Stories of Edwards following Gregory into the board room asking for a pay rise are almost legendary but for a number of years now there has been a salary cap of one for or another. It used to be 50% of turnover and is now a flat rate of 1.8 million quid.oldtimer posted:
wages were trebled when sky money came in,a close friend who played at wigan at the time,went into to see ------- ------- and told him he had been approached by another club ,when asked who replied that is for me to know and you to find out.he came out of the office three times better off.i know this happened at other times.if you dont beleive me,check back shareholders balance sheets[i am sure some one will let you have a look.
The Sky money wasn't deposited with the clubs in one fell swoop but is and was paid on a yearly basis.
So the salary cap has prevented the club blowing all its dosh on wages for the majority of the SL era and Sky payments are an annual event so I don't see how Wigan can have blown all the Sky money as you put it.
You might also remember the SL v ARL war which forced the club to offer silly money to the likes of Robinson and Connolly to prevent them from leaving for down-under. It was Wigan's "misfortune" to be the home of many great players at the time making them the target for such approaches. Few other clubs if any faced the prospect of half their team being poached. Wigan had little alternative but to match the wages on offer so wage inlfation wasn't just down to idiots offering silly money for the sake of it but down to them competing for the players on the open market.
While we are on the subject of finance have you forgotten about the Whitbread stand? Here the club was trying to be progressive and invest money in the ground and not just players wages. It backfired as costs escalated but you would think the thing never existed the way some go on and that the debt at the club was all down to paying silly wages. It wasn't.
If the books are open what do that say about costs associated with building the whitbread stand?
Dave
meant rising actaually!!!!
