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Early 1990s Wigan and Salaries compared to today.


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Am I right in thinking Wigan In say 1994 were spending over 2m a year on player wadges? 

Does anyone know if this is accurate and what some of the other clubs were spending roughly?

Given their dominance then it does make you wonder what a team on 5m a year would do to SL now? 

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Just now, Southerner80 said:

Am I right in thinking Wigan In say 1994 were spending over 2m a year on player wadges? 

Does anyone know if this is accurate and what some of the other clubs were spending roughly?

Given their dominance then it does make you wonder what a team on 5m a year would do to SL now? 

If you are thinking that, from where was your thinking from?

I for instance am thinking that ticket prices were a lot lower than in they are now.

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4 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

If you are thinking that, from where was your thinking from?

I for instance am thinking that ticket prices were a lot lower than in they are now.

I read in it an article on the great Wigan team of the 1990s somewhere and the financial unsustainablilty it presented to the club. Apologies I can't remember the source. 

Agree I get the impression that ticket prices were alot lower then too. 

I think Wigan were run at a loss back then and the cup final each year was a way to reduce losses. 

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5 minutes ago, Southerner80 said:

I read in it an article on the great Wigan team of the 1990s somewhere and the financial unsustainablilty it presented to the club. Apologies I can't remember the source. 

Agree I get the impression that ticket prices were alot lower then too. 

I think Wigan were run at a loss back then and the cup final each year was a way to reduce losses. 

Other costs were lower, but 2 million then was a lot.

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41 minutes ago, Southerner80 said:

Am I right in thinking Wigan In say 1994 were spending over 2m a year on player wadges? 

Does anyone know if this is accurate and what some of the other clubs were spending roughly?

Given their dominance then it does make you wonder what a team on 5m a year would do to SL now? 

Are player wadges some sort of protective device?

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I know in 2000 Wigan were spending £3.2 million and had to reduce this before the salary cap came in, getting an extra £500,000 dispensation for the first year due to existing contracts. I'd say around £2 million in the early 90s sounds about right.

It just shows how much the top salaries have declined in nominal terms never mind in real terms.

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49 minutes ago, Damien said:

I know in 2000 Wigan were spending £3.2 million and had to reduce this before the salary cap came in, getting an extra £500,000 dispensation for the first year due to existing contracts. I'd say around £2 million in the early 90s sounds about right.

It just shows how much the top salaries have declined in nominal terms never mind in real terms.

How do you think Wigan and Saints would do if they could spend 5m in SL if they wanted? 

Would they have a team that can dispatch the NRL champs in the World Club Cup? 

Would they soak up more northern talent that gets / got lost to Union? 

Sadly, I don't think even if there wasn't a cap any club could spend that much more as there isn't that much money in SL. 

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5 minutes ago, Southerner80 said:

How do you think Wigan and Saints would do if they could spend 5m in SL if they wanted? 

Would they have a team that can dispatch the NRL champs in the World Club Cup? 

Would they soak up more northern talent that gets / got lost to Union? 

Sadly, I don't think even if there wasn't a cap any club could spend that much more as there isn't that much money in SL. 

Such a salary cap is pretty much the same as the NRL's now. It would certainly restore more parity between the competitions and would see far few players go to the NRL. It would also be very competitive with RU once you factor in the vast difference in squad sizes and the extra players needed in RU.

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I certainly think the Salary Cap should have been linked to the RPI or similar.

The cap of £1.8M in 2002 would be worth just under £2.9M today according to the Bank of England inflation calculator (3% per year) while we are only going to see an increase to £2.1M in 2020.

While I agree with SKS above that more could be spent on two marquee players while only accounting for £150k I would prefer clubs to have a little more discretion on how they spend a larger overall value.

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

I know in 2000 Wigan were spending £3.2 million and had to reduce this before the salary cap came in, getting an extra £500,000 dispensation for the first year due to existing contracts. I'd say around £2 million in the early 90s sounds about right.

It just shows how much the top salaries have declined in nominal terms never mind in real terms.

The cap came in in 1998, but there have been many revisions so to be its difficult to track down the consequences.  Existing contracts must gave been difficult and at one time you were allowed up to 50% of turnover.

If Wigans cap was breached by 220,000 then their overall pay at that time (2006) must have been about or a bit below 2 million though... (?) a lot less than 3.2 million.   And 12 years after 1994, please note.

But given your figure then it's no wonder the best talent is going down under.  Even junior talent seems to be going South.

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

Such a salary cap is pretty much the same as the NRL's now. It would certainly restore more parity between the competitions and would see far few players go to the NRL. It would also be very competitive with RU once you factor in the vast difference in squad sizes and the extra players needed in RU.

Amen to that!

Why not double it to £10million?

Attract US; Canadian billionaires and the bloke who bankrolls former sky cycling team India(?) and the world would be our oyster

I know I am dreaming.

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1 hour ago, Rupert Prince said:

The cap came in in 1998, but there have been many revisions so to be its difficult to track down the consequences.  Existing contracts must gave been difficult and at one time you were allowed up to 50% of turnover.

If Wigans cap was breached by 220,000 then their overall pay at that time (2006) must have been about or a bit below 2 million though... (?) a lot less than 3.2 million.   And 12 years after 1994, please note.

But given your figure then it's no wonder the best talent is going down under.  Even junior talent seems to be going South.

Yes I was referring to when it became a flat £1.8 million cap in 2002 rather than one based on turnover. Much of the information is here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-62746/Lindsay-calls-end-salary-capping.html

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Jack Robinson stitched up Dave Whelan when he took over the club in 1997. Robinson gave a lot of senior players new contracts on improved terms as a leaving present, knowing full well that would stitch up Whelan knowing a salary cap was imminent. 

Whelan then had to request dispensation for certain players contracts until they had naturally ran their course or could be offloaded.

 

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4 hours ago, Damien said:

Yes I was referring to when it became a flat £1.8 million cap in 2002 rather than one based on turnover. Much of the information is here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-62746/Lindsay-calls-end-salary-capping.html

Lindsay wasn't wrong about how without higher salary allowances there would be less chance of keeping talent in the SL and some would go to Union or Australia. 

Its happened alot. 

The question is would SL be sustainable and viable as a competition with say a 4m salary cap which most teams can't spend more than half of? 

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7 minutes ago, Southerner80 said:

Lindsay wasn't wrong about how without higher salary allowances there would be less chance of keeping talent in the SL and some would go to Union or Australia. 

Its happened alot. 

The question is would SL be sustainable and viable as a competition with say a 4m salary cap which most teams can't spend more than half of? 

He wasn't, much of what he said has rung true.

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14 minutes ago, Southerner80 said:

The question is would SL be sustainable and viable as a competition with say a 4m salary cap which most teams can't spend more than half of? 

There’s already a gap between the financial haves and have-nots in terms of results on the field so I suspect all you’d really see is the same outcome but with wage inflation.

 

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11 hours ago, Wigan Riversider said:

Wigan Evening Post reported around 1994 that the 1992 wage bill was £1.9million I seem to recall.

You remember articles from 1994 that refer to 1992 wage bills?

I think the Rain Man has a challenger!

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