Brown quits

[roughyedspud]

Buzz rothfield on twitter is reporting RLWC boss has quit after row with penrith panthers ???


Wtf??

 

[Heritage XIII]

The rugby league mafia strike again. Next we'll hear Mr 52% Colin Love steps into the CEO role. That would do me

 

[flamin]

http://www.nrl.com/michael-brown-resignation/tabid/10874/newsid/99462/default.aspx

The Chief Executive Officer of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup, Michael Brown has resigned from the post.

Mr Brown has also resigned from his role as Chief Commercial Officer for the NRL.

He said today he was reluctant to move on from the roles, especially with the World Cup still 15 months away.

"However, the task of taking on two such senior roles – especially away from my home town of Melbourne – has been particularly stressful," he said.

"The World Cup preparations are well advanced and I am very confident the foundations are in place for a successful tournament.

"The NRL has also put together a strong commercial team to take the game forward so this an appropriate time to step aside."

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg and World Cup Chairman Dr George Peponis said they understood Mr Brown's positon and had accepted his resignation.

The Board of the 2017 World Cup will consider plans to replace Mr Brown.

RLWC Chief Operating Officer, Maria Sykes will be acting CEO in the interim.

The NRL's Head of Commercial, Andrew Abdo will report directly to Mr Greenberg.



So the game has managed to drive away another successful administrator.

 

[Last Week]

f**k me. I've just about had it with this sport.

 

[taipan]

f**k me. I've just about had it with this sport.

I'll bet the ignorant Gould put his ugly mush into the fray.
Brown has set up the stadiums organised the Tv deal.Any one with a marketing or promotional background can take over.The hard work has been done.All it needs is to fill the stadiums.

 

[CC_Roosters]

Unbelievable. This game is just a headline machine for the wrong reasons. It just loves chewing up poeple who are not "rugby league" people. I disagreed with some of the match placements but overall it the organisation still gets a pass. He must have stepped on a few toes and bolted from the reaction.

 

[thorson1987]

 

[miguel de cervantes]

this is why rugby league goes nowhere. the same old **** every time. just sad.

 

[Chook Norris]

Our sport is the epitome of professionalism; make no mistake

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Brown is an idiot for getting emotional and giving the Panthers that ammo, when they obviously had their tail up...

But it is disgusting that Gus and Payne will get out of this without a slap. They are taking shots at what is meant to be RLs biggest event and they guy tryng to build it loses his job.

F*ck you, Gus. F*ck you....

 

[East Coast Tiger]

The fact the Panthers were even bothered enough to bid and offer a range of benefits to get a game is actually the kind of interest in IRL most people complain NRL clubs don't have. It's pretty bad that the one club that did seem keen was treated like this, possibly just to stick it up the NSW govt because they pulled their bid.

The fact the govt initially offered $4m and this was not locked in sounds like a terrible cock up. I don't know what that $4m was buying but it's pretty doubtful that kind of money is being found elsewhere.

Yes Sydney has been woeful at supporting IRL in the past, especially Australian games, but to only get two games is going to prove costly. The island nations have drawn good crowds in recent years and none of them will play in Sydney this time. Lebanon had to play its games in Sydney, preferably all of them. If they still can't get decent crowds to the two games in Sydney it will seem to vindicate the decision, but then again Sydney fans might just brush the tournament altogether. The Sydney media is another worry. Italy will probably qualify and they would have drawn some support in Sydney but won't play a game there.

And it's not just about Sydney. Newcastle, Wollongong and Gosford are all strong RL places that miss out. It goes without saying the real bush doesn't get anything. People close to Canberra have some chance.

The whole thing is a mess, as usual. They got some things right but the general theme will be they f**ked up by ignoring western Sydney, most of NSW and took games to random places like Darwin and played so many in Townsville and Cairns. The worst thing for me is that the tournament is minimising the number of people who will go to a game. They're relying on the same people to go to games in places like Canberra, Cairns and Townsville while huge RL populations probably won't be able to get to a game even if they were inclined. Even Brisbane and SEQ people won't see a game till the semis. That's bizarre. The two biggest markets in the RL world have been given a severely limited opportunity to see games and support the tournament in an active way. It would be like playing in the UK and only have two games in Lancashire and two in West Yorkshire out of 28.

 

[adamkungl]

Brown is an idiot for getting emotional and giving the Panthers that ammo, when they obviously had their tail up...

But it is disgusting that Gus and Payne will get out of this without a slap. They are taking shots at what is meant to be RLs biggest event and they guy tryng to build it loses his job.

F*ck you, Gus. F*ck you....

Haha what. Brown is obviously an idiot, incompetent, or both.
Gus and Payne are allowed to have their opinions. There was nothing particularly imflammatory about Payne's whinge, he's obviously going to be upset at being completely ignored by the WC (thanks to Brown). Regardless this bloke is supposed to be a professional who can be accountable for his decisions and handle criticism.

