Players at every Gallagher Premiership club, including Bristol Bears, will be taking pay cuts of varying degrees while the league is on shut down due to the coronavirus.
Bristol Live understands that players at Bristol Bears will be told soon they face a 25 percent pay cut while support staff and coaches at the club will also face cuts of varying degrees.
The decision comes following an emergency meeting of the Premiership club owners, and Newcastle Falcons who still own shares in Premiership Rugby, on Wednesday this week.
With a number of clubs already facing a bleak financial situation before the suspension of the league until the weekend of April 23 at the earliest, the cuts are being made to ensure the survival of the professional rugby clubs in England with just Exeter Chiefs making a profit for the last year of full financial accounts available.
With Prime Minister Boris Johnson stating yesterday that the UK can get the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 under control within 12 weeks it looks highly unlikely there will be any professional sport back playing in the near future.
Bristol Live understands the situation has been made all the harder by Premiership Rugby Limited suspending central funding to the clubs in this time of need.
Premiership clubs make on average between £300,000 to £500,000 in revenue for each home matchday which they are currently without. Bristol Bears are understood to earn around £400,000 on average for games played at Ashton Gate.
Each Premiership club is able to spend £7m on player salaries each season with incentives for home grown, English qualified and England international players raising that figure considerably.
Some Premiership clubs are understood to be cutting the player salaries by as much as 50 percent.
With the players and staff feeling the hurt of the league shut down, questions will be asked as to what has happened to the £13.5m each Premiership club received last year when CVC Capital Partners invested £200m into the league to buy a 27 percent stake.
Each clubs also received £350,000 this season from the £5.4m fine imposed on Saracens as part of their punishment for breaching the league’s salary cap.
