{"id":464561,"date":"2026-03-08T17:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/464561\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T17:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:17:10","slug":"championship-rugby-league-club-make-plea-to-fans-as-stark-reality-of-finances-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/464561\/","title":{"rendered":"Championship rugby league club make plea to fans as \u2018stark reality\u2019 of finances revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Championship\"\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

Championship club Whitehaven<\/a> have made a plea to their fans with the club the latest rugby league side to express financial concerns.<\/p>\n

With Featherstone entering administration and Halifax Panthers liquidating before their recent return<\/a>, it\u2019s very evident that finances in the second tier of rugby league are a major issue.<\/p>\n

Even the well-run clubs struggle and one club who aren\u2019t in financial despair yet have warned that they soon could be with Cumbrian outfit Whitehaven making a plea to their fans.<\/p>\n

Sharing an image of stadium gates with the words \u2018Permanently Closed\u2019 printed across them, Haven admitted that could happen if they don\u2019t get better support.<\/p>\n

Referring to the image, their statement opened: \u201cThis could be the stark reality of the club isn\u2019t supported better,\u201d before they explained how last Sunday\u2019s win over Rochdale saw them return less money than what is required to pay for the player\u2019s monthly insurance.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Hull KR\u2019s nightmare, Leeds Rhinos\u2019 dominance and possible Hull FC signings \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Rugby League club make plea to fans<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A further 40 who were among the player\u2019s family and friends would pay \u00a310 but the total of that gate left the club with just \u00a32,000 profit.<\/p>\n

The club said: \u201cWe 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\u2019ve planned in so many events.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast Sunday after all the game day expenses were paid we made 2k which doesn\u2019t even pay for the players monthly insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bad weather put off a number of fans, something that also impacted the club\u2019s home derby against Barrow Raiders where they only drew a crowd of 900 as opposed to the 1,000+ that was expected.<\/p>\n

Making a plea to the fans, the club said: \u201cUnfortunately for our fans we haven\u2019t got loads of massive sponsors like a lot of teams and we haven\u2019t got a sugar daddy that will just plop money into the club as a hobby.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is working incredibly hard down at the club to keep the club going but we need everyone\u2019s help. Please try and get down to games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you haven\u2019t been down in a while please pop down and show us your support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve listened to the fans. We\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve now lost our head coach and doing it tough but two of our local Cumbrian assistant coaches she\u2019s stepped up to lead us. We need a massive gate this weekend to get us back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haven will host Midlands Hurricanes today at 3:00pm as they seek their second win of the Championship season.<\/p>\n<\/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":"Championship club Whitehaven have made a plea to their fans with the club the latest rugby league side…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-464561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464561","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=464561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}