Super League’s financial reality laid bare as damning comparison made by football chief
Charlie Methven pictured in 2019 during his time as Sunderland AFC's Executive Director
Super League’s lack of financial power has come under scrutiny, with a rather dire comparison between the similar revenues of Wigan Warriors and football club Grimsby Town utilised to underline the struggles.
Former journalist Charlie Methven shot to prominence in 2018 as he landed a role as an Executive Director of Sunderland AFC, now a Premier League club that have qualified for the UEFA Europa League.
Among the leading figures in the hit Netflix documentary Sunderland ‘Til I Die when the club was in the third tier, he would later move on to Charlton Athletic before landing his current role with Jamaica Premier League side Mount Pleasant.
Also involved with Belgian club RAEC Mons, Methven now co-hosts the Business of Sport podcast, and in the most recent episode, led a deep dive into the financial struggles of rugby league in Britain.
‘You’re looking at revenue numbers which probably equate to a top-end League Two club in football’
Methven’s personal interest in rugby league and specifically Wigan comes from his relationship with the Warriors’ former owner Ian Lenagan, who also previously owned football club Oxford United, the team Methven grew up supporting.
To evidence the game’s struggles, he compared the revenues of Super League heavyweights Wigan and Sky Bet League Two side Grimsby Town, who have just been beaten in the play-offs having been a non-league club four years ago.
Methven said: “The revenues of some of the top rugby league clubs in this country… Wigan Warriors are probably the biggest name of all and they have total revenues of £7.5, maybe £8 million this year.
“St Helens, their traditional biggest rivals, £8.5 million.
“Leeds currently is the biggest revenue club, £10/11 million.
“You’re looking at revenue numbers which probably equate to a top-end League Two club in football.”
Co-host Charlie Stebbings added: “That Wigan Warriors number was very close to the conversation I had with Grimsby Town’s CEO, Polly (Bancroft)… £6.9 million.”
Grimsby enjoyed huge success as they beat Manchester United in the Carabao Cup during the season just gone as well as facing Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup, but have not been above football’s fourth tier since 2004.
Methven responded: “Wigan Warriors and Grimsby Town, think about those two.
“With the greatest of respect to Grimsby Town, I don’t think even Grimsby fans would claim that in national sporting terms, they’re on a level with Wigan Warriors.
“Yet their revenues are about the same as Wigan Warriors.”
‘Seeing the business side of it is quite eye-opening, the numbers are frightening for the longevity of the game in this country’
The discussion around revenue’s in the podcast came amid a wider discussion about the current state of rugby league and its difficulties in growth over the last few years.
Methven said: ” It’s not covered much these days outside of the typical trade media or the northern local media.
“If you look at national media coverage of rugby league, it’s not great, it used to be much more.
“Broadly speaking, Super League has been a success. But at the same time, it has been a bit left behind, particularly by the NRL.
“The Australian league is an absolute beast of a commercial product.
“Super League has got annual combined revenues of around £100-120 million, Premiership Rugby £200 million, but the NRL has £450 million-a-year.
“This has started to cause a problem with the ability to retain the best players, commercial attention, and has led to – in recent weeks – there might be a situation where the NRL effectively takes over Super League.”
In an exclusive interview with LoveRugbyLeague last week, RL Commercial and Rugby Football League (RFL) chief Rhodri Jones stated Super League will be at the same level as NRL in ten years if a partnership between the two competitions is a success.
Pointing towards the importance of that being the case, Methven’s co-host Stebbings added: “Seeing the business side of it is quite eye-opening, the numbers are frightening for the longevity of the game in this country, if it stays in the same form.
“The Sky deal they had was previously £40 million a season, 2024-26 is £21.5 million per season.
“That’s a per club distrubtion of £1.24 million per club, so in the context of a Premier League club getting £100 million, we’ve got a rugby league club here getting £1.24 million.”
