Bradford Bulls RL teeters on the brink of administration : A danger signal?

RL having a 99-year head start on the professional game (if you ignore the 20-year prior period of shamateurism).

But since then the tide has turned completely from oop North to darn Sarf - indicating where the money (pay) is.

I have no idea about gates in RL apart from a reported 9500 on http://www.skysports.com/rugbyleague/stats/comp/0,20291,11070,00.html
And even less about admission prices.

But if a premier RL side can get into financial schtuck like that, should the alarm bells be ringing anywhere in RU?

Rhinos have an average gate this season of around the 17,000 mark though that's slightly scewed by the Manly game. Tickets range from £20 standing to I think £30 for centre seats. Bulls prices are I think roughly the same but not the range. Bulls have over 10.000 season ticket holders according to the local press at £85 on the terraces, can't find attendance numbers. No idea what sponsorship brings in.

There is a major problem in most professional sports I believe with only a few organisations managing to balance the books with the rest dependent on wealthy owners or slowly getting into more and more difficulties. This will only get worse if clubs are dependent on big name signings. Clubs like Exeter appear to be getting it right by astute recruitment and developing their own players. Clubs like Leeds Carnegie and Newcastle Falcons produce a good number of players through their academies but are not always successful in retaining them. I honestly don't know what the future holds but money is very tight for most.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_League

Has some interesting info

Salary cap 1.65m. So scaling that up to 15-men RU plus an allowance for higher wages I'd guess that that's equivalent to £2.5M? Plus they have max and min totals of imported/domestic talent.
And dual national registration (Shingler's list?)

Plus some other interesting rules (not relevant to this post, but still interesting).

I don't feel that because one RL club mismanages its finances we should be concerned about RU sides. Since the Richmond debacle, top sides have been relatively secure. Having said that, very few are profitable and they rely upon sugar daddy's to payroll them. Fortunately for RU it has a traditionally affluent following allowing for a good supply of sugar daddys! I know many people are for increasing or removing the salary cap, but it is for reasons like this why I am such an ardent supporter of the cap.

My fundamental view has always been based on sustainability - i.e. 40% of turnover.

A fixed sum encourages a max the credit card syndrome - like when the footy Premier League got its Sky millions and every cent was spent on inflating players wages.

With Man City for example, its player bill alone exceeds total turnover. In this case not a sugar saddy (typo which I'll keep), but a vague foreign interest.

EUFA are struggling to redress the problem based on a sustainability protocol.

Meanwhile in the Jeff, clubs are declining in the European cups and you have to ask : Why?

Richmond, London Scottish, Orrell, West Hartlepool, Bedford, Bristol, Coventry, Manchester, Birmingham/Solihull have all had major financial issues for various reasons. Some simply due to money lost when relegated, others due to over-reaching themselves, others due to the loss of a sugar daddy.

Right now Barking and Esher are clubs in serious financial risk who have spent money they did not have.

It is not just in England - Scarlets, Edinbught & Connacht have all had a variety of issues. In France each season seems to see a club go bust.

Recently clubs have not suffered the doomsday scenario suffered by Richmond/London Scottish - often bailed out by their Unions. this will not always happen and we will se a major team go bust - perhaps before next season.