Tigers' Players in the Media

[glenn]

In my line of work, during the lockdown, I worked 6 days a week and 12+ hours a day to help my boss and his business survive along with a small band of colleagues who could. I didn't do this to be a hero or a martyr I did it to help the business survive and continue to trade.

I feel for rugby players as their contract states they get £x per year etc. However this is about the longevity of the premiership and the clubs. Not player z

[Bristol Tiger]

In my line of work, during the lockdown, I worked 6 days a week and 12+ hours a day to help my boss and his business survive along with a small band of colleagues who could. I didn't do this to be a hero or a martyr I did it to help the business survive and continue to trade.

I feel for rugby players as their contract states they get £x per year etc. However this is about the longevity of the premiership and the clubs. Not player z

While I do empathise with anyone having to take a salary cut, including any and all rugby players at whatever level, I agree with Glenn and believe every business needs to share the pain to survive. My hours of work have gone up but our whole business has taken a 20% pay cut; some were furloughed; a few also made redundant. I'm close enough to the business numbers to know that without doing this, we would have run out of cash and gone bust. Everyone has had to dig in, yes to help the business but also to help everyone in the business.

I also have family members who have been furloughed, and one that was furloughed and now made redundant this week. It is a tough and pretty :censored: world at the moment. I hope that most rugby players understand that and if they want a club to pay their wages in the future, the club needs to be financially viable. Current salaries are not viable at the moment, and probably weren't viable anyway.

Interesting article in the Guardian's breakdown - I'll try and post it next.

[Bristol Tiger]

Article from the Guardian's The Breakdown newsletter - recommend signing-up if you don't get it.

Keeping on topic - it features Genge, in the media

Urgent need for transparency from all sides on Premiership salary cap

Chief executives rather than owners must plot way forward as pandemic forces hard decisions to be made across Europe

Lord Myners had it in one in the introduction to his report on the Premiership’s salary cap. “A lack of transparency,” he wrote, “is an obstacle to the clubs reaching the point at which trust and cooperation are restored.”

He was talking about the relationship between clubs and their supporters but it goes wider than that. The Premiership met this week to discuss cutting the salary cap because of the financial devastation caused by the lockdown, but even though a decision was taken nothing has been announced.

News has leaked out, which is the Premiership’s way. There has been a long media silence from the organisation’s chief executive, Darren Childs. In his first year in charge, Childs lacks the sure-footedness of his predecessor, Mark McCafferty, who was not afraid to front up, as he showed in 2015 when he held a conference call to explain why no action was being taken against a club or clubs who had been investigated for suspected breaches of the cap. He knew he would take a battering for being able to reveal only the obsessive secrecy of his employers but he did not hide

The Rugby Players’ Association, under pressure from the England and Leicester prop Ellis Genge who is setting up a rival union with greater stress on pay than conditions, on Wednesday issued a strongly worded statement that stressed its opposition to making permanent the temporary 25% pay cuts made in March when the season was suspended.

“From the outset there has been an absolute disregard for the players and values of the game,” said the RPA chairman, Mark Lambert, the Harlequins prop. “This latest situation could have been avoided with a collaborative and transparent [that word again] approach and we now find ourselves heading towards a significant legal dispute unless meaningful and genuine dialogue takes place urgently.”

The RPA had to clamber off the fence with Genge’s plans for his Rugby Players Epoch at an advanced stage. His union will cost more to join than the RPA, one per cent of a player’s salary rather than a flat rate £200, with the bulk of it invested and repaid, and he has no interest in joining forces with Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Football Union, independence rather than interdependence.

RPE’s prospectus calls for an independent review of club accounts and will warn off players from “loss-making entities that do not have viable plans … to meet salary obligations”. In the current climate it means it will not be advising any member to join a side in the Premiership, all of whom will be recording losses in the next financial year and there will be no bailout from the RFU, with the governing body’s priorities lying elsewhere.

Genge’s initiative will not be welcomed by Premiership Rugby, a body whose weaknesses have been exposed by the Saracens salary-cap saga and now the suspension of rugby for three months. Its ownership model has spanned the professional era and spawned secrecy, the very wealthy not partial to accountability nor stirred by the Twitterati.

Owners should step back for the moment and let their chief executives, who deal with figures without being clouded by emotion, plot the way forward. It would help make the Premiership less opaque but the drive for sustainability would also have consequences for players. While their opposition to permanent pay cuts is understandable, the business is shrinking at a time when Britain is predicted to suffer the worst economic damage of any country in the developed world.

Salaries, especially at the top, have been set at a level based not on what a club can afford but the willingness of owners to make good losses at the end of every financial year. Nigel Wray was a prime example at Saracens and while Myners was contemptuous of the club’s investment scheme as a way of dodging the salary cap, saying it rewarded big names rather than the unheralded, those in it either came through the ranks or joined at the start of their senior careers.