Whether he resigned or was sacked or pushed or whatever - Brown is a merkin. The worst kind of "leader". Makes a controversial decision with the draw then bails or gets himself punted before having to handle the consequences.
Furthermore, any claims that he's a good administrator are wild speculation at best. His track record so far is
-Failing to convince the government to back his event
-Releasing a draw with controversial last minute changes forced as a result of above failure
-Bailing because he's too weak to deal with above controversy.

Good riddance dickhead.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Haha what. Brown is obviously an idiot, incompetent, or both.
Gus and Payne are allowed to have their opinions. There was nothing particularly imflammatory about Payne's whinge, he's obviously going to be upset at being completely ignored by the WC (thanks to Brown). Regardless this bloke is supposed to be a professional who can be accountable for his decisions and handle criticism.

Whether he resigned or was sacked or pushed or whatever - Brown is a merkin. The worst kind of "leader". Makes a controversial decision with the draw then bails or gets himself punted before having to handle the consequences.
Furthermore, any claims that he's a good administrator are wild speculation at best. His track record so far is
-Failing to convince the government to back his event
-Releasing a draw with controversial last minute changes forced as a result of above failure
-Bailing because he's too weak to deal with above controversy.

Good riddance dickhead.

Regardless of whether they agree with the decisions or not, they shouldnt go running their mouths off in the media trying to talk down the event...

If they have complains, they should front the ARL Commissioners.

But whinging to the media is beyond pathetic and typical of RL old boys throwing their little tantrums.

I know nothing about Brown, so i cannot comment on his abilities. But when Payne and Gus demand a WC game, offer nothing in return and whinge in the media when they dont get it, it shows just how amateur they are.

It doesnt surprise me that this came from Gus (he is a man-child who has made a great living pissing on RL), but Payne was MEANT to be a professions....

 

[siv]

They wanted a free be

They dont understand that other RL areas are willing to pay to have IRL

 

[miguel de cervantes]

The fact the Panthers were even bothered enough to bid and offer a range of benefits to get a game is actually the kind of interest in IRL most people complain NRL clubs don't have. It's pretty bad that the one club that did seem keen was treated like this, possibly just to stick it up the NSW govt because they pulled their bid.

The fact the govt initially offered $4m and this was not locked in sounds like a terrible c**k up. I don't know what that $4m was buying but it's pretty doubtful that kind of money is being found elsewhere.

The government may have suggested $4m initially, but it was they that withered it down to nothing, not Brown!

As for the Panthers, they bid $200,000 short of what Brown deemed acceptable, and so the game went elsewhere. If Darwin paid $1m, this gives an idea of the going rate for the pool matchs, and $200,000 short for a game in a dilapidated stadium in far Western Sydney doesn't sound that hard to refuse.

That said, I'm surprised Brown went off his rocker and got fired. Seems that good people working in league end up just bailing because it is not worth the infighting and criticism.

Games in the bush? Mate, just drive to Sydney or Canberra. It is not that hard.

 

[some11]

There are no winners here.

Both acted unprofessionally, seriously a bloody phone call from Payne to Brown could have resolved this.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

This is IRL, how many RL people are going to drive more than an hour or so to get to a game? The tiny number of diehards.

I almost certainly won't be going to any and I'm an IRL supporter.

They will rely on a core of people in places like Canberra who are either RL supporters or people willing to go to international events, but none are likely to come from very far afield.

Hopefully they fill most of the grounds most of the time and make some money, but nothing will change the fact the biggest RL markets in the world are hardly catered for at all and that seems like a mistake. Even if I was willing and able to drive the minimum distance to a game it would be about five hours and the only games on offer would be the semis and the final and I have little interest in seeing the big countries. There will be a hell of a lot of people in and around western Sydney, Newcastle, CC, Wollongong, Gold Coast and even Brisbane who would go to games if they were on nearby but there aren't any pool games for them to go to and that just doesn't make sense. And that's not even counting country people. We don't expect to get anything anyway, but those bigger places do, and they haven't.

But even putting that aside, there is no guarantee Brown didn't have something to do with the loss of the NSW money, we are only taking his word that Penrith were 200k short of what was needed and it doesn't explain why there are double headers in places that don't have large populations like Cairns. In fact the suggestion is that the double headers were a late change due to the loss of the NSW money.

Whatever the truth is, he seems to have behaved unbelievably poorly for someone in his position and lost respect even from the likes of Greenberg who isn't exactly the poster boy of credible administration. And, as I said, it's also disappointing that an NRL club went out of its way to offer help for IRL and it was brushed. That's the last message we need to send to NRL clubs and Sydney clubs especially.

 

[Rhyno]

Never heard of the f**ker

 

[Rhyno]

Never heard of the f**ker

 

[PaulyTom]

Robbie Farah to take up the vacant role