Rugby league will survive, but it will need to be at its resilient best – Peter Smith

Lives are being lost and that obviously puts the trials and tribulations of sport into perspective but, as this column argued last week, rugby league is important to lots of people in many ways.

Fans need some escapism and something to look forward to, while thousands of people depend – directly or indirectly – on the game for their livelihood.

It is hard to imagine, for instance, Castleford or Featherstone without a rugby league club and smaller, less glamorous outfits – the likes of London Skolars, Coventry Bears or West Wales – mean just as much to their devotees.

If the shutdown continues for much longer, which seems likely at the moment, it seems possible some clubs won’t take to the starting line when the season does eventually resume.

There has been little or no income generated for more than two weeks, but money is still going out, mainly on wages. It is no surprise clubs are now looking to cut costs, through salary reductions, placing players and staff on furlough – a leave scheme under which 80 per cent of pay up to a £2,500 monthly limit is guaranteed under the government’s job protection initiative – or both.

Leeds Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington has confirmed pay cuts are set to be implemented, in a bid to ensure everyone employed by a club remains in a job.

Other clubs are contemplating similar measures. Speaking earlier this week, Wakefield Trinity chief executive Michael Carter admitted it will be “job done” if all 37 sides in the three professional divisions are still in business come November.

Other, non-sports-based industries are having it just as tough and implementing similar measures. It is difficult and deeply worrying times for everyone, but cost cutting is an inevitable step as clubs attempt to stay in operation.

Players, coaches and other staff still have mouths to feed and bills to pay and – as in most other industries – some of them will be hit very hard.

For anyone whose mortgage is based on earning a certain amount, the situation becomes desperate quickly if that figure is not coming in.

That doesn’t just apply to rugby league, which is another concern.

Across society, people are feeling the pinch of reduced wages or enforced leave and some jobs have gone completely.

The predictions now are for a global recession and rugby league will be impacted when that hits, just like everyone and everything else.

When current restrictions are lifted and some sort of normality resumes, there might be an initial boom.

Rugby league played on through both world wars and the years immediately after 1945 were a golden period for the sport.

After weeks and months of being cooped up, starved of their favourite sport, fans will be keen to get out of the house, meet up with old mates and enjoy some rugby league action again.

But the concern at clubs is that won’t last and, in the long run, attendances could drop.

Savings will have been eroded and incomes reduced and, when money is tight, luxuries like an afternoon or evening at the match will inevitably be among the first things to get cut. On top of that, most rugby league coverage is now on subscription television and that is another potential cost saving.

If the number of subscribers goes down, the television deal – which is looming – will be worth less and again clubs will suffer. Sports organisations depend on sponsors and advertisers, but many of those backers – however committed they are to rugby league – will be struggling financially when the crisis eventually ends, so that income could well also be reduced.

An Ashes series at the end of this year would provide the sport with much-needed income, but it now seems the domestic season both here and Down Under will be extended into the autumn, putting the Test matches in doubt. Yet another blow.

Rugby league will get through this. The sport is resilient, but there will be casualties – individually or collectively – and the game may look different when it eventually does resume.

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