Quote littlerich="littlerich"I fully expect a slash in next years playing budget. Last year (with crowds of 1,800) TA pumped an extra £100k into the club. We're down to 1,200 now. How much will needed to be pumped in just to maintain finances? Obviously a lot also depends on sponsorship and RFL payouts but I can only see a squeeze on finances coming the club's way.'"
With the two that come down and the two that finish top in the Championship this year getting significantly more as well, the other clubs outside these four will be hard pressed to compete with them financially.
One thing is though the four clubs mentioned above can only have so many players who will benefit from the extra cash in the wage packet.
The rest of the clubs and players will have to settle for what remains and there should still be some good players not taken by the four big spenders.
All the clubs in the Championship when they go into the eight will likewise be disadvantaged financially as the SL clubs involved will have more than any of them.
This is central funding of course so if anyone has a financial backer who is prepared to spend up to the full amount of the cap then the gap could be closed on the SL clubs if they can't afford to spend to the cap limit.
The full amount of money available for all clubs will be from central funding and from the clubs own injection up to the cap.
That's how I see it anyway, it will be interesting to see how the big spending Championship clubs match up against the SL teams in the eight to see if money does really talk either way.