ST HELENS owner Eamonn McManus has warned Super League clubs will go bankrupt if things do not change in rugby league.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ The Bench podcast, McManus was critical in the way that rugby league has followed the business model set by rugby union – a model that has seen three 15-a-side clubs go under in recent years.
With the Saints owner revealing the magnitude of losses per year across the board in the northern hemisphere, the future could be bleak for the 13-man code if things stay the same.
“Probably the worst business model in British sport over the past 20 or 30 years has been club rugby union whereby individual owners have had to pony up between 4 or 5 million pounds per year,” McManus said on Sky Sports’ The Bench podcast.
“That clearly eventuated in the bankruptcy of three clubs in one season and there’s another one possibly happening now.
“If that happened in rugby league – and take it from me, unless things change that will. We’ve seen it from Salford.
“Perversely, Salford have the best financial results – they lose the least money but what they don’t have are backers or owners who are prepared to put in 3 or 4 million pounds a year which we are facing at this moment in time.
“We have adopted a business model, incredulously, the same as rugby union. One the clubs realise this cannot continue we can only work with the RFL and RL Commercial – which I’ve recently joined as a director – to recognise its scope and get to the bottom of where we can contain costs.”
McManus revealed the incident which led to him wanting to change things at the governing body.
“I can give an example which really turned me. In October/November last year, the RFL announced that basically the salary cap – indirectly – had been abolished without any reference to the owners and no approval from the owners.
“We got together, had vote and reversed that decision by 11-1 because, on top of the 2 to 4 million pounds we were losing as clubs per year, to abolish the salary cap and cause hyperinflation would be non-sensical.
“How can that happen? And this is what I’m saying with a lack of communication, empathy and action and that has got to change.”