Time for a wage cut?

[fivepointer]

Austin Healey thinks so.
He's just simply right, isn't he?

Then you look under the surface at the accounts and a very different picture emerges. Worcester lost £8 million in the last tax year, London Irish £3m. Saracens are something like £45m in the red. There are rumours around Wasps’ long-term financial well-being. With the exception of Exeter, every club seems to be haemorrhaging money.

Nearly all Premiership clubs are backed by at least one very rich owner but as we have seen with Saracens’ South African backers pulling out, there is a point at which even a billionaire feels the pinch. I know that Nigel Wray has stepped up to pick up the shortfall. He is a great rugby man and will invest in Saracens until the day he dies, but not every owner is like Nigel.

If clubs continue in his vein then another one of these owners will inevitably pull the plug and then it could be like a domino effect. In three years the English club game could be bankrupt and so drastic action is needed to curtail the main cost - players’ wages.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... taken-cut/

[Digby]

I don't recall Austin ever asking for a paycut, and it's not like most newspapers don't lose money.

[Which Tyler]

Marcus Smith disagrees with Austin
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rug ... 55086.html

Harlequins will make Marcus Smith the highest-paid teenager in world rugby after the 18-year-old fly-half penned a new contract from next season that will see the England protégé earn £230,000-a-season, representing an increase of more than £200,000.

[Peat]

Can't see the fault with what he's saying, slight hyperbole aside. The game is on dodgy financial footing because it spends more than it takes and the obvious place to target savings is player wages.

[Tigersman]

£230,000 isn't too bad for a starting 10.

Nearly half of what alot of prem 10's are on currently.

[fivepointer]

Anyone know what players earn?
For instance would a top "name" make something like 500K, an international 200-300K, regular starter 100-150K, squad player 60-80K and an academy youngster 20-30K
Is that at all close to the reality?

[Mellsblue]

The agency that represents the likes of Haskell, AWJ, Bowe etc say the average wage on the Prem is now £200k.

[Stom]

Marcus Smith disagrees with Austin
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rug ... 55086.html

Harlequins will make Marcus Smith the highest-paid teenager in world rugby after the 18-year-old fly-half penned a new contract from next season that will see the England protégé earn £230,000-a-season, representing an increase of more than £200,000.

This has been rebuked by the club. The rumour is it's closer to half that.

[twitchy]

It all becomes a bit silly when you think some footballers get that per week.

[Puja]

Can't see the fault with what he's saying, slight hyperbole aside. The game is on dodgy financial footing because it spends more than it takes and the obvious place to target savings is player wages.

Agreed. Basically, the last salary cap hoik should not have happened. I don't see a way to put the genie back in its bottle, so I think the only way is a moratorium on salary cap increases for the next 5 years at least to let inflation take some of the pain away.

Puja

[Bloggs]

I went to a Q&A with the harlequins CEO on Tuesday. Quite a lot of interesting bits about Quins right now, but he commented on the salary cap and said the marquee player rules had warped the market and he, amongst other clubs, would propose getting rid of that rule, even if it meant increasing the overall cap. There’s logic to it

[Raggs]

The agency that represents the likes of Haskell, AWJ, Bowe etc say the average wage on the Prem is now £200k.

Well that makes sense. Squad of 40, salary cap around £8m, marquees offset by 4-5 sides not even reaching the minimum.