{"id":136476,"date":"2025-09-14T09:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T09:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/136476\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T09:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T09:53:09","slug":"strongly-concerned-about-the-financial-sustainability-wigan-warriors-ceo-still-waiting-for-answers-over-expanded-super-league-blueprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/136476\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Strongly concerned about the financial sustainability’ – Wigan Warriors CEO still waiting for answers over expanded Super League blueprint"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The agreement to expand to 14 Super League teams was met with concern and apprehension by both fans and stakeholders of the sport, with flags raised as to the quickness of the decision a key talking point.<\/p>\n

Of the 12 current top division teams, the vote was won by a 9-2 majority, with Hull KR and Hull FC opposing the increase, and Wigan Warriors abstaining completely.<\/p>\n

Wigan Warriors CEO Kris Radlinski has been very vocal since the meeting at the end of July, saying he believes there was not enough information for his club to made such a significant decision.<\/p>\n

Talking to TalkSport<\/a> this week, the former Warriors full-back once again stood by his decision, and admitted that there has still been no further information given to him regarding the projection of the sport.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cOur club abstained on the basis that we didn\u2019t have the required information. As I sit here in front of you today, we still have not received that information, if I\u2019m being honest with you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process has started, clubs have applied to come into Super League, but my club is strongly concerned about the financial sustainability moving forward, and until we have that information, we\u2019re pretty much in the dark to see what that looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

A major concern of Radlinski\u2019s is the fact that clubs will have mere weeks to build and prepare a full Super League<\/a> ready squad and have the facilities to be competitive. The biggest factor, he believes, is the financial aspect, and how the newly promoted clubs don\u2019t end up in the same situation that Salford Red Devils currently find themselves.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThis year we\u2019ve got a very live example where one of our great clubs with an incredible history in Salford are struggling to get to the end of the season. So we need to make sure that instances like that aren\u2019t repeated, and that can only be done with rigour and financial analysis and conversations. All we want is to get into that detail and I don\u2019t believe that has been presented at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wigan Warriors Chief expresses concern over decision timeframe and \u201clevel of detail\u201d regarding Super League expansion<\/p>\n

In 2023, the NRL brought in their most recent franchise, as The Dolphins made their debut in Australia\u2019s top competition. The announcement for that was made in October 2021, giving them a full year to build a squad and put plans in place so that they can be stable and self-sufficient.<\/p>\n

Similarly, in 2027, Perth Bears will become the 18th NRL team, with that announcement being made in May of this year, again allowing them to prepare. Radlinski\u2019s biggest problem is the lack of time given to making such a huge change, as he continues to press for answers on how the powers that be believe the new structure will work.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThere are a couple of clubs who want a bit more information, but it was the vote, the vote was passed and I think the new clubs coming in will be announced after the grand final. I think it\u2019s around about October 16, and in this interim period, we\u2019ll keep pushing for answers. I don\u2019t believe we\u2019re being difficult and I don\u2019t believe we are being disruptive. What we are trying to do is secure the future of the sport and not rush into decisions, which I believe we are doing at this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NRL have announced new teams going in, but that was done on the back of two years worth of due diligence, lobbying local government, regional government, putting business plans in, player pathways, sponsorship etc. and I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve gone to that level of detail at this moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The agreement to expand to 14 Super League teams was met with concern and apprehension by both fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-136476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}