In his latest ‘Talking Rugby League’ column, League Express editor MARTYN SADLER suggests that long-term strategic thinking is needed by Super League club owners in their approach to the liquidity crisis at Salford Red Devils.
IS Salford the canary in the coal mine?
The Super League club owners will meet on Tuesday and their reaction to the crisis at Salford Red Devils could tell us a lot about whether Super League has a viable future.
The liquidity crisis at Salford is merely a symptom of what is happening across Super League, whose clubs lost many millions collectively during 2024.
I’m told that Salford’s losses were apparently lower than those of any other club in the competition, with one owner, for example, having had to put £4 million into his club to keep it operating.
The eleven clubs other than Salford are fortunate that they have owners who can do this, but I’m sure that Hull FC would have been in the same position as Salford if new investors hadn’t turned up in the nick of time.
And if any or all of the existing owners were to walk away, then Super League would be in an awful mess.
Salford were last week urged by the RFL to offload their leading players to other clubs, ideally for substantial transfer fees that would help reduce their deficit, while they are also being urged to cut their costs as a whole to the bone, which would clearly make them uncompetitive as a Super League team.
Rugby League’s business model clearly doesn’t work and it needs urgent surgery to transform itself into a model that is sustainable and can secure stability and then growth.
Unfortunately I see no sign of the current leadership of the game being able to achieve that aim.
The danger is that the competition will weaken and the dominoes will begin to topple one by one.
The club owners getting together is an encouraging sign, but only if they make the right decisions.
And the key principle they have to follow is that the competition itself has greater value and importance than any of the individual clubs.
If we see the other clubs swooping to sign Salford players, thereby fatally weakening the Red Devils and reducing the club to being a passenger in the 2025 season, then I’m afraid there is little hope for the game.
With a new broadcasting agreement due to begin in 2027, the demise of Salford will significantly reduce the value of those rights, as we have seen with Premiership rugby union after it lost three clubs and was reduced to a ten-team competition.
So if that isn’t to happen and the value of the competition is to be protected, then the clubs have to take control of the situation by becoming far more creative in shoring up its weakest links.
What that means is that they have to combine their resources to protect Salford’s position in Super League so that the Red Devils can retain their current squad and be competitive.
I understand that the Red Devils are in discussions with an Australian consortium that is seeking to buy the club.
I’m not sure if and when that deal will be completed, but the other Super League clubs need to effectively provide Salford with a bridging loan from their own resources to tide them over until that deal is completed and, if it isn’t completed, until the end of the season.
The other clubs have some very wealthy owners who must realise that the value of their own clubs depends on the value of Super League as a whole and they therefore need Salford to not just survive but thrive.
To raise, say, £1 million between them as private individuals on a relatively short-term basis shouldn’t be too difficult.
They are all successful businessmen and they should realise that this would be the best way forward.
If they don’t, and they put their own clubs’ short-term interests ahead of the long-term interests of the Super League competition, then I’m afraid that Super League doesn’t have much of a future.
