This evenings Manchester Evening News gives an in depth insight into a programme on the Inside Out Programme on BBC1 tonight.
The programme is about the severe financial state of the majority S/L clubs and the implications. The report in the MEN is very detailed , so watching the programme will be interesting.

Going by the report www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/21211330 things look very bad - "Super League clubs are facing combined debts of £68.5m, a BBC Inside Out investigation alleges." - that is a huge level of debt especially in the current economic climate, makes you wonder if there will be more clubs going to the wall soon. This could be grim watching.

Going by the report www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/21211330 things look very bad - "Super League clubs are facing combined debts of £68.5m, a BBC Inside Out investigation alleges." - that is a huge level of debt especially in the current economic climate, makes you wonder if there will be more clubs going to the wall soon. This could be grim watching.

There's simply not enough money in the sport to sustain 14 super league teams, yet this shouldn't be an excuse for clubs to be as poorly ran Bradford have no one but them selves to blame.

11 clubs examined....£68.5m debt
2 clubs removed leaves 9 clubs with £3m average = £27m

That means 2 clubs have a total debt of £41.5m between them, makes Bradford look well run....pmsl

But could that debt include a mortgage/loan on a stadium? Would Warrington/Saints have a large debt because of their new stadiums?

Debt by itself isn't a problem. It's only when you can't service it that it becomes one.

Maybe one of the clubs is Harlequins, where the indebtedness is a paper only exercise - there is no point in owner Hughes ever asking for his money back as it has already gone and he has written it off in all but accounting terms (This no doubt applies to HKR, Hudds, Saints prior to their new stadium and others as well).

Whilst not suggesting that SL is in good health, if you look at comparable figures for RU and football clubs our clubs debts pale in comparison (whilst noting that the turnovers in those club games are "somewhat" higher than in SL).

I would love to see an accurate breakdown of these figures as I really dont think these headline figures will stand up to any serious scrutiny and I am sure that the bulk of the £68.5 million can be easily explained, particularly the 2 teams that are carrying £41 million debt.

This just seems to be a beat up Rugby League story nicely timed to undermine the start of the Super League season.

It's all Wigan' fault of course.

If we hadn't deferred wages a few seasons ago the RFL would not have made the cap "live" meaning the rule that limited spending to 50% of income or the cap whichever was lower would still be place.

That would have stopped clubs doing as the person who came up with this says which is and I quote:



Well of course its a target because if you pay peanuts you get moneky's. The problem is the current regulations allow clubs to pay up to the cap when they can't afford it where pre the cap going live they didn't.

Wonder if this will be mentioned on the program?

From here: [urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/21211330[/url

"Two of the clubs examined had significant levels of net debt and, if these are removed from the sample, we can conclude an average net debt of around £3m per club."

So 9 clubs have an average of £3m debt? So £27m spread over nine.

But that is not the case either because the article says three or four clubs are supposed to be performing well. So by my reckoning that means if we assume four clubs are doing well the remaining five clubs have debts totalling £27m. So £5.4m per club.

So Warrington and Saints are disgracing the game? No change here then..

Quote ="exiled Warrior"Going by the report www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/21211330 things look very bad - "Super League clubs are facing combined debts of £68.5m, a BBC Inside Out investigation alleges." - that is a huge level of debt especially in the current economic climate, makes you wonder if there will be more clubs going to the wall soon. This could be grim watching.'" That was a bit of an anti climax.

Quote ="exiled Warrior"Going by the report www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/21211330 things look very bad - "Super League clubs are facing combined debts of £68.5m, a BBC Inside Out investigation alleges." - that is a huge level of debt especially in the current economic climate, makes you wonder if there will be more clubs going to the wall soon. This could be grim watching.'" That was a bit of an anti climax.

ahem....
[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/21237956[/url

Smith's club, Warrington, are one of the clubs in good financial shape, but he accepted there were problems in Super League.

follow above link and get up to speed with the latest story before trying to be clever

Not exactly a Panorama exposé, all headline & little substance. The only interesting thing was Riley's tan.

I think it is great that Warrington have risen to become the club that they currently are and are in many ways they are the role models for other smaller and average sized clubs and the club that they should be seeking to emulate. However two things made this possible, a rich benefactor and basically getting a ground for pretty much nothing. These 2 things were a huge leg up and there are a few teams that if they had a benefactor and owned a new ground would make the step up and become a much bigger club than they currently are in much the same way, such as say Wakefield, but its just not that simple for most teams. Without these Warrington would have still been at Wilderspool and would pretty much be like a Wakefield/Castleford etc now imo where as instead they have gone from strength to strength.

Hopefully Salford with their new backing can achieve something similar, Catalans and Hull keep improving and Bradford rise again and we can have a big 7 or 8 in Super League rather than just a big 4.

Just watched it. Waste of time as there was no in depth analysis. Interesting stat that the average career length of an RL player is a mere 4 years and that the verge pay is £60k. Wilkin who was interviewed said players worried about paying the mortgage not funding their investment portfolio!

The RFL don't agree with the analysis while Hethrington mentioned he wanted to see bad management at some clubs got rid of. Slightly contradictory that. Named no clubs and wasn't asked which ones.

If Warrington and Saints are on the edge of an abyss with their financial troubles then I hope Wigan will rally round and help support us with financial aid in our hour of need.

As we all know it is a family sport and thats what makes the game of ours so great, the knowledge that clubs like Wigan would put the interests of the wider game first and help bail their neighbours out.

I'm sure we would. We know how much we are loved, and would love to help, even if it was to destroy us...

I think Wigan's debt is circa £5m whilst Warrington's is circa £2m.

I recall Saints wiped all their debt out the other year by converting loans to shares but I wouldn't be suprised if they have loaded further debt onto the club since then in developing the stadium.

For the life of me I can't think which two clubs would have accumulated debts of £20m between them.

London surely are hemmorhaging bucketfuls of cash by the day and must be a contender. They have had no shirt sponsor for two years for a start, along with around 1000 season ticket sales and the rental agreement at the Stoop.........

No mention of who the debt is owed to though. Looks like a usual hack job by the BBC on the eve of the season. Premier League clubs are in debt to the tune of £2.4 billion, a drop in the ocean compared to £68m yet I don't recall the BBC sounding the death knell for the game. Funny that...

I agree

Proper hatchet job with no other aim but to wound.

2 from Quins, HKR, Hudds.

Possibly but in context although the Premier League has such a huge debt - it's earning potential both at club level and TV rights are such that the level of debt compared to income overall is probably comparable to RL's debt/income level or maybe even lower . Also the PL are under pressure to reduce debt levels (UEFA rules etc).

Without detail on who the debts in RL are owed to and how this relates to income at the various clubs involved it is impossible to have a clear picture but it is probably fair to say that quite a few RL clubs are in a very precarious state financially and this is not likely to improve much in the short term.