The UAFC

Ok, I'm quite prepared and expecting to be slapped down for asking this, but it's really just my OCD biting hard.
Are Ulster financially sustainable? Or do we get subsidies from the tossers on the hill, or Bulvas City Council?
My best guesstimate for income from season tickets, gate receipts, advertising, TV( ) , booze and clothing is around £8 mil. Which sounds like a fair wadge, but we've some big earners and a load of players on a fair wage, not to mention coaching staff and all their buddies, along with various staff involved in running the stadium and keeping it, in its current condition.
We don't get the sort of TV money which the Frogs get, but I think our deal will improve, but I do have sleepless night's wondering if we are living within our means.

Ulster = IRFU, have a look at their accounts

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Tight End, I asked something similar when I was feeling particularly hacked off with Nucifora's intervention into Ruan being forced out. Rocky came up with the best answer. IRFU pump in too much. So heres a copy of what he said.


Re: Ruan - Crapola Vu all over again
by rocky » Sun Sep 04, 2016 11:37 am

The answer to your question is an unequivocal NO, as things stand. The vast majority of the money that comes into Irish rugby is generated by the national side and the provinces are kept going with a lot of that money - roughly £5-6 million per annum to Ulster, Munster and Leinster, somewhat less to Connacht.
The Pro-12 TV money is about £1M to each club, then gate receipts, sponsorship and franchising make up the rest.
In comparison, the English clubs got an EXTRA £3M each this season, from TV and the ERFU, so they have a lot more to spend than us. The French are even more loaded and we will be less and less able to compete for players, as wages continue to climb.
So we are where we are and we will have to make do until and unless someone can do a much bigger TV deal in 2018, when the current SKY deal runs out. Hence all the stuff about bringing North America into bed with us - which seems very much pie in the sky, frankly.
So, the IRFU people are correct to say that our biggest priority is to stop depending on foreign players, who command big, big salaries, and develop our own talent as best we can.
None of that makes their decision to force Ruan to leave good, in any sense.

Many thanks for that. So we get a big wadge from FIRFU and we generate a slightly bigger wadge (that accountancy diploma working well) by ourselves from gate money and all I mentioned above.
So, apart from being a bit stranger than the rest of us Oirish, why don't Connacht get an even cut? Is it Barzinni and the five families cutting them out.....sorry, the Remastered BluRay Godfather Boxset arrived at the weekend.

Tighter End wrote:Many thanks for that. So we get a big wadge from FIRFU and we generate a slightly bigger wadge (that accountancy diploma working well) by ourselves from gate money and all I mentioned above.
So, apart from being a bit stranger than the rest of us Oirish, why don't Connacht get an even cut? Is it Barzinni and the five families cutting them out.....sorry, the Remastered BluRay Godfather Boxset arrived at the weekend.

That D4 chap will come on and tell you that Connacht are just a development province for them and they don't even deserve as much as they get

I love the fact the assumption made on here or by the IRFU (however, I doubt they actually do make this assumption) is that we have to stop depending on "expensive" foreign imports. Lets be honest going forward as the game and the money grows it will be totally irrelevant as to whether they are Irish or foreign - the top quality players will command the wedge and if UR and the other provinces cant offer it they will go where they can get it and that includes sons of Ulster. Lets be honest this is their job and its business and the more money comes into the game then we will see an erosion of national or provincial pride of wearing the jersey. The tide will start to turn and players will move where they can earn the big money more and more. The power of the likes of the IRFU and the national unions will weaken. Unfortunately it will follow a similar but naturally much less wealthy or debt ridden example as football.

I think it will be a shame but I personally think that's likely to be the reality in the not too distant future. So it all goes back to the original question and to be honest like Scottish Football which at least for years was a plucky contender to other leagues the product will dwindle as it cannot generate the cash from its significantly less populous neighbours. In pro sport its all about money and the Pro 12 teams and the unions need to give much more consideration to a European format that protects all of the national unions. There is no benefit to the English and French to earn all the big bucks and run away from everyone else as the competition at International and European level becomes boring then.

Tender, someone who actually knows the detail will probably correct me if I'm too far out but in summary:

- over the last 4/5 years Ulster have been one of 3/4 clubs in the UK who have actually made a profit
- we benefitted enormously from crowds exceeding planned figures after the rebuild
- we have sold ever bit of available advertising space
- we have sold naming rights to Spanners

That's the good bits:

- we are predicted to make a loss this year and subsequent years
- a withdrawal of some of the expected FIRFU funds makes the position worse
- in the last couple of years costs, particularly retaining native born players coveted by Englander schweinhunds, have spiralled
- we have nothing more to sell
- cost are only going one way

So I read today that cheating SOAB Alun Lost Jones bigging up the dual contract system, which he clearly likes.
Now being a novice and still trying to catch up, I was wondering if we operate the same system
here? I know that a lifetime ago, players received an amount of money when they were on the Irish panel and that figure got a bump when they made the full squad, but that was when I was a pup, so I was wondering what way things operate now.