Overall a good increase, as much as anybody could have hoped for, the devil will be in the detail as to what the sport does with it

I hope we dont see complacency because of this

Glad to see Championship live coverage ending for this year, so who owns the ' highlights coverage, time for the clubs to put something together themselves if it is available

As do a great many posters on here. I suspect that until the true amount is known, there will be sceptics, but this deal represents something the game has lacked for some time, in LONG TERM security.
2 More years of 18 million for SL before the 40 million a year kicks in (122% increase I believe) means the game can really get to grips with building itself a conciseness across the UK, increasing attendances and participation and look at rewarding development of English SL standard players.
I'd hope that the BBC have been served notice as to their "ownership" of the SL show highlights deal and if they don't deliver in 2014 and 15, then this vital gateway to FTA audiences is given to someone else....

Who knows how long the "threat" of BT sport will hang over sky? It's not like it hasn't been through this all before with itv sport ... Eventually the honeymoon period of being able to go out and bid whatever they want on any sport is going to stop at BT sport, namely when they realise they have to somehow recoup that 900million for championsleague games! Getting a deal done before the bubble bursts is surely a good thing!

It used the tools that were currently available (as has been said there was never going to be a better time than this to force through a deal) to get the best deal we've ever got - funds all the changes that were forced through, and still leaves a bigger pot for the top teams, we might even have prize money this year!

Would more of been nice? Of course, isn't it always? Is it the best deal we could of hoped for? It certainly seems it!

Just need to announce a salary cap increase for the 2017 season and were set (I'm not asking a lot a modest one would be great! £2million with home grown capped is more than enough!)

So you want a £350K cap increase then or 21.21%.
Do you know what modest means and do you realise that your idea would just mean that most of the clubs would be right back to where they are now? That being spending money they don't have trying to keep up instead of spending it on infrastructure to improve the sport for it's hopefully more healthy future.

Oh Bugger!
I was enjoying being all positive until I just read a tweet from the wonderfully named DR MARWANK!


Now, if it is £200 million (122% up on the current £90 million), then how is it that there isn't scope to raise the salary cap? If a Club gets £x million from the RFL currently, then how does this deal not boost their spending power by a decent %?

If it were me, I'd pay £2 million to the top 8, £1.5 million to the middle 8 and £1 million to the bottom 8....you've got £4,000,000 left to spend further developing the game.

Mate, any truth in the rumour that OK Bulls Ltd have already applied for an advance on their 2017 SKY TV money?

I think his point is that it makes all SL clubs self sufficient and to quote Neil Hudgell when replying to this.

Chris Irvine ‏@Chrisirvine 13h

BT headed off at pass, SL - & Championship from 2015 - on @skysports through to 2021. Deal worth over £200m. Salary cap increase anyone?

With this.

Neil Hudgell ‏@NeilHudgell 7h

@Chrisirvine @SkySports little point in securing all clubs viability, if it's just passed on..so, no is the short answer!

Kind of makes that point.

Tje new contract doesn't come into play for another 3 years so cap Changes won't even be discussed until then. I think he is wanting the cap changed now. Lets wait and see. We've 3 years to plan how to spend this money. I doubt within 12 hours of the deal been announced the RFL say they are raising the cap.

Umm from the proposals:



An increase of 175k, or less than 10% shouldn't be beyond the realms of reason given the 60% increase or so increase in tv revenue ...

Marquee players aren't the way to go imo, as it could eat into infrastructure etc and youth (home grown cap is great for that) but a little bit extra can make a big difference

I'd set the cap at the same amount as the SL grant. And then one marquee player outside that cap for the rich kids.

At the moment we have a majority of clubs losing between 100-500k plus a year and a number of clubs not paying up to the current cap. We need to address those before we increase it.

Fair enough but even so I would have thought it would be more sensible to get our houses in order and spend the monies on infrastructure and laying strong foundations then just giving it away in the short term.

Agreed, but personally, I feel like you could give certain teams all the money and all the time in the world, and they will still find a way to squander and ruin it. There has to be a point where by you stop punishing the well run teams for these teams. This offers the league an opportunity to let those poorly run teams fall, the reintroduction of relegation, the increase of money etc.

I'm not saying plough all this money into the squads, but a little increase would go a long way.

Lovely stuff.

Warrington will line up a 34 year old Johnathan Thurston in 2017 on a £1 million 3 game contract.

and recoup the cost with 3 on the road game/double headers


Those s at the RFU have a lot to answer for

If it puts more bums on seats, more shirt sales through the tills and more coloumn inches in the media then that is their choice and wouldn't be a bad thing.

That's one hell of a lot of bums and shirts over 3 games for it not to be a bad thing

2 hours?

Anyone else reckon that Hudgell's standing in the game isn't all it might be?

There are few, if any, other broadcasting rights to sell. So this money has to pretty much support the whole professional sport of RL for 5 years - not just the top 8/12 teams!

Apparently you can buy tickets and actually go and watch games as well. I've heard rumours that you can buy merchandise too. Clubs allegedly have something called sponsors and corporate events.
There's plenty other income for the sport

That wouldn't have anything to do with promoting the game and marketing would it?
That would be far too radical for some.
Add to that development and infrastructure then that would cause apoplexy in some.

That wouldn't have anything to do with promoting the game and marketing would it?
That would be far too radical for some.
Add to that development and infrastructure then that would cause apoplexy in some.

If memory serves, from next year club trained players will only count for up to £100,000 on the cap.

Yup.

All this talk of increasing the cap. Don't forget this new money is not due for a few years.

Increasing the cap will just allow the clubs to build up more debt in the between years, before the new money comes through.

The SL can increase the cap for the year the money goes up. It's typical of the internet generation that people want these things announcing within seconds of the last announcement.

in the real world it would be better for the clubs to start turning a profit before we encorage them to spend more of what they don't yet have.