Premiership Rugby salary spend hit £100m season before three clubs went bust
Premiership rugby club salary spending rose to £100m in the season before three clubs folded, the league’s latest report into wages shows.
The amount spent on senior salaries saw an increase from £94m in 2020-21 to £100m in 2021-22 in the latest figures released today by Premiership Rugby.
The rise represents a larger increase, £6m, than an entire club’s salary cap for the current 2023-24 season, and happened just one campaign before the league lost Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish to financial woes.
Academy spend increased from £4.1m to £5.8m while average senior wage spend per club rose from £7.2m to £7.7m.
In demand
Fly-halves were in the most demand, averaging a wage of £217,000 per season, £36,000 more than the second highest paid position, the back row – 12 per cent of No10s were paid more than £400,000 in the 2021-22 season.
It marks an increase in spending commitments during and after the Covid-19 pandemic and before three clubs went but in the 2022-23 season.
But the average total salary for a player decreased from a 2019-2020 high of £134,000 with average income averaging £102,000 in 2021-22.
Between the latest figures and now the number of special, “marquee” players has been cut from two to one and the salary cap has been cut to £5m.
Salary Cap Director Andrew Rogers: “Good governance is underpinned by transparency, and this report plays a crucial role in ensuring the effective management of a Salary Cap system that embraces this principle.
“Following the inaugural report last season, we can now provide further insights with comparison data, across two seasons (2020-21 and 2021-22).
“In terms of positional changes, whilst Fly-Half is still the highest paid position and Hookers the lowest, back-row has jumped up the order from fifth to second – a 26 per cent increase.
“Players with over 50 international caps still deliver the highest income levels, compared to those with fewer international caps.
“And the Salary Cap also continues to support the objective of ensuring a competitive Gallagher Premiership competition.
“Across the last six seasons we have seen 92 per cent of teams reaching the semi-finals, more than any other league.
“Premiership Rugby also had both the highest percentage of close games in (46 per cent) and the highest average number of tries per game (6.78) in 2021-22, compared with its other European counterparts.”