The game now for me is dependent on generous enthusiasts.
Rovers, Leigh, Cas, Wakey and hopefully ourselves have all had big cash injections or hand outs from benefactors over the last few years (Sadly you can't call them anything other than that really), Huddersfield will survive whilst Davey continues to bank roll them but take that away and they have been going backwards for years. But, after that they would seriously struggle. However, Salford have lived on loans, grants and gifts for years and I think they have over spent against their income etc. which is pretty foolish. Sadly the only way our game will survive is through each club having a 'sugar daddy' figure at its head. We have As fans become conditioned to it we don't look so much at clubs attendances as much as we do how much their owners are worth. That for me just reflects the fact that wherever it's coming from we don't have enough coming into the game to finance what we have to put out, it's basic economics really and what business would trade like that?

I agree (with one slight caveat, below). It’s mostly down to wider economic trends rather than poop management, imo. Which isn’t to say that the management isn’t poop, just that even if it was good it would only mitigate and not solve the problem.

It doesn’t even feel worthwhile discussing making the sport sustainable at this point.

That caveat - Salford spending beyond their means. It’s foolish from one pov, but the structure of the league and central distributions means clubs in that position (i.e. no sugar daddy) are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

It's a compelling argument against increasing the salary cap. Pretty much no club can sustain spend at the current levels without outside support let alone an increased one. Union is a prime example of removing the spending ll8mits leading to stupid decisions being made.

Why should Salford be bailed out by the other clubs again when their business model clearly isn't sustainable whilst better run lower league clubs are left where they are

I feel sorry for the fans who have put money in to the club to help out but the club should have known better as they went through this after the Koucash reign..they sold Ackers and Croft last season and got £350.000? To help them out….what’s to say they won’t do this in 2026 as well.

If the Salford woes had serviced a month or so ago I think they would have lost their Super League status

Good post as usual Wilf. I don't think it's a new thing though. Neither Hull or Rvrs were financially sustainable in the 80's hence their problems soon after. Leed's and Widnes both went close to bankruptcy soon after. Wigan certainly ruled the roost till they had to sell it!
Bulls went for it but couldn't keep up with what they spent and it wasn't till St Helens were taken over that they were saved.

Questions need to be asked what financial checks they are so not, this black hole didn't appear in like 6 weeks since the season ended.

When we clearly dont have enough money coming into the game then you have to ask why have the RFL paid IMG circa £500000 for nothing but a flawed grading system.
The RFL could have told Wakefield and Castleford their grounds needed to be improved and added their own sanctions rather then hand out so much money for nothing.
What we dont know is how much they are liable to pay these spreadsheet Charlies over the contract period.
If its the same level as the first payment then thats just money down the drain which could have been used a lot more wisely to enhance the game and also used as an emergency fund for clubs in trouble.

Perhaps they should get Mr Starmer and MS Reeves in they seem to be experts a black holes and how to fix them

Just reading an article that Union is thinking of having a two leg playoff between the bottom side and Championship winner...but the Championship club will have to meet stadium criteria or have fimr ground improvement plans in place to go up, and its believed only Doncaster RU meet the criteria for the whole league. So we aren't the only sport pulling the drawbridge up to lower league teams.