Salaries have been dangerously high as a percentage of turnover and hard decisions are having to be made throughout Europe. The RPA is right that it should be consulted every step of the way but the good times will not be rolling for a while. French clubs are cutting down overseas players in the Top 14 and there have been calls for a review of the £10.5m salary cap.

The Pro14 is as challenged. The Irish union has warned it could run out of money in a matter of months while in Wales the inertia of the Welsh government, in contrast to the impatience of its Westminster counterpart, means crowds are unlikely to be welcomed back at sports grounds until some time in the new year.

It is why the talks over a global calendar are crucial. If agreement were reached it would mean the club seasons would not overlap with Test windows. In England there would be no need for the Premiership Cup and the size of squads would therefore be reduced, helping to reduce the wage bill and accommodate a cut in the cap.

Genge’s union talks about working with clubs to ensure player finances “are not impacted like this again” but after the last three months one thing is clear: if there is a second wave of coronavirus and another lockdown, there may be no pay to cut.

[Ian Cant]

And the last paragraph is what the players need to read every day. Without the clubs there will be no salary and the new “Cap” doesn’t come in until the season after the next one when many contracts will be up for renewal.
I’d also suggest players like Genge, Bateman look at how Matt Smith/Sam Harrison-conducted themselves throughout their careers.
I really like both Bateman and Genge but they in particular have been very well looked after by Tigers.

[JP14]

Thanks for sharing, and whilst sporting bodies (as well as rugby) are in consultation to try and get some of form of crowds in stadia it's not guaranteed for some time yet. In the meantime, BT Sport must use try to generate as much TV revenue as possible in order to get money flowing back into the game as the clubs just cannot simply rely on fans renewing their season tickets...

[Scuttle]

I heard someone recently saying the cuts to pay were wrong, that rugby had made money on the backs of players and that players were the product. All very emotive, ill-thought through sentiments in my view. I would suggest the product is the matchday experience which comprises lots of effort from bar staff, ground staff, stewards, ticket office staff and more....not just the players, albeit they are the major part. When I hear things like that I think egos are getting too big and people are starting to think they are bigger than the club. From what I have read on here I have the impression some of Tigers recent woes have been down to cliiques and inflated egos. I hope things are getting better not just re-emerging with different characters. As for "Rugby" making money off the players backs, the parlous state of most clubs finances shows not much money is being made by many, other than turnover. The only people making money out of rugby are those drawing a wage from the club, which includes the players.

[Leicestertinytiger]

I heard someone recently saying the cuts to pay were wrong, that rugby had made money on the backs of players and that players were the product. All very emotive, ill-thought through sentiments in my view. I would suggest the product is the matchday experience which comprises lots of effort from bar staff, ground staff, stewards, ticket office staff and more....not just the players, albeit they are the major part. When I hear things like that I think egos are getting too big and people are starting to think they are bigger than the club. From what I have read on here I have the impression some of Tigers recent woes have been down to cliiques and inflated egos. I hope things are getting better not just re-emerging with different characters. As for "Rugby" making money off the players backs, the parlous state of most clubs finances shows not much money is being made by many, other than turnover. The only people making money out of rugby are those drawing a wage from the club, which includes the players.

Very well said it’s not like the clubs are making massive profits at the players expense and not passing them on.

Some of the players comments seem very ignorant and ones I would expect in football, not rugby. You can’t just blame professionalism. Arrogance seems to have bred a massive disconnect between the original values of rugby and some of the current crop of players. They feel entitled and like they are owed something..... even if that is at the detriment of the long term future of their clubs and premiership.

[BFG]

I heard someone recently saying the cuts to pay were wrong, that rugby had made money on the backs of players and that players were the product. All very emotive, ill-thought through sentiments in my view. I would suggest the product is the matchday experience which comprises lots of effort from bar staff, ground staff, stewards, ticket office staff and more....not just the players, albeit they are the major part. When I hear things like that I think egos are getting too big and people are starting to think they are bigger than the club. From what I have read on here I have the impression some of Tigers recent woes have been down to cliiques and inflated egos. I hope things are getting better not just re-emerging with different characters. As for "Rugby" making money off the players backs, the parlous state of most clubs finances shows not much money is being made by many, other than turnover. The only people making money out of rugby are those drawing a wage from the club, which includes the players.

Very well said it’s not like the clubs are making massive profits at the players expense and not passing them on.

Some of the players comments seem very ignorant and ones I would expect in football, not rugby. You can’t just blame professionalism. Arrogance seems to have bred a massive disconnect between the original values of rugby and some of the current crop of players. They feel entitled and like they are owed something..... even if that is at the detriment of the long term future of their clubs and premiership.

+1

[Cardiff Tig]

And the last paragraph is what the players need to read every day. Without the clubs there will be no salary and the new “Cap” doesn’t come in until the season after the next one when many contracts will be up for renewal.
I’d also suggest players like Genge, Bateman look at how Matt Smith/Sam Harrison-conducted themselves throughout their careers.
I really like both Bateman and Genge but they in particular have been very well looked after by Tigers.

