Championship club Whitehaven have made a plea to their fans with the club the latest rugby league side to express financial concerns.
With Featherstone entering administration and Halifax Panthers liquidating before their recent return, it’s very evident that finances in the second tier of rugby league are a major issue.
Even the well-run clubs struggle and one club who aren’t in financial despair yet have warned that they soon could be with Cumbrian outfit Whitehaven making a plea to their fans.
Sharing an image of stadium gates with the words ‘Permanently Closed’ printed across them, Haven admitted that could happen if they don’t get better support.
Referring to the image, their statement opened: “This could be the stark reality of the club isn’t supported better,” before they explained how last Sunday’s win over Rochdale saw them return less money than what is required to pay for the player’s monthly insurance.
They earned their first win of the season that day but fans have been reminded how important their support is and how bleak the reality of running a rugby league club at that level can be.
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Rugby League club make plea to fans
Despite drawing in an attendance of 451 to the game, only 105 people paid full price to attend once the away directors, away players, under 16s, season ticket holders and hospitality guests were all taken out of the equation.
A further 40 who were among the player’s family and friends would pay £10 but the total of that gate left the club with just £2,000 profit.
The club said: “We usually make an average of 10k per home game which is still along way off fully paying to run a team and the reason why we’ve planned in so many events.
“Last Sunday after all the game day expenses were paid we made 2k which doesn’t even pay for the players monthly insurance.”
Bad weather put off a number of fans, something that also impacted the club’s home derby against Barrow Raiders where they only drew a crowd of 900 as opposed to the 1,000+ that was expected.
Making a plea to the fans, the club said: “Unfortunately for our fans we haven’t got loads of massive sponsors like a lot of teams and we haven’t got a sugar daddy that will just plop money into the club as a hobby.
“Everyone is working incredibly hard down at the club to keep the club going but we need everyone’s help. Please try and get down to games.
“If you haven’t been down in a while please pop down and show us your support.
“We’ve listened to the fans. We’ve brought a new board of directors in with fresh ideas and working hard for the club. 90% of our team are young Cumbrians and giving 100% every week after being thrusted into a league above well ahead of where we were aiming for.
“We’ve now lost our head coach and doing it tough but two of our local Cumbrian assistant coaches she’s stepped up to lead us. We need a massive gate this weekend to get us back on track.”
Haven will host Midlands Hurricanes today at 3:00pm as they seek their second win of the Championship season.
