To play Devil’s advocate for a moment, would it not be fair to apply a slightly higher player budget to Sheffield given that their business model is different than ours? We have to remember that they need to fund the rental costs of an arena, rumoured to be £10k per week, whereas we have a 2000 seater which I’m not even sure we pay any ice time for.
A slightly higher player budget does have to be reasonable. It cannot be anywhere near 40% higher than ours, as suggested to be last season, not least because its unfair for competition but is completely unsustainable for Sheffield to operate long term.
Thoughts?