The £16 Million Lifeline

We emphasised in our blog last week that rugby league was, and remains, a predominantly northern sport, played by working communities. Those communities have a lot in common. They were defined by industry, be it glass, chemicals, cotton or coal, and rugby league.

When the coal mines closed, the mills became a thing of the past and factories started a disappear, those towns lost part of their identity. Towns with a fierce pride in their industry had lost a limb. It is something from which they have never recovered. The small towns have almost become moth-balled by behemoth cities and city regions and individual identity has declined rapidly.

However, towns that were lucky enough to have a rugby league team retained a part of their identity. It is remarkable when you think about it. Say you are from Castleford and go on holiday to Sydney. It is remarkable that some in a huge metropolis will have heard of a small Yorkshire town that many in the UK would not have heard of.

And what is the reason for that? Rugby league. Something that can connect a small Yorkshire village to one of the world’s largest cities. You may heard an expression this week that rugby league is not a rich sport but it is rich in value.

The Coronavirus pandemic has unquestionably placed rugby league clubs, who have wafer thin profit margins, staring into the abyss. The same northern towns who are reeling from the loss of industrialisation, increasing globalisation and a reduction in community faced the potential loss of their rugby league team. It is almost too much too bear.

You may have noticed that there was a General Election next year. In that Election, Dewsbury turned Conservative again, Workington elected a Conservative MP for the first time since 1979, Leigh returned a Conservative MP for the first time ever.

The Conservative Party manifesto pledged to ‘level-up’ the UK. The party swept to its largest majority since 1979, in part due to a swathe of northern English voters putting their cross in the Conservative box on the ballot paper.

What neither the electorate nor the Conservative Party bargained for was this pandemic. Within months of its victory, the same northern English communities that put their trust in the Conservatives, sometimes for the first time, needed help to prevent an essential part of its community being consigned to history.

On Friday, it was announced that the Government would loan the RFL a total of £16m in what was dubbed as a ‘bailout’. What you may have missed is that the community game also received emergency funding from Sport England. 

I am not a financial expert, so I have no idea as to the level of financial peril the game faces at present. Although you do not need to need to be an expert to know that a sport reliant heavily on Sky money and individual benefactors will struggle without its main income source for an indefinite period.

Whilst the money is a much-needed boost, it is a loan. Its terms will state that the money is due to be repaid at some point in the future. That is probably why RFL Chief Executive was keen to emphasise that this is not a ‘gravy train’ and Wakefield chairman was quick to point out that nobody is been given money. 

This is not a handout or a freebie but a lifeline. It is an essential cash injection required to keep the sport’s head above water as the waves crash down upon us. Rugby league is central to the communities it serves. Often, it may feel as though it is one of the few remaining connections between a town and its people. Our sport is the fabric that weaves our town together, just like the wool that some of those communities once bulk produced.

From the point of view of the sport, it is a worrying time. This money gives cause for optimism. We have got a World Cup to host in 2021. That was planned to be a huge celebration of the sport. If we can get through these tough times, then come next October, we will have even more to celebrate at the World Cup.