Toulouse struggling

[Guest]

On 28/01/2023 at 09:34, GUBRATS said:

How would a 14 team SL sort it out ? , Which would of course result in a reduced central funding 

You assume the deal would have been the same.

The product now is unattractive due to 12 sides and the locale of those. Imho that is a prime reason interest and TV monies have declined. 

In any event, the point was also in relation to how Toulouse could be accommodated with other hotbeds of opportunity as well. 14 sides offers that and the chance for others to be promoted. 

You can have your cake and eat it. 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Leonard

[Guest]

On 28/01/2023 at 15:39, Harry Stottle said:

I can't see that will be a problem, the way Toulouse are approaching this season on the playing roster side, I think that they have given up already on any chance that they will be promoted this year.

Hopefully Toulouse didn't tell any players they wanted to get rid of to 'do the right thing' about their contracts. 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Leonard

[GUBRATS]

2 hours ago, Leonard said:

You assume the deal would have been the same.

The product now is unattractive due to 12 sides and the locale of those. Imho that is a prime reason interest and TV monies have declined. 

In any event, the point was also in relation to how Toulouse could be accommodated with other hotbeds of opportunity as well. 14 sides offers that and the chance for others to be promoted. 

You can have your cake and eat it. 

You assume the deal would be better 

[The Phantom Horseman]

On 27/01/2023 at 11:26, barnyia said:

They need to find 200,000 euros before the end of march, they've already paid 300,000 of the debt .

They're very confident they'll be ok !

Indeed. Some of us are concerned about some of what passes as RL "journalism" in this country and the response to this story has been predictable, with "Championship club reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy" the sensational headline from one of the worst serial offenders.  Unfortunately as a result I've seen fans on FB pages etc discussing whether they should cancel their flights to Toulouse for away games etc.

As it says in League Express today, quoting a Toulouse spokesman:

"We’ve seen the dramatic headlines online, but none of those people contacted us for clarification.

“It’s a simple situation that many professional clubs find themselves in at the moment, We’ve suffered losses and we are dealing with it."

[Oxford]

46 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Some of us are concerned about some of what passes as RL "journalism"

We should all be concerned about journalism and some RL sensationalistic aprroaches do beggar belief. It seems that they think no one will read their output if there's no drama. And as RL fans can make up drama where there is none, create friction out of thin air and start a fight in a smarties tube the  journos' efforts can look a bit tame and forlorn in comparisson.

However, and it can't be stressed enough at least they are a million times more moral, courageous and straight as a die when you compare then to writers and magazines who publish things like "In Praise of the Wehrmacht"  so all in all it's relative and maybe we should learn to appreciate what we've got.

[Archie Gordon]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Indeed. Some of us are concerned about some of what passes as RL "journalism" in this country and the response to this story has been predictable, with "Championship club reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy" the sensational headline from one of the worst serial offenders.  Unfortunately as a result I've seen fans on FB pages etc discussing whether they should cancel their flights to Toulouse for away games etc.

As it says in League Express today, quoting a Toulouse spokesman:

"We’ve seen the dramatic headlines online, but none of those people contacted us for clarification.

“It’s a simple situation that many professional clubs find themselves in at the moment, We’ve suffered losses and we are dealing with it."

Perhaps there's not a story that needs sensationalising but there is very much a story that RL journalists should be interested in.

TO suffered (unexpectedly?) heavy losses in 2022.

Sarrazain is (unexpectedly?) departing the club at the end of March with no replacement identified.

The 2023 playing squad is very small and seems designed to rely on being bolstered by loans.

The long-standing main sponsor seems to be missing from the shirt (and not replaced), as does the Mairie's logo.

In light of the above, the TO spokesman's rebuttal is "nothing to see here". But that's very unlikely to the case.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Archie Gordon

[The Phantom Horseman]

3 hours ago, Archie Gordon said:

Perhaps there's not a story that needs sensationalising but there is a very much a story that RL journalists should be interested in.

TO suffered (unexpectedly?) heavy losses in 2022.

Sarrazain is (unexpectedly?) departing the club at the end of March with no replacement identified.

The 2023 playing squad is very small and seems designed to rely on being bolstered by loans.

The long-standing main sponsor seems to be missing from the shirt (and not replaced), as does the Mairie's logo.

In light of the above, the TO spokesman's rebuttal is "nothing to see here". But that's very unlikely to the case.

taking your points one by one...

I don't think suffering losses is at all unusual for RL clubs. Saints and Wigan each reported losses of over £1m in their latest accounts (for 2021) but nobody seems to be saying they are in a financial crisis

Sarrazain announced his forthcoming departure in October but said at the time that he had told the board about his intention to do so 18 months previously.

The dozen or so players that have been retained presumably are all on fairly decent salaries and it was always likely that the budget for this year would be slashed (though they have said it's only gone down to 4 million euros).

The front of the shirt does seem to be very light on sponsors and the Mutuelle Du Rempart logo is noticeably missing (the mairie logo is on the back of the jersey). The MdR logo still appears on the website though so maybe there's a legitimate reason, perhaps related to them having changed suppliers to le Coq Sportif, or perhaps negotiations are ongoing. But it's a good point, if they have lost a major sponsor then that is a worry.

My take overall  is that they are having to cut their cloth according to very different circumstances from previous years, but that's been obvious for many months. A budget of 4 million euros doesn't sound like they are in a serious financial crisis to me. But am only guessing really.

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by The Phantom Horseman

[kiggy]

1 hour ago, Archie Gordon said:

Perhaps there's not a story that needs sensationalising but there is very much a story that RL journalists should be interested in.

TO suffered (unexpectedly?) heavy losses in 2022.

Sarrazain is (unexpectedly?) departing the club at the end of March with no replacement identified.

The 2023 playing squad is very small and seems designed to rely on being bolstered by loans.

The long-standing main sponsor seems to be missing from the shirt (and not replaced), as does the Mairie's logo.

In light of the above, the TO spokesman's rebuttal is "nothing to see here". But that's very unlikely to the case.

Bernard did announce, maybe internal only to the club, that he was handing over some time ago. There is someone in line to take over but I think they are waiting for the debt to be cleared before announcing new names, i did ask who they were but I got a dunno in response. You also have to remember that clubs are run as companies in France and there are stricter rules about running a company at a loss.so I think there is some legal stuff to clear it all going on. 

They are changing some sponsors, I know Lacharrette, who supply the cars, are being changed but I don't know how much a "proper" sponsor they are.

 

[kiggy]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

taking your points one by one...

I don't think suffering losses is at all unusual for RL clubs. Saints and Wigan each reported losses of over £1m in their latest accounts (for 2021) but nobody seems to be saying they are in a fincancial cirsis

Sarrazain announced his forthcoming departure in October but said at the time that he had told the board about his intention to do so 18 months previously.

The dozen or so players that have been retained presumably are all on fairly decent salaries and it was always likely that the budget for this year would be slashed (though they have said it's only gone down to 4 million euros).

The front of the shirt does seem to be very light on sponsors and the Mutuelle Du Rempart logo is noticeably missing (the mairie logo is on the back of the jersey). The MdR logo still appears on the website though so maybe there's a legitimate reason, perhaps related to them having changed suppliers to le Coq Sportif, or perhaps negotiations are ongoing. But it's a good point, if they have lost a major sponsor then that is a worry.

My take overall  is that they are having to cut their cloth according to very different circumstances from previous years, but that's been obvious for many months. A budget of 4 million euros doesn't sound like they are in a serious financial crisis to me. But am only guessing really.

 

Sorry... I answered Archie and just realised you had already done a better job of it.