Jake the Peg wrote:We lose virtually no players to union and only a handful to the NRL, plenty of whom have come back anyway. I've just googled the RU premiership salary cap and it's an eye watering £7m from next season (How the hell can they afford that?) and the NRL cap is $7m or about £4.25m. In reality, what level of cap increase do we need to really compete if they want our players (irrespective of the desire of a player to test himself in the NRL).
In general, RL players at the elite level in this country are very well paid at an average salary for a SL player of somewhere around £60-70k. I know they put their bodies on the line, it's a short career, earn less tan footballers etc. but the harsh reality is that they are pretty much earning every penny the clubs get from the TV deal and a fair chunk of clubs only exist because of the generosity of club owners. Personally, I see no real benefits in increasing it other than maybe a very small number of players staying put rather than moving to Oz or RU (Where the top players earn £1m+) at the expense of the competitiveness of the comp and the possible financial hardship of some clubs
Absolutely spot on.
The competiveness of the game may have to become it's selling point.
We're not going to get anywhere near the salary cap level of the RFU or NRL, so increasing it marginally will have very little positive impact.
