New players.

[Charriots Offiah]

And for the avoidance of doubt, this isn't just a pay freeze, it's a real world pay CUT (of around 20% or so depending upon where you start the measure).

It's the same as sitting all the players down in 2019 and saying "you will get a 20% pay cut over the next 5 years if you play our sport".

This is what has effectively happened, but the clubs can offset this by running a squad with 20% less cost - i.e. more youngsters on lower wages than before, or fewer players full stop.

That’s exactly what most clubs will have done. Ultimately, it will eventually devalue the competition.

[DaiJones]

The salary cap has ruined RL in this country. Huge obstacle to the game making any sort of leap forward. Either raise it massively or preferably get rid of the thing altogether. Have never been in favour

[Charriots Offiah]

The salary cap has ruined RL in this country. Huge obstacle to the game making any sort of leap forward. Either raise it massively or preferably get rid of the thing altogether. Have never been in favour

[fozzie58]

The salary cap has ruined RL in this country. Huge obstacle to the game making any sort of leap forward. Either raise it massively or preferably get rid of the thing altogether. Have never been in favour

For me get rid of it it hasn’t evened the playing field it’s just diluted it to the point the same clubs are winning stuff so the comp hasn’t become tighter

Time to scrap it and let the owners sign whoever the hell they want to

[WarriorWinger]

The salary cap has ruined RL in this country. Huge obstacle to the game making any sort of leap forward. Either raise it massively or preferably get rid of the thing altogether. Have never been in favour

Maybe have a Hybrid cap where x amount of the clubs income/revenue can be spent on players and running the club, to try and keep the clubs afloat, then any other spend has to come from the owners personal wealth with no linking it back to the club i.e. it is not classed as a loan to the club that the owner can then try and recoup if they sell the club.

I know owners put in their own money to clubs, but the clubs need to exist in a 'profit' situation so as not to bankrupt the club, this will mean if an owner sells a club the new owner does not inherit a load of debt

[Mike]

The salary cap has ruined RL in this country. Huge obstacle to the game making any sort of leap forward. Either raise it massively or preferably get rid of the thing altogether. Have never been in favour

Maybe have a Hybrid cap where x amount of the clubs income/revenue can be spent on players and running the club, to try and keep the clubs afloat, then any other spend has to come from the owners personal wealth with no linking it back to the club i.e. it is not classed as a loan to the club that the owner can then try and recoup if they sell the club.

I know owners put in their own money to clubs, but the clubs need to exist in a 'profit' situation so as not to bankrupt the club, this will mean if an owner sells a club the new owner does not inherit a load of debt

Allow sponsorship of individual players to not count on the cap. To count external income on the clubs cap is definitely a problem for the game as players can't increase their profile even if there was a demand for it.

[Exiled Wiganer]

I would go back to a sustainability test rather than a level playing field one. I think that having something that stops clubs going bust is sensible but not one that restricts spending, when we are clearly in competition with other sports and indeed the NRL.

[WarriorWinger]

I would go back to a sustainability test rather than a level playing field one. I think that having something that stops clubs going bust is sensible but not one that restricts spending, when we are clearly in competition with other sports and indeed the NRL.

That's basically what I am saying with a Hybrid version, not all clubs have 10k+ crowds and therefore don't have a lot of income coming in, so by having a sustainability test where the 'club' has to be solvent i.e. it can only spend so much of the clubs income, but the owners can then put in as much as they want with no tie back to the club finances, the club stays solvent but the owners or players can earn or put in what they want without it impacting on the club

[Charriots Offiah]

I would go back to a sustainability test rather than a level playing field one. I think that having something that stops clubs going bust is sensible but not one that restricts spending, when we are clearly in competition with other sports and indeed the NRL.

That's basically what I am saying with a Hybrid version, not all clubs have 10k+ crowds and therefore don't have a lot of income coming in, so by having a sustainability test where the 'club' has to be solvent i.e. it can only spend so much of the clubs income, but the owners can then put in as much as they want with no tie back to the club finances, the club stays solvent but the owners or players can earn or put in what they want without it impacting on the club

Catalans don’t have 10k crowds but they do have excellent corporate sponsorship, perhaps that is because they are the only SL team in France. We are never going to attract the big companies unless we improve our product, Wigan going to Las Vegas does that from the point of view of attracting an international audience but we have got to improve the quality on the pitch as well, unfortunately the salary cap is a big hinderance in doing so.

[WarriorWinger]

I would go back to a sustainability test rather than a level playing field one. I think that having something that stops clubs going bust is sensible but not one that restricts spending, when we are clearly in competition with other sports and indeed the NRL.

That's basically what I am saying with a Hybrid version, not all clubs have 10k+ crowds and therefore don't have a lot of income coming in, so by having a sustainability test where the 'club' has to be solvent i.e. it can only spend so much of the clubs income, but the owners can then put in as much as they want with no tie back to the club finances, the club stays solvent but the owners or players can earn or put in what they want without it impacting on the club

Catalans don’t have 10k crowds but they do have excellent corporate sponsorship, perhaps that is because they are the only SL team in France. We are never going to attract the big companies unless we improve our product, Wigan going to Las Vegas does that from the point of view of attracting an international audience but we have got to improve the quality on the pitch as well, unfortunately the salary cap is a big hinderance in doing so.

It is a huge hinderance but clubs also need to survive and not fold every few years because they are allowed to spend beyond their means.

I am all for raising the cap and players salaries but not sure how that would make for a greater product on the pitch, unless you are talking about bringing over better players from Australia or maybe Union but not sure how many 'great' union players there are, paying Smith or any other UK born player will not all of a sudden make them better players, as a sport we may become more attractive to UK sports persons and therefore they may think it is a good career path, but there is so much competition from other sports there won't be a mad scramble to play the game.

We need to make 'all' clubs sustainable so there is a product to put out there, then invest more on promoting the game and the player profiles to make the household names, you think of RL these days and most non RL fans will think of Offia or Robinson, not modern day players.