I don't remember Smith and Harrison having to face large pay cuts during their careers. Bateman has a role to play as a union rep in being vocal, I'm sure the club understand that. I tend to agree with him as well to be honest. The majority of squad members aren't going to be earning that much for a career that could easily end the next time they go onto the pitch.

I obviously don't know about specific salaries but I'd rather see a 50% salary cut for international players on £250,000 than a 25% cut across the board that means players on £40,000 lose a big chunk of income that is unlikely to be topped up by England appearances.

If I'm not mistaken, PRL takes a huge cut of all the money going into the premiership with a very bloated organization. There are a lot of places that money can be saved before a blanket 25% cut is necessary, and will hit the lower earners the hardest.

Thanks for sharing, and whilst sporting bodies (as well as rugby) are in consultation to try and get some of form of crowds in stadia it's not guaranteed for some time yet. In the meantime, BT Sport must use try to generate as much TV revenue as possible in order to get money flowing back into the game as the clubs just cannot simply rely on fans renewing their season tickets...

BT won't put any more than the bare minimum that they have to into the game. They have no interest in rugby surviving and won't pay more for the rights just because more people are viewing, they'll drive the hardest bargain they can to maximize profits.

[Bunchy]

i think the main gripe is the lack of involvement in the decision making process - they have a players union who they feel should have been involved in plotting the way forward. they feel they have a worthy contribution to the debate.....

[sk 88]

If I'm not mistaken, PRL takes a huge cut of all the money going into the premiership with a very bloated organization. There are a lot of places that money can be saved before a blanket 25% cut is necessary, and will hit the lower earners the hardest.

C.£2.3m in wages from £75.5m revenue.
plus similar again in other general spending promoting the league etc. for a total of 7% of revenue

Effectively they operate as an extra club in terms of cash used.

Whether that is huge or not is I guess up to your interpretation. I'd probably be more focused on growing the pot than worrying too much about how it is costing to be honest.

[JP14]

I heard someone recently saying the cuts to pay were wrong, that rugby had made money on the backs of players and that players were the product. All very emotive, ill-thought through sentiments in my view. I would suggest the product is the matchday experience which comprises lots of effort from bar staff, ground staff, stewards, ticket office staff and more....not just the players, albeit they are the major part. When I hear things like that I think egos are getting too big and people are starting to think they are bigger than the club. From what I have read on here I have the impression some of Tigers recent woes have been down to cliiques and inflated egos. I hope things are getting better not just re-emerging with different characters. As for "Rugby" making money off the players backs, the parlous state of most clubs finances shows not much money is being made by many, other than turnover. The only people making money out of rugby are those drawing a wage from the club, which includes the players.

Very well said it’s not like the clubs are making massive profits at the players expense and not passing them on.

Some of the players comments seem very ignorant and ones I would expect in football, not rugby. You can’t just blame professionalism. Arrogance seems to have bred a massive disconnect between the original values of rugby and some of the current crop of players. They feel entitled and like they are owed something..... even if that is at the detriment of the long term future of their clubs and premiership.

[JP14]

Thanks for sharing, and whilst sporting bodies (as well as rugby) are in consultation to try and get some of form of crowds in stadia it's not guaranteed for some time yet. In the meantime, BT Sport must use try to generate as much TV revenue as possible in order to get money flowing back into the game as the clubs just cannot simply rely on fans renewing their season tickets...

BT won't put any more than the bare minimum that they have to into the game. They have no interest in rugby surviving and won't pay more for the rights just because more people are viewing, they'll drive the hardest bargain they can to maximize profits.

I find that hard to believe, firstly BT need a product to show and make money out of, so I really doubt they "have no interest in rugby surviving". The fact they're paying the final payment to the shareholder clubs early is testament to this.

[Cardiff Tig]

BT won't put any more than the bare minimum that they have to into the game. They have no interest in rugby surviving and won't pay more for the rights just because more people are viewing, they'll drive the hardest bargain they can to maximize profits.

I find that hard to believe, firstly BT need a product to show and make money out of, so I really doubt they "have no interest in rugby surviving". The fact they're paying the final payment to the shareholder clubs early is testament to this.

Of course, they want it to survive in the sense that they have a product to sell, hence the early payment. That isn't costing them anything that they haven't signed up for. But if the season gets canceled then there will be a very different conversation about how BT gets some of the money back from the Clubs for not fulfilling their contract.

My point is that it makes no sense for BT to put any more money into the game to keep it going in the future when it won't increase its value. Rugby is a minority sport, and clubs having to lose some of the superstars that the casual fan may recognize isn't going to help attract new viewers. Especially at a time when sport TV subscriptions and ad revenue will be starting to decrease because of the economic climate.