Until player transfer fees are included in the cap Wigan, Warrington and now Hull will always be able to get the better players of the lesser teams, continuing to making it a lop sided league. Smith, Ratchford, Myler and Holdsworth spring to mind all from the same club!

Unless I've missed something here you haven't stated why you believe the salary cap no longer serves any purpose. So,

What purposes does the salary cap serve? Note, purposes not purpose.
How has the salary cap failed those purposes?
Over what time period are you making your assumption?
Does the salary cap serve those purposes exclusively or are other factors involved?
How did those other factors fail to serve those purposes?
Which factor was most responsible for failing to serve those purposes?
If you tackled those issues one by one put them in the order you think would address these purposes first.

None of Smith, Ratchford, Myler or Holdsworth came frm the Salford junior system.
Smith was a Saints junior, Ratchford from Wigan and Myler from Widnes with Holdsworth from Aus.
If transfer fees had to be paid how would Salford have got the first three in the first place?

Who are you thinking about?

Could you afford them if there was no Cap?

Bar Myler i would imagine the other 3 would of been free transfers or very minimal at the most.
Not saying transfer fees can't be paid anyway, but should be included as part of the teams salary cap spend.

And that's on the buying teams cap, in case its not clear!

I've no doubt a player like SBW would make a massive contribution towards, if not cover completely, his wages through shirt sales, sponsorship and ticket sales.

Imagine the boost to Rugby League in this country if any club did sign Sonny Bill Williams!

But this stupid Salary Cap idea would prevent it. Talk about the game in this country (or those at the top currently running it) shooting itself in the foot.

Rubbish! 10 out of 14 clubs lost money last year. The other 4 made minuscule profits. Where do you think this money is going to come from that allows a SL club to spend 700,000 pounds on star players from other codes/comps?

Do you really believe $BW's would sell 700k's worth of jerseys? Lol

But SBW has a well publicised agreement with an NRL Club if and when he returns to League.
He would also want 50% more to play in England, if he reniged on his NRL deal (he has form and history) the best players want to get as much as they can but still play at highest level in their sport, that is not currently ESL in most peoples opinion.

SBW had a history of injuries at the Bulldogs and the way he left that Club and the manner he did it may not count for much in an England context but it would not help his marketability in general.

Even if you signed better more proven long term players like Slater, Inglis, Thurston and Cam Smith are there the fans out there just waiting to buy a ticket and Shirt to watch them when they join the Club?

I do not believe so.

It's up to those running each club to do what they think is in the best interests of their club. Nobody forces them to sign any particular player.

This Salary Cap idea is though just an unneccessary, artificial and counter-productive restriction.

The aim of a Rugby League club in this country is not to make a profit.

The aim is to be as successful as possible whilst breaking-even.

But it is better to break even at £5 million in, £5 million out than
£100,000 in, £100,000 out.

True but if you are suggesting clubs should be able to spend what ever they like on players, which will invariabky lead to an "arms race" scenario where do you think this new money for clubs to spend more than 1.6mill is going to come from? 75% of the clubs at the moment can't even spend 1.6mill without a loss.

Salary cap is there for two reasons
1. To level the playing field and make the comp more competitve
2. Protect the clubs from themselves

You can argue on the success or failure of each point for each club but the reality would be no salary cap = no chance for 75% of clubs to win games against the other 25% & more clubs going bust. I don't see how either is a preferable outcome for the game.

Thats a pretty naive argument.

Firstly, im not sure where you got your statistics from, secondly, i would limit the attention paid to some clubs profit statements, it isnt a normal business, isnt a listed company, and there isnt much of an incentive to report a huge profit. I know Leeds will often make loans or pay management fees to Leeds carnegie etc which can affect the bottom line profit figure.

Thirdly, they dont just sell jerseys, they sell tickets, they sell sponsorship, they win trophies. Would you find it inconceivable that SBW at Leeds could add another 2k to the gate? If we say Leeds average ticket cost is £15, that would £390k added to turnover, sell 5k more shirts at £30 a pop is another £150k. Thats £540k brought in, ignoring incidentals like the extra food and drink sold on matchdays, additional sponsorship brought in because of the higher profile, and prize money won etc etc, it is better for a club to spend £700k on SBW and bring in an extra £540k than it would be to spend £200k on a Mick Dobson or Blake Green and bring £0 additional income.

And that doesnt even address the less tangible benefits of things like a higher profile which the game needs.

I know your club has run out of money after you defended the signing of a Willie Mason to the hilt, but that doesnt mean the world is falling in.

1. As has been said earlier on this thread, the same few clubs have dominated Super League in this country since the Salary Cap idea was introduced.

2. Bradford etc.

The Salary Cap idea in this country should be ended.

The outcome would be no worse than what we have now and there would be significant upside potential.

The SC shouldnt be scrapped, just changed dramatically.

Something like dropping it to £1m and having 5 players off cap completely, or looking at the make up of the squad, or having 2 marquee players etc.

Fully respect where you are coming from.

But, it all has to be administered and people find ways round it anyway.

Just scrap the Salary Cap. Easy.

You haven't answered why. All you've come out with is meaningless rhetoric like
"there would be significant upside potential",
"This Salary Cap idea is though just an unneccessary, artificial and counter-productive restriction"
"There's plenty of evidence on here that the game needs as much finance as it can get."

None of those statements mean anything. They're all ear-catching soundbites that play to the gallery. You said that the salary cap no longer serves any purpose but then don't tell us why it doesn't. How did it serve a purpose in the first place and why have you now changed your opinion.

It's for those who thought it was a good idea to say why they thought it was a good idea and whether they think it's been sucessful.

For my part, I've never thought a Salary Cap was a good idea for Rugby League in this country and I would scrap it.

To be fair though, at the time when the Sky money first came in to the game in this country in the 1990's it was so overwhelmly much more than had ever come in to the game before, I could have understood those that argued that a salary cap was needed to stop all that money going straight to players when it was needed for new stadiums to be built as well.

If you can't tell us how the salary cap isn't serving its purpose then how do you even know that it has "failed"? I'm not trying to be antagonistic but just saying something is wrong without showing us is like saying "I was kidnapped by aliens". You might have been but without giving us some evidence it means nothing.

Nonsense, profit on a 30 quid jersey is likely to be around 10 quid and if you think sbw would put 2000 on the gate of any of the top 4 clubs you are kidding yourself. The top 4 clubs are already winning games and consistently contesting finals so fans are used to success. Not that sbw would be the difference between a mid table finish or a GF appearance so would be no point bankrupting yourself for him if your not a top 4 club. We have seen plenty of clubs taking this approach in the 80's and 90's and nearly killing themselves.

As for Mason, I said it would end in tears and it did.

Why have you made that figure up?Why wouldnt it? 2k is not a huge amount of people.

No, I've been involved in retail and I have some idea of the profit margin on a 30pound jumper.

Why wouldn't it? Because the clubs that could possibly afford to splash 700k on sbw are already successful and close to saturation for paying customers. Maybe a club like hfc who have gone from 14k to 12k supporters could recoup the missing 2k but again it's a heck of a financial gamble for any club barely breaking even and very unlikey to even come close to recouping the expenditure. It's bad business end of to pay silly money to try and attract a big name in the hope of recouping that money, especially if you are already a top 4 club.

You have no idea of the profit margin per jersey, per club, you have no idea of the sponsorship deals clubs have.

Leeds have averaged 2k more than they did this season, it wouldnt even be a record for them why do you assume in a city of 700k and a region of 2m Leeds have reached rl saturation point at 15.5k? Its naive to demand clubs dont try and attract the big names, it can be false economy