Ashes revenue ?

[BroncoFan]

If 132,000 fans bought tickets at an average of say £40 that would total over 5M.

Add sponsorship and other commercial rights I’m just wondering if the RFL made much profit and what will they do with it.

I really hope they invest money into representative teams at under 16 & u18 level like they did in the past.

[cookey]

Rugby League is well known for wasting / frittering away any windfall they receive. 

[graveyard johnny]

how much has shaun wane been paid per year since he got the job? (with more days off than santa claus included in the contract)

[Damien]

Well we know about £1.3 million is going to Toulouse and York.

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

Well we know about £1.3 million is going to Toulouse and York.

Sort of, the reporting of this was deliberately ambiguous. In another report it was highlighted that RLCom profits from playoffs, cost cutting, and the Ashes would cover it. For all we know, it could be £100k from Ashes income.

[gingerjon]

9 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Sort of, the reporting of this was deliberately ambiguous. In another report it was highlighted that RLCom profits from playoffs, cost cutting, and the Ashes would cover it. For all we know, it could be £100k from Ashes income.

Indeed. It does cut both ways - if the Ashes profits don't quite reach enough to cover it then they're contributing, and if it's a top up then they're included.

It would be a quick win positive for the RFL to announce a bunch of projects that are being funded/part-funded with Ashes profits. Easy, visible, community-building things to keep folk happy in the off season.

Edited November 13 by gingerjon

[Dave T]

8 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Indeed. It does cut both ways - if the Ashes profits don't quite reach enough to cover it then they're contributing, and if it's a top up then they're included.

It would be a quick win positive for the RFL to announce a bunch of projects that are being funded/part-funded with Ashes profits. Easy, visible, community-building things to keep folk happy in the off season.

Agreed. A problem with the various governing bodies is its not that clear what they are all doing. From the RFL id like to be seeing more about youth and schools and the England team WC plans.

The RFL need to be really clear what they are focused on.ni think this was a big issue with Johnson's RFL. They recognised weaknesses and brought in a 3rd party and tidied up governance, but almost stripped away any visibility of the RFL's activity. 

At the moment, the RFL are probably not seen as much more than the refs chiefs and the scapegoat for any issues.

[gingerjon]

37 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Agreed. A problem with the various governing bodies is its not that clear what they are all doing. From the RFL id like to be seeing more about youth and schools and the England team WC plans.

The RFL need to be really clear what they are focused on.ni think this was a big issue with Johnson's RFL. They recognised weaknesses and brought in a 3rd party and tidied up governance, but almost stripped away any visibility of the RFL's activity. 

At the moment, the RFL are probably not seen as much more than the refs chiefs and the scapegoat for any issues.

It really doesn't help that all comms about everything is whispers by clickbait social media types, weird whatsapp defences by client journos, or clubs doing their best to explain things that aren't straightforward or confirmed to fans.

Regards to Ashes profits: just allocate a smallish pot for the standard "bunch of community clubs get a bag of balls" with some nice photos and videos - visits from profile players included - and you've got winter material for weeks, whatever else you're doing.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

It really doesn't help that all comms about everything is whispers by clickbait social media types, weird whatsapp defences by client journos, or clubs doing their best to explain things that aren't straightforward or confirmed to fans.

Regards to Ashes profits: just allocate a smallish pot for the standard "bunch of community clubs get a bag of balls" with some nice photos and videos - visits from profile players included - and you've got winter material for weeks, whatever else you're doing.

It does feel a long time since weve seen any new campaigns launched along these lines.

[MattSantos]

Some money goes to Toulouse and York?

This is very miffing!

[bromleybulldog]

Reinstate development officers countrywide

[JM2010]

6 minutes ago, bromleybulldog said:

Reinstate development officers countrywide

This definitely. We could host a home tournament series every year outside of a WC and invest the profits into junior development. A few million pounds would go a long way. That’s a lot of development officers

Edited November 13 by JM2010

[Dave T]

I think people are probably overstating the level of profit likely to have been generated here, and definitely how much we would generate over a four year period.

