Here, Here! Well said Richard.

The RFU expect Grassroots Clubs to follow their laws and overbearing Admin requirements and, be satisfied with the £4million a year that the RFU pays for insuring all of the RU Clubs in England. £4million is the same amount as they currently hand over to just 2 Premiership Clubs.

The RFU are cynically trying to control the players as it is the only way they can fund continually drawing their grossly inflated salaries.

Mr Rowe and those in charge of the other appallingly run professional rugby clubs in this country need to wake up and smell the coffee or they are in for a big surprise at the next television contract renewal time.

They might like to pretend all was well prior to Covid but that is systematic of the self-delusion that got them into the financial mess they were all in prior to the pandemic which was and is still obvious to most people. Then and now every Premiership club is and was reliant on a sugar-daddy/long-time benevolent backer call them what you will with no one on the sidelines willing or capable of taking their place. These are the very opposite of well run businesses as is shown by the continuing desire to spend money and demand others pay.

https://archive.ph/n41oR" rel="nofollow - https://archive.ph/n41oR

Link to a telegraph story outside their firewall.

You like making big statements as if you have some inside knowledge and that what you say is right. This statement shows just how little you really know. I can only talk about Leicester as I have little recent inside knowledge of how other clubs are currently run. Leicester has share holders which include many ordinary fans who were able to take advantage of an offer as season ticket holders. No sugar daddy, no long time benevolent benefactor, just share holders. Some have more shares than others because they put money in and bought some of the shares, some were actually given to fans for free. Share holders meet, just like any other business, because that is what Leicester Tigers are, a business.

  At present with a war still raging, a cost of living crisis right across europe, some very large businesses have found they are having to make changes as to how they run going forwards, the latest is Rolls Royce , others have sadly failed and gone into receivership, like Wilkinsons for example. It doesn't mean they were let down by sugar daddies nor does it mean they were necessarily poorly run, life has changed dramatically in the past three years and there are bound to losers and also maybe some winners from this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/67152055" rel="nofollow - Ulster Rugby: Irish province posts losses of £900,000 for 2022-23 season - BBC Sport

Tom Scott is a long-standing supporter of the club and a valued member of the  https://www.leicestertigers.com/club/board" rel="nofollow - board of directors  who over his tenure with the club has already invested over £10m." Leicester Tigers’ CEO  https://www.leicestertigers.com/player/andrea-pinchen" rel="nofollow - Andrea Pinchen  said in a statement.

Ulster of course is a branch of the same company as Leinster, Munster, Connacht and the Irish national sides.

Yes exactly what I said, they are share holders in a business, not outside investors, one an ex player at the club with a connection going back decades, not what anyone(unless of course they have an axe to grind) would call a so called sugar daddy in the common use of the term. Companies commonly issue shares which of course attract dividends as opposed to say for example just taking money from fans/investors and not honouring the repayments.

I have said before due to your continual strawman arguments I do not wish to engage with you. Your latest arrogant post directed at me merely confirms that opinion.

 

Ulster also lost a lot of money from the frozen pitch, apparently about £700,000.

And they had spent money on a new 3g pitch, so it should not happen again.

Which i think counts as exceptional circumstances.

I have to agree.Television companies are not going to pour more money into a sport which gets the same crowds as Division 2 Football. So Bath’s sugar daddy pays Finn Russell £1 million a year and all international players at different clubs expect similar salaries even though their clubs can’t afford them.

Central contracts have got to come and when they do forget the £30,000 per international match. If that’s not good enough then go to France or Japan. 

If they do get an increased TV deal, 20% of it goes direct to CVC.

And the clubs pay that every year from now until eternity.

But I am sure the professional clubs are run by the best business minds.

Or do i mean CVC is run by the best business minds?

Seemingly Ulster have coverings for the pitch, they just weren't used for some reason.

27% minimum and there are rumours some clubs forfeited more. 

Ulster did have the pitch fully covered.(picture on BBC rugby website). The pitch would have been playable on Saturday at 5.30pm. But unfortunately a decision had to be made early on Friday probably for TV reasons 

Exeter Rugby Group, which runs Exeter Chiefs, made a pre-tax loss of more than £4.5m in the year to June 30 2023. The group, which also oversees the events business based at the Premiership club's Sandy Park home, saw pre-tax losses rise by £1.7m from 2022. The year saw Exeter have a full season without Covid-19 restrictions, but the club say they were hit by the rise in the cost of living and lower crowds. Exeter sold a stake in a hotel to help pay off Covid-related loans. Accounts show the group's bank borrowings dropped by almost £20.9m in the period, to just under £2.6m. During the season - which saw Worcester, Wasps and London Irish all go bust - Exeter's men's side finished seventh in the Premiership and reached the semi-finals of the European Champions Cup. Exeter's women's side were beaten in the Premier 15's final, but did retain the Allianz Cup. Turnover rose by just under £5m to almost £25.7m - mainly driven by a rise in the money generated by the hotel and Sandy Park events, rather than rugby-based income - but the profit on those sales fell due to higher costs. The group's wage bill increased by £1.76m to £14.1m - the men's rugby side of the business saw a number of high-profile senior stars such British and Irish Lions players Stuart Hogg, Jack Nowell, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Sam Simmonds leave the club at the end of the season for which the accounts cover.

25 hybrid contracts will barely have any effect on the salary bills.