RFL profit

[Man of Kent]

I see the RFL made a profit in 2020 despite no Ashes and no fans at the Challenge Cup. And that doesn’t include the sale of Red Hall. https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12196/12331607/rugby-football-league-reports-profit-for-second-consecutive-year
 

The RFL - and particularly Rimmer - get a lot of flak but to make a profit last year seems almost miraculous. Fair play. 

[Smudger06]

That £30m+ in government loans needs repaying in future though. 

Still a healthy position considering the covid restrictions. 

[Eddie]

7 hours ago, Man of Kent said:

I see the RFL made a profit in 2020 despite no Ashes and no fans at the Challenge Cup. And that doesn’t include the sale of Red Hall. https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12196/12331607/rugby-football-league-reports-profit-for-second-consecutive-year
 

The RFL - and particularly Rimmer - get a lot of flak but to make a profit last year seems almost miraculous. Fair play. 

Having a tiny number of development officers helps. 

[Whippet13]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Having a tiny number of development officers helps. 

This is it. Maintaining investment for the long term, even at a loss, can be better than making a short term profit.

Of course we dont know the full situation and running up huge unrepayable debts on things of no strategic value during Covid is silly, but a headline £25k profit figure does not give a true picture of what has been spent, what has been cut and what the implications (either good or bad) are.

[gingerjon]

The RFL simply could not withstand the kind of losses that cricket and RU (as examples) were hit with last year. It may not be pretty and there are underlying issues that really need to be addressed but survival was (and is until the pandemic is properly over) key during the last financial year. So credit to the RFL for navigating that.

[Hela Wigmen]

Is it not just fluffed up by the loans and without them we’d have made an understandable loss?

[M j M]

2 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Is it not just fluffed up by the loans and without them we’d have made an understandable loss?

That's not how accounting works.

[yipyee]

Does the RFL still pay travel costs as there were none last year, was the staff furloughed including development officers, also how profitable are the events they put on, almost free tickets plus the cost of hosting and for example covering australias costs... dodged a bullet there

[bamfordsbeans]

There could be issues in the future if the World Cup dosen't go ahead as planned.

If that is the case what would happen to the money given by the government.

[M j M]

17 minutes ago, yipyee said:

Does the RFL still pay travel costs as there were none last year, was the staff furloughed including development officers, also how profitable are the events they put on, almost free tickets plus the cost of hosting and for example covering australias costs... dodged a bullet there

The loss of the Ashes series last year, on top of no fans at the Cup Final will have cost the RFL millions - from ticket revenue alone I'd say at least £5m.

[yipyee]

8 hours ago, M j M said:

The loss of the Ashes series last year, on top of no fans at the Cup Final will have cost the RFL millions - from ticket revenue alone I'd say at least £5m.

Yes 5 mill income but what profit after costs... If they lost money on the catalan final that had 50k plus attending!

The last world cup made 5mill over several international games so highly unlikely 3 games at leigh sports village would make 5 mill profit 

[Griff]

9 hours ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Is it not just fluffed up by the loans and without them we’d have made an understandable loss?

As MjM implies, the loans are not part of the profit.  They don't count as income.  Nor does their eventual repayment count as an expense.

If they're interest bearing, the interest counts as a cost so it could be said that the profit would have been bigger if there'd been no loans.  But that cost may hae been offset in whole or part by interest charged to the clubs.

[M j M]

1 hour ago, yipyee said:

Yes 5 mill income but what profit after costs... If they lost money on the catalan final that had 50k plus attending!

The last world cup made 5mill over several international games so highly unlikely 3 games at leigh sports village would make 5 mill profit 

I've no idea what their margin on hosting events were - which is why I specifically said revenue. However we do know that the cup final and the internationals are key sources of revenue for the RFL and it's hard to imagine they come close to losing money on them, especially the latter.

A World Cup with a variety of games at multiple venues in front of varying crowds with a lot of teams to transport and accommodate is of significantly greater complexity than an Ashes series with three very large crowds. I've no idea where LSV comes into it.