[JM2010]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

I think people are probably overstating the level of profit likely to have been generated here, and definitely how much we would generate over a four year period.

Even if it was 1 million per tournament it could still employ a decent amount of development officers

[The Hallucinating Goose]

They made enough to buy a packet of biscuits. However, with it being the RFL they didn't go for branded but rather went for Poundshop's own and instead of getting them from the shop round the corner from Sportscity, they hired a private jet and flew to Mongolia to borrow them off someone.

[Dunbar]

10 hours ago, BroncoFan said:

I really hope they invest money into representative teams at under 16 & u18 level like they did in the past.

It would be great if we could send an under 16 scholarship and an under 18 Academy side to Australia to play a 3 game series against the Australian under 16 and Australian Schoolboys sides.

Clubs are managing to send their own junior sides over but we just decided to stop the Academy vs. Schoolboys games and not restart them. It is so depressingly Rugby League. 

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, JM2010 said:

Even if it was 1 million per tournament it could still employ a decent amount of development officers

Maybe 10-20?

And im not disagreeing with you, but if the biggest tournament brings £1m in, next year we dont have it, so its really £500k per year, and then the year after we have the Kiwis which has less income, so it does become challenging.

Where these conversations are tough is that a lot of RFL activity is hidden, so we dont know what they have in the first place. To me it feels like we should hire people in major cities and population centres, leave the clubs to.focus on heartlands.

[JM2010]

3 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Maybe 10-20?

And im not disagreeing with you, but if the biggest tournament brings £1m in, next year we dont have it, so its really £500k per year, and then the year after we have the Kiwis which has less income, so it does become challenging.

Where these conversations are tough is that a lot of RFL activity is hidden, so we dont know what they have in the first place. To me it feels like we should hire people in major cities and population centres, leave the clubs to.focus on heartlands.

10/20 development officers is still worthwhile. Imagine what that could do if they were all in London or Manchester. 
I’m sure any profit from WCs gets shared between nations via the IRL

[JohnM]

Profit? What profit?

[The 4 of Us]

I suspect the average ticket price was a bit more, but even knocking off half for expenses, you’d think that there was a couple of million profit but the Aussies won’t have trined up for the good will alone.

[SUPERSTUD]

On 12/11/2025 at 23:33, BroncoFan said:

If 132,000 fans bought tickets at an average of say £40 that would total over 5M.

Add sponsorship and other commercial rights I’m just wondering if the RFL made much profit and what will they do with it.

I really hope they invest money into representative teams at under 16 & u18 level like they did in the past.

Don’t hold ya breath r kid.

[Agbrigg]

On 12/11/2025 at 23:33, BroncoFan said:

If 132,000 fans bought tickets at an average of say £40 that would total over 5M.

 

I think thats very simplistic. You are right in a way, that figure could be the gross profit. However by the time the stadiums get their cut and the aussies get theirs. Then you subtract all the other costs a big chunk disappears. Then lets not forget 20% of the top line is taken away in VAT even before you start paying for anything.

However they will still have made a decent profit but I doubt if the net amount is anything like £5M

[Adelaide Tiger]

On 13/11/2025 at 21:58, JM2010 said:

10/20 development officers is still worthwhile. Imagine what that could do if they were all in London or Manchester. 
I’m sure any profit from WCs gets shared between nations via the IRL

I have posted on this before.

There may be an opportunity for the RFL to partner with Local Councils and split the cost 50/50 to employ Development Officers around the country.  Each Council should have a Health and Well Being Strategy (or something similarly named) aimed at encouraging people of all ages to be more active.  The Councils themselves do not have the resources to deliver a wide range of programs under this banner therefore the RFL could approach individual Councils with the Development Officer proposal.

The cost to a Council - if aDO position is say circa £50k - is in my experience of program management in Councils to be extremely low in comparison to the potential reach of such a program over a number of years across all ages.