NRL salary cap to go up AGAIN as Super League gulf widens further

The NRL looks set to increase its salary cap once again as a result of a mega new broadcast deal the competition is on the brink of agreeing.

Australia’s premiere rugby league competition will soon announce a new deal with both Fox and Nine which is estimated to be worth a staggering $5billion (£2.61billion) over seven years – the most lucrative and cash-rich deal ever seen in Australian sporting history.

And one of the big results from that will be yet another pushing up of the salary cap – with fresh reports in Australia estimating that the amount clubs can spend on players is set to go up once again.

NRL salary cap to go up

The Sydney Morning Herald has suggested that the salary cap could rise as high as $20million as soon as 2028, when the new broadcast deal begins.

That is over £10million per season and would then be in the region of five times more than what Super League clubs are currently able to spend. In Europe, the limit has been fixed at £2.1million – with exemptions such as marquee player allowances – for several years with no sign of it going up.

The cap is going to go up to $12.1million in 2027 but the new broadcast deal could send it skywards even further the following season – with a string of high-profile players coming off-contract at exactly the right time.

It is also reported that the average top 30 wage potentially set to jump to $666,000 per annum if the cap increases do go ahead, which works out at close to £350,000 – a figure only a slither of Super League’s top players get.

And the biggest winners from the deal would not be the players at the bottom of NRL rosters – it would be those superstars at the top end. Players are set to get around 40 per cent of all broadcast revenue, with the rest of the money going into administrative expansion and grass roots growth.

The first $2million player?

With the cap going up so much, it also significantly increases the chance of the NRL being able to pass through a major milestone and allow one club to spend $2million on the salary of one player.

That player could highly be Penrith Panthers superstar Nathan Cleary.

He is perhaps the biggest name set to enter the open market for the 2028 season later this year when he enters the final 12 months of his contract with the Panthers – with speculation already raging about where he could end up.

Penrith have a string of high-profile players off-contract outside of Cleary, with the likes of Isaah Yeo and Brian To’o allowed to speak to other clubs on November 1 this year with a view to signing somewhere for the 2028 season.

There are more at other clubs. Cameron Munster, Latrell Mitchell, Sam Walker and James Tedesco are also set to enter the last year of their current contracts later this year – and with the broadcast deal set to produce game-changing adjustments to the salary cap, it appears more and more of the NRL’s top stars are going to get huge salary increases.