situation.

Widnes Vikings have been facing a significant cash-flow gap, which must be resolved in the coming days.

Throughout the past three months, Widnes Vikings’ Board of Directors and senior staff members have made extensive efforts to engage business leaders and individuals to secure investment to stabilise the club and overcome the potential threat of administration. This has included the Board writing off more than £370,000 worth of loans that they had provided to the club throughout their tenure.

It had appeared likely that a consortium of investors would take ownership of the club today, providing the necessary investment to secure the club’s future stability. However, at a late stage, a key member of this consortium have withdrawn from this process. As a result, the club has, as yet, failed to secure the necessary investment and is unable to make its payroll commitments for all employees tomorrow.

Efforts to secure investment remain ongoing and we will continue to pursue all available avenues. The club continues to invite other expressions of interest from individuals or groups that may wish to support Widnes Vikings at this time.

The club is taking advice in response to this matter. Widnes Vikings continue to trade and, at this stage, our scheduled fixture against Sheffield will go a head."

Absolutely gutted, lost for many words.

The outgoing board have pocketed and bled the club dry, we get relegated and the money dries up and all 4/5 directors have jumped ship.

Administration and points deduction probably on its way. Gelling, Hood, Inu plus more will be up for grabs and our fantastic academy system will fall to pieces.

Nobodies fault but the clowns who have been running us. Praying for a solution.

Marwan will step in and relocate the club to Liverpool.

Even if Marwan steps in, he will only do it when club is in admin. On Twitter saying debt is 500k+, no one with any sense is going to cover that.

It’s what we owe the council. They’re letting us pay it in monthly instalments and helping us but it’s still a lot of money.

As of tomorrow, we won’t be able to pay certain staff.

It's a shame, but that stadium is a bit misleading, ppl think your in a good position but like with leigh ths bloody council take the revenue and you cant make any non matchday income either to top up the bank which is bloody crucial.

Honestly it makes such a difference and was one of the first things down when the hj was planned. There's 14 home games a year, how do we make money the other 350 days a year?

I thought when Steve Rule left, that was a good thing. Obviously not...

Yeah the club don’t get any cut on the bar sales etc/corporate box revenue. They just pay a one off yearly fee to play out of the stadium, the council get everything.

It is quite a large amount, Council Might now call in debt if Admin looming. also saw on social media that O,Neills are owed 200k too.

A lot of hidden debt for a long long time. It’s surfacing now.

That may be the case, but the public of Widnes seemed to have turned their back on the club for a number of years, they have hardly got above 5k since they got back in Super League, if they were getting 8k plus they would still be making enough money to run a competitive side. Fact is maybe they should have volanterrily stepped out of super league 2 years ago and tried to rebuild, they may never recover from this.

Have you got evidence they pocketed money?

Net liabilities of Widnes Sport Ltd at 30 November 2017 were a little over £1.4 million according to the accounts. Not sure what’s happened in the 15 months since?

Widnes have never been well supported even when they were world champions

If the board have written off circa £370K of debt *owed to them* then I fail to see how they pocketed the money, Widnes are somewhat like Leigh in this regard, with Beaumont offering to write off ALL of his debt but only to suitable new owners (which didn't happen) therefore Leigh Centurions still owe D.B plenty !

I don't & have never liked Widnes but I wouldn't wish this on any R.L Club, not even Wigan. I hope Widnes can pull through & see better times.

Well I can see Widnes disappearing and I will find other things to do now. Lost my love of Rugby League and how things have been run. Unfortunately the Town has more interest in football these days.

Grim news and this will be unbearably tough on the fans, players and staff.
The return of promotion and relegation seems to have brought a return to boom and bust, the very reason for abolishing the movement between SL and The Championship.
I hope that they get something sorted but, you do wonder whether all the stuff about a new club in Liverpool was being planned with some "inside knowledge" from certain parties.

On a related note, did Widnes receive and parachute payment when relegated ?

For the fans, stick in thare and stand by your club and hopefully something positive will happen. Bradford are rising again and Widnes' history is just as rich as theirs, albeit their success was more recent but, in the 80's Widnes were a great side, filled with superstars, it would be a huge loss for the game if they were to disappear.

I hope that Widnes survives. It has a very good stadium. But it it needs to survive in the Championship. Widnes is just not capable of competing in Super League with its paltry fan base.

Sounds to me like Widnes had been building up a fair bit of debt and their owners weren’t able to keep throwing money away. Some of them have apparently written off £370k of debt. Not to be sniffed at. One wonders what other debts exist and how the parachute payment (if one existed) was spent.

Hopefully they can avoid administration but it doesn’t look good. Like just about every RL club Widnes isn’t an “investment opportunity”. One doesn’t “invest” in a fully professional RL club as they are all (apart from maybe 2 or 3) loss making businesses.

They could in the long run go part time or have a mix of part time and full time – it depends on who comes in. Fingers crossed for the fans.

Have you not noticed that when a club is successful, attendances go up and if they are not successful, attendances go down, it's quite obvious really.
Having said that, Widnes, with their "paltry" attendances, were getting 2 1/2 times the crowds that your beloved London get and in a far better stadium and you've been desperate for them to gain promotion - double standards ??
They also have more fans than Toulouse, another side that you are desperate to see in SL- double standards ??
They also have an excellent junior development system. Do Toronto (your other love child) have this - double standards ??

IF the game in the UK actually withers and dies, where do you want Toronto, Toulouse, London and Catalan to ply their trade - Australia ??

You are utterly hypocritical, peddling some false "dream" and you need to get a grip on reality



Maybe, if/when Toronto run out of cash, you will realise that you have been chasing the wrong rainbow and IF Widnes should be in The Championship, what do you think will happen to their attendances.



Rugby League in the UK has failed to deal with Promotion and Relegation and the disastrous effects of clubs that drop from the top flight (or drop from the top 4 of The Championship), We've had 2 up, 2 down, Super 8's, no relegation and now 1 up, 1 down and they've all had major issues.

Instead of messing about with "innovation" we should concentrate on promoting Rugby League.

There isn't anyone within the RL hierarchy capable of doing this and until we solve this issue, we are all facing a slow lingering death.

Just wondered if the £370k write off of debt was done using the parachute payment?

well it might make room for Toulouse and its paltry fan base

Add London and Salford to this Paltry fan base. Wakefield and Huddersfield fan base is not amazing seen as doing well over the last few years.

Our so called big clubs also have paltry fanbases n’all. We’re lucky if anyone averages over 15000

When Catalans were in the midst of their terrible start to the season last year they were getting home crowds of around 6000 (6585 against Wire, less in other games)

Leeds when the stadium is fully done should be back in the 15k + region but still well down on their record average season which was well over 17k Wigan saints Hull Warrington the only sides in the 10k plus region. All can do better.