SALFORD RED DEVILS chief executive Paul King has revealed that the club was, in 2021, 2022 and 2023, “the most efficiently run club in the northern hemisphere”.
That bodes well for the Red Devils in the fact that they have continuously had to find ways of keeping their heads above board – and have been successful in doing so.
But, Salford – unlike every other Super League club – do not have a rich benefactor to rely on in terms of plugging financial gaps.
That lack of a rich benefactor meant that the Red Devils scored just over 2 points in the finance pillar in IMG’s new system – and they have now had to ask for an advance on their central distribution for 2025 to ensure they continue to keep surviving.
Prior to the news about the financial issue amidst the distribution plea, King explained the issues regarding finances at Salford and across Super League itself.
“I was sat the owners meeting, I think it was three years running before 2024 that we were the most efficiently run club in the northern hemisphere. Fact,” King said on the League Express podcast.
“The difference is if we’ve got £700,000 deficit, we need to find a way to fill that gap. The other 11 teams in Super League, general rule of thumb, someone puts their hand in their pocket and pays it.
“I love the sport, I love the club but I’m not sure how someone chucking £2 million a year in is a sustainable sport. There’s got to be a smarter way.
“And I’m not sure which part of the IMG criteria lends its way to changing that. Multimillionaires don’t stay multimillionaires for long if they chuck around that kind of money.”
So how do Salford continue to compete in the top flight without a rich benefactor?
“We scramble like crazy. We did the crowd share thing but it wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be. We didn’t get quite enough engagement from businesses.
“We’ve done what we needed to do for this club to survive and be competitive and we will continue to do that.
“We’re a club run on ticket sales and commercial sponsorships. If you’re asking if some multimillionaire came in from the sidelines, we would engage.
“It’s a benefactor-led sport, we have tried the no benefactor model and we have had to scramble like mad.”
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