Because the contracts are guaranteed under RA agreement with RUPA, it nullifies the argument that RA had their hands tied and couldn’t negotiate earlier with players. They are the arbiters of the rules (salary cap, etc) it’s only there because they say so. They easily could have war gamed this much earlier but have completely fluffed this whole thing. The current admin is frugal (which might not be the worst thing) but so was Hamish originally when he cut tens of millions off RA admin during Covid to keep us afloat and reducing grants. The first 6 months of this admin is looking worse than the first 6 months of his. All this to me points to it been a governance issue or structure than the individuals, they can’t all be this incompetent one after another (Pulver, Castle, Hamish, now this lot)