The EPL is one of the most popular sporting competitions in the world but don't tell Rugby League administrators who like to cite it as the type of competition we don't want.
It is also carrying
billions of dollars in debt which is becoming impossible to service.
Man United do alright, but their revenues aren't even covering their debt anymore and their ability to effectively keep it under control is largely reliant on them winning the f**king thing most of the time.
From a business perspective, debt is good, it lets you achieve things.
However, its the level of this debt relative to ones ability to service it in a timely manner that can become a big f**king issue.
I worked for a company (well, still do, for now) that accrued debt to the tune of 31 billion dollars pre GFC, most of this was wracked up buying out one single company.
16 months later and with the world in the sh*tter that company that cost 38 billion dollars to start with was worth just over half that, leaving a 19 billion dollar hole to be filled, and you don't want to know what the f**king interest per week on 19 billion dollars is.
Fortunately
they were able to carve it up keeping the bits they wanted and selling off the rest of it in combination with their revenues to nail the debt on the head.
No such luxury exists in rugby league.
To put this into terms for rugby league, and in my humble and qualified opinion:
1) f**king wake up to yourself, a few clubs can't sustain themselves now, encouraging them to spend beyond their means would f**k them and by virtue the longevity of the game.
2) The game itself isn't even big enough from a revenue perspective to contemplate this sh*t.
3) "Lets get a benefactor" - yeah, great, ask a few of the benefactors of some of the English PL teams what they think of the fact it has gone apesh*t, Al Fayed was publicly pissed off and
CALLING FOR A SALARY CAP TO BE INTRODUCED!
Also, benefactors come and go, a few teams have been left high and dry by their "financial saviors" over time, it is f**king embarrassing when they don't make with the cash.
The EPL might be popular, good for it, but as a financial business model it is a f**king joke and to insist that we move in the same direction is suicide for the game.
I don't like the fact that the salary cap essentially favors clubs that can't look after their sh*t properly as they get to stay on near level pegging with others that can most of the time BUT be careful what you wish for.
Also, at what point do we disseminate what type of money can be used in a "no cap" environment?
Do we keep it fair and say that only money generated by direct business related activities by the club can be used to procure and retain players?
Or do we throw the gates open and allow the owners and sponsors to foot the bills?, if that's the case lets just give the title to Newcastle now as their backers, and in one case potential owner, Nathan Tinkler (net worth = about $450+ million dollars) and major sponsor Coal and Allied (profit after all taxes, royalties and other costs from the last two years = 1.1
billion dollars) which is a subsidiary of the
100+ billion dollar Rio Tinto global mining giant - will easily be able to afford any player their heart desires, and even some of the ones they don't, just so your team can't have them.
Spare a thought for poor old Illawarra who, pre merger, were sponsored by BHP, the same BHP that went on to merge with the former Sth African mining company known once as Gencor to become BHP Billition.
I am f**king sure that if the worlds biggest mining company with assets, revenues and real estate to the value of over
150+ billion dollars were throwing a few measly million at the Steelers today in an arrangement with no salary cap (BHP make about 15 billion dollars a year) then they'd be a single entity and a league powerhouse with a few trophies in the cabinet.
Allowing revenue generated exclusively by the clubs to be used in an open slather seems fair enough, but clubs like Cronulla barely exist now, and a few others aren't too far behind, the train of thought here is that a club would need to be a successful business first and foremost in order to succeed on the field at some point.
Allowing people like Tinkler, Politis etc to basically pay the way is unfair to teams who don't have a benefactor and f**ks a few clubs who produce most of the juniors already in the arse (lets be realistic here, when was the last time Manly or the Roosters produced a genuine home grown star from the cradle to first grade).
Undermining all of this is that in rugby league no one plays to finish 7th on the table and make a consistent moderate profit year after year, they play to win the f**king thing.
To win you need the players, to get the players you pay the money.
It is that premise alone that requires most of the restraints we have now to stop clubs self destructing by their own doing.
