Anyone know what the central funding is this year?

I'm assuming it goes down significantly.

There is a small bonus for us on IMG in this area. There are 0.75 points available for what % your non central fund income is to the total.
So when the CF goes down, the % goes up, if you can keep the income the same.
Of course you'd expect income to go down in Championship but if sponsors stay and people keep buying season tickets and come to game. And buy shirts. We have a decent chance on that score.

Of course that will reverse when back in SL.

Think I read somewhere its around 40K and also previous parachute payments are now much reduced, not 100% and stand to be corrected, obviously any TV deal may impact.

Trinity will receive a parachute payment, although not the £1m it was 7 years ago, I do believe its a 6 figure sum, the central funding for Champ & L1 last year was around the £40k mark which is a bit of a joke.

One of the bugbears of being in the Championship is that details like this are difficult to track down, even though they tend to be of crucial importance.

FWIW Martin Vickers, the CEO at Fev, said last season that the "broadcast money" (ie central funding) accounted for less than 5% of the club spend each month. Fev were rumoured to have spent around £900k on the squad last year (though the spending budget at Fev has been halved for 2024) so you can do the maths from that.

It's a far cry from the Super 8s/Middle 8s era when it was widely agreed that Championship clubs faced an unrealistic task trying to develop into SL-quality clubs and so the top 2 clubs were given funding of something like £800k and £700k at one point.

In susbequent years there have been multiple deductions in the Sky money and, whilst obviously this has affected SL clubs too, the percentage decreases in funding for Championship clubs has been absolutely massive.

As far as parachute payments are concerned, in 2022 Derek Beaumont said Leigh received £400k on top of their central funding payment of £180k, (which incidentally meant that the wealthiest club in the division received three times more funding than any other club).

This makes it really important to bounce back up to SL

Hugely important. I am hoping upcoming signings match that exact ambition. Short term pain for long term gain I guess.

With Toulouse having a new owner plus, other clubs having a dig, it wont be a given. Not to mention the lottery of the play offs.
It should be an exciting season.
Our new found support will help massively !

Has the new ownership definitely gone through?
I haven’t read anything official on it and they have only made a couple of signings and quite a few players have left

It's being held up by a couple of French Directors. Jacques Minnards and Francoise Carter.

I really laughed out loud at that one. Thank you.

There are a few factors at play here.

A lot depends on whether the SL expands to 14, that's two up.

There are also two clubs in SL who from what I'm told might not make it through the 2024 season.

Salford are the obvious one, but I'm also told that London never expected promotion and were caught totally unready. I know they have the SKY money, but as a Championship club they were barely breaking even. In essence the SKY cash is there only income for players, the rest is already spoken for. Unless they can attract significant crowds they may well fold. Plough lane is a great venue, but very difficult for fans from the north to get to - easily a 4-5 hour journey so I can't see them getting much away traffic.

The last two are very speculative, so PLEASE don't take me literally. But if it did all come to fruition you could end up with four promoted teams if I've got my sums right.

Salford Replacement
London Replacement
Further two to make a 14 team comp.

This is RL, it's not as impossible as it sounds.

There'll only be 12 SL teams in 2025, and it'll the 12 with the highest IMG grades. London won't be in whatever happens, and Salford's spot would just go to the next highest graded club. When we get to 12 Grade A clubs then they'll look to expand.

Surely the point of the IMG system is to make clubs focus on generating income, sweating their assets and becoming more viable businesses. The ones who achieve the level of Grade A will be in Super League, however many that may be. The funding distribution becomes less important as these clubs will have a sustainable business model without central funding. Subsequently, if we need Sky (or whoever) less we can demand more - as football does- and have a greater say over how we are presented on media for our best interests.

Absolutely correct, it’s short term pain, anguish and turmoil with many fans scratching their heads and calling it a joke for everything not to be settled on the field of play.
Let’s be honest though, we’ve had approaching 30 years of SKY money and the games dwindling away at just about every level. Many clubs don’t look any financially better than they did in 1983. The moneys been squandered, going to player agents, into the pockets of average Ausie players bank accounts, we must have blown half a billion in TV contracts. SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE!

Clubs just don’t seem willing or just aren’t capable of taking tough, long term buisiness decisions that would elevate themselves and the game to a secure, modern professional sport to sit alongside any in the world.

The IMG system is a bitter pill for the game to swallow but we have to take our medicine or the game will wither and recede back to being a semi pro game at all levels.

If clubs GENUINELY strive to gain more IMG points and make the infrastructural improvements that make them a ‘B’ or an ‘A’ then we may turn the tide as a sport and one day have a full League of genuine ‘A’s

Exactly.
There's no promotion or replacing people.
It's a new list each year. Top 12 teams on IMG table are in.

It won't be like this but if the B teams don't try to improve they risk being over taken by someone like Toulouse who are putting effort and money into getting their grade A.
In theory every B team in Super League could lose their place.

What happens if we just get below an A grade, lets say a B grade with 14.75 points, and a SL side finishes next season with a B grade of 14.65 points, and they finish in tenth position in SL table,do we replace that SL team. i.e. they drop into championship and we go back into to SL.

It could happen yes. It’s the top 12 scoring from all comps.

Depends what others get. But if there are 12 teams with a bigger score than the 10th place team. They are in Championship.

Makes you wonder what point there was in promoting London. I'm not sure what the RFL expects them to do this season. Seems almost cruel to me.

The RFL didn't promote them.
They competed in a competition and won it.

It's hardly going to work if RFL can choose who goes up.
It was really down to London to manage it really.

London have earned their chance under the rules applicable at the time.

Not so long ago this central funding or parachute payment would have certainly been a lifeline to us and certainly many other championship club no doubt . We find ourselves in an enviable position that’s it’s no longer a deal breaker or a ball buster , and it is what it is . The days of simply turning up 10 mins before kick off and in our case recently, sneaking out before the end . All clubs whichever division need to up their game on the before and after hospitality as way of mitigating the lost revenue from the RFL . As in the words of old mother Hubbard …the cupboard is bare and looks likely to be that way for the foreseeable . Not easy i know ,but it’s a virtually untapped market, Barr the odd club and surely HKR must be the blue print for this no matter how small things start off , I’m sure local traders would welcome being involved if the footfall was there and pay for the privilege.

So the RFL don't run the comp, news to me, thanks

I agree, I'm just not sure what chance they have actually earned, considering the new rules coming into place. It's very difficult to see what the club gains in the medium to long term. Though I was surprised to see how low London scored with IMG, so there may room to maneuver there.

The RFL set the rules before the season begins, the clubs compete for promotion under those rules and if they come out on top they get promoted. If a team comes from the middle of the pack and wins the competition, what do you want the RFL to do?