NRL to introduce salary cap on football departments as clubs blow budgets by $29 million
THE NRL will introduce a salary cap on football departments next season following revelations the 16 clubs have blown their budgets by a $29 million.
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THE NRL will introduce a salary cap on football departments next season following revelations the 16 clubs have blown their budgets by a staggering $29 million.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg confirmed the governing body will for the first time impose restrictions on football-staff spending to help prevent clubs going broke.
It is the biggest equalisation measure in rugby league for 27 years since a salary cap for player payments was first introduced in 1990.
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Leaked NRL documents obtained by The Courier-Mail show the code’s 16 clubs have overspent by a collective $29 million in the past three seasons.
That equates to a $9.6m budget blowout per year or $604,000 per club each season — prompting a Rugby League Central crackdown to ensure clubs tighten their belts.
NRL clubs currently have no limit on non-player spending. It means wealthier teams can spend more than $10 million annually on coaches, assistants, consultants and sports-science units in the “arms race” to win the NRL premiership.
But Greenberg says the days of reckless spending are over, with a four-man working party to deliver a historic football department salary cap for 2018.
“It will be in next season and it’s had strong support from all 16 clubs,” Greenberg said.
“There is a working group with four club chief executives in order to bring a football department cap in for 2018.
“We haven’t landed on an exact cap figure, that’s the working group’s task at the moment.
“We don’t want to stymie innovation, we want clubs to continue to invest ... but not in ridiculous numbers.”
NRL clubs lost a combined $53.4 million last year and much of the haemorraghing can be attributed to excess spending on extra coaches, technology and cutting-edge methods in the pursuit of title glory.
However, Greenberg pointed out there is no guarantee that spending more will deliver a premiership. Last year’s premiers, Cronulla, ranked in the bottom four for off-field spending.
“There is no correlation between what you spend and your outcome at the end of the season,” he said.
“The year the Cowboys won their premiership (two years ago) they were eighth in football department spend. The disparity has grown year on year.
“What this is about is ensuring clubs have sustainable futures so they invest their money in revenue-generating areas as well as football.
“It’s also aligned to the principles of the salary cap where we don’t want to see clubs getting too far apart in what they are spending away from the field.”
The Broncos, armed with a record $42 million in revenue, are one of the NRL’s top resourced clubs. Chief executive Paul White urged the NRL not to count development staff in the off-field salary cap.
“I’ve cautioned the NRL to fully understand the total spending of each club and how we spend the money,” White said.
“At the Broncos, we spend a lot of money on development and community based work. That should not be counted in football department spend.
“Many clubs have very different models, some clubs don’t have any development systems so their expenses will be different.
“In principle, it has widespread support because it protects clubs from themselves in some cases. It will hold back poor decision-making.”
Titans chief executive Graham Annesley applauded the move.
“We are 100 per cent supportive of a cap on football department spend,” he said.
“There is an arms race every time the grant goes up and we have to ensure that just as the salary cap controls the player market, we need some control over the spending activities of clubs.
“You will never get every club spending the exact amount and you don’t want to be dragging everyone down to the lowest common denominator. But there needs to be some regulation around how much clubs are spending.”
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