RL Commercial has today published the illustrative IMG Grades ahead of the 2024 season, with Salford Red Devils scoring 8th amongst 35 professional clubs.
Membership of the Betfred Super League in 2025 will be determined by the top 12 teams in the 2024 rankings, which will be announced at the culmination of the 2024 season.
Salford Red Devils currently score 13.8 (max 20), the 8th highest score posted by professional clubs.
Paul King, Managing Director of Salford Red Devils said;
“We welcome the news today with the illustrative grading placing us 8th amongst all Clubs.
“We are broadly in line with where we thought we would be at this point, and are under no illusion as to the amount of hard work that must continue to be done over the next 12 months for us to attain the Grade A that we know we can.
“There are some really positive projects in the pipeline, and with everybody’s continued support, we’re confident that we can secure our position in Super League.”
The main purpose of the indicative grading process that has been running throughout 2023 is to give clubs a clear indication of their strengths and weaknesses, and the areas in which they need to improve to increase their score in 2024.
Grading was one of seven recommendations which were presented to Rugby League in the autumn of 2022 as part of IMG’s Reimagining of the sport and which were supported by a substantial majority of clubs at all levels.
Grading has been designed to incentivise clubs to grow their fanbase, grow top-line non-centralised revenue, to better engage with fans, to be run in a best-in-class way, to invest both in their club and the sport in a sustainable manner, and to ensure strong governance.
Full details of the grading criteria were published in early 2023 – with clubs receiving the grading criteria handbook later in the spring which has also been published given the emphasis on transparency throughout the process.
