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#Post#: 151758--------------------------------------------------
Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: Rugbycat
Date: March 26, 2026, 3:22 pm
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Prem clubs have agreed to introduce a 'salary floor' - a minimum
amount each team must spend on players' wages - from next season
in an attempt to keep the top flight as closely fought as
possible.
Each club will be obliged to spend £5.4m a season on talent.
The salary cap - a £6.4m limit on squad spending, albeit with
'credits' on offer for home-grown talent and other factors which
stretch the restriction to £7.8m - will remain the same.
Failure to spend up to the salary floor will be punished by a
fine equivalent to the difference between a club's squad spend
and the lower limit, incentivising clubs to invest in their
squads.
Several clubs are likely to need to pay more to meet the new
lower figure.
Last season, Bristol boss Pat Lam estimated that eventual
champions and the Bears' semi-final conquerors Bath spent "close
to £3m more than we have on our squad"., external
While bottom side Newcastle have brought in a raft of new
players since energy drink giant Red Bull took over in August,
they are still thought to be well short of a £5.4m wage bill.
While such prescriptions over squad spending are rare in UK
sport, they are more common overseas.
The NRL, Australia's elite rugby league competition, requires
its clubs to spend at least 95% of its salary cap figure. In
American Football's NFL, it is set at 90%.
Prem Rugby hopes that, with relegation to be formally scrapped
next season, greater payroll parity will improve the competitive
balance of the top flight.
A divide has opened up in the table this season with four teams
- Newcastle Red Bulls, Harlequins, Gloucester and Sale - cut
adrift of the play-off race with seven rounds of the season to
go.
Sixth-placed Saracens, who are eight points off the top four,
could have their hopes of extending their campaign all but ended
this weekend if they lose to leaders Northampton.
Introducing a salary floor is reflective of renewed confidence
in the league's future, with billionaire industrialist James
Dyson having become co-owner of Bath this month and further
investment in Prem clubs believed to be in the pipeline.
The league intends to add two teams to its current 10 in the
2029-30 season if a wrangle with the second-tier Champ can be
smoothed out.
While it has been agreed that any new entrants to the Prem must
complete a campaign in the Champ first, it is yet to be agreed
how high a team would have to finish to demonstrate their
on-field credentials, with Prem Rugby chief executive Simon
Massie-Taylor believing a top-six finish and qualification for
the Champ play-offs "would be the natural thing".
Massie-Taylor is keen to build on this weekend's 'big game'
concept, with Everton's new Hill Dickinson Stadium earmarked as
a possible host for neutral-venue Prem semi-finals from 2029.
Saracens are staging Saturday's match against Saints at the
63,000-capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while Gloucester are
hosting Leicester at Villa Park and Bristol will take their
match against Harlequins to Cardiff's Principality Stadium on
the same day.
Harlequins put on two of their regular-season fixtures at
Twickenham's Allianz Stadium, which also hosts June's Prem
final.
France's Top 14 stages semi-finals at neutral venues, with
Lyon's 59,000-capacity Groupama Arena filled on successive days
for last year's fixtures.
Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium, which opened in February 2025,
has been hired out to host Fiji's 'home' match against England
in the new Nations Championship in July.
"They've created a moment there and we want to explore it,"
Massie-Taylor said of the Top 14.
"Our ambition is to have ten 'big games' by 2030, and that
includes the final and the potential for neutral play-offs.
"The Hill Dickinson Stadium is a great new 55,000-seater
stadium, and in an area where there is clearly demand, as people
are buying tickets to Fiji v England.
"Is that a good example of where we could host a play-off event?
Maybe. There's lot of options. We're intending to do this in
2029, deliberately because it takes time to secure venues, and
find the right spot and build demand."
#Post#: 151760--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: Yareet
Date: March 26, 2026, 4:21 pm
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Would it be cynical to suggest that this is just another form of
ring fencing?
#Post#: 151761--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: Rugbycat
Date: March 26, 2026, 4:38 pm
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--- Quote from: Yareet link ---
>
> Would it be cynical to suggest that this is just another form
of ring fencing?
>
--- End Quote ---
I think it is more about, justifying the minimum operating
standards, if clubs apply to join to increase the league
numbers.
I would expect a few changes, to the prem regulations making it
similar to the PWR.
But it will make joining the club expensive, and difficult.
#Post#: 151762--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: Brown Bottle
Date: March 26, 2026, 4:51 pm
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--- Quote from: Yareet link ---
>
> Would it be cynical to suggest that this is just another form
of ring fencing?
>
--- End Quote ---
The ring fencing is already there.
I'm not quite sure why the minimum spend is an issue; it was
announced as part of the new franchise model.
#Post#: 151764--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: Rocker
Date: March 26, 2026, 5:14 pm
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It's one of ME's constant talking points that if you have a
salary cap and ring fencing you need to have a collar (minimum
spend) to stop freeloaders.
#Post#: 151766--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: Rugbycat
Date: March 26, 2026, 5:22 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Rocker link ---
>
> It's one of ME's constant talking points that if you have a
salary cap and ring fencing you need to have a collar (minimum
spend) to stop freeloaders.
>
--- End Quote ---
I believe that it was written into the franchise agreement as
you say, to avoid another pre takeover Newcastle situation.
#Post#: 151775--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: FrostAndFire
Date: March 27, 2026, 6:05 am
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While I see the rationale for this, the question is whether it's
going to work. Are we just going to demand that owners of
loss-making clubs pony up millions more? What if they won't or
can't? Are we willing to lose more clubs? If this was a
profit-making sport, it would be one things, but as another
thread highlights, Bristol have lost £3m pre-tax, and here we're
told they'll have to spend more to reach the floor.
#Post#: 151777--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: Camquin
Date: March 27, 2026, 6:41 am
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I thought we were trying to set the salary cap to the point the
sport was sustainable, and no more clubs would go bankrupt.
And I thought £5m was a good figure for the cap, not the floor.
#Post#: 151778--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: Brown Bottle
Date: March 27, 2026, 6:54 am
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--- Quote from: Camquin link ---
>
> I thought we were trying to set the salary cap to the point
the sport was sustainable, and no more clubs would go bankrupt.
>
> And I thought £5m was a good figure for the cap, not the
floor.
>
--- End Quote ---
I don't recall any suggestion that the cap might be reduced,
other than from a few punters on rugby forums.
#Post#: 151784--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prem clubs agree a minimum spend on player wages
DIR By: Rugbycat
Date: March 27, 2026, 7:08 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Camquin link ---
>
> I thought we were trying to set the salary cap to the point
the sport was sustainable, and no more clubs would go bankrupt.
>
> And I thought £5m was a good figure for the cap, not the
floor.
>
--- End Quote ---
It has always been part of the plan, Newcastle spent two years
not spending and being uncompetitive, so this addressed that
being repeated.
The only sports leagues where everyone makes money are franchise
leagues, which also have caps and floors.
One uncompetitive team penalises the other teams regarding gate
income, the idea is to grow the revenue of clubs, and the
regulations are looking into the future, if the cap grows teams
spending half the cap is not going to help growth of the league.
I was at first against the franchise idea, but after listening
to other people’s opinions and arguments and reading the
documents, now see it as the only viable way forward.
There is no real way that teams from a predominantly semi pro
championship league would be able to compete in the Prem, and no
one being promoted or relegated since Saracens, proves that
point.
If you look at the league now, it is with the exception of
Exeter and Wasps and London Irish, very much the same teams as
at the start of the pro era.
The door is open for new entrants and is transparent, would be
nice to have a 12 or 14 team league, with the prem cup a purely
academy and dual registration competition.
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