To get back on topic, Ben Ikin laying into the commision last week
Rugby League’s newest superhero has been hard at work this week putting a toothy grin on everything from strategic plans to salary cap cheating.
His name is Pistol Pete and his power is shooting shiny bullets that hit nothing but subtly distort everything.
“The game must expand or die.” Bang.
“The game has never spent more money on grassroots.” Boom.
“No one likes cheats in Australia that’s why we enforce standards.” Blast.
“What’s happening in cricket is a stark contrast to rugby league.” Huh?
These have been just a few of the grandiose statements made by Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter Beattie since he took control of the NRL in February.
Despite some of these hollow logs Pistol Pete has rolled out I remain hopeful he’ll be smart enough to surround himself with clever people who can fill the gaps … by golly we need it. Rugby league in Australia is in quite the precarious position.
After five years and a billion dollars the NRL has nothing to show for its labour. All the money that has come in has gone straight back out. The bulk of the revenue I speak of comes from television broadcasters who themselves are facing an uncertain future.
Global trends suggest that a market correction could be coming the way of professional sport.
The English Premier League recently signed off on their latest broadcast rights deal, and for the first time in a long time, saw no increase. Rugby league should expect worse, or at least plan for it.
This bleak commercial reality means the game’s two and a half-billion dollars worth of revenue over the next five years must produce a few golden eggs.
Pistol Pete’s offsider, a spritely fellow named Teflon Todd, has been given the very difficult job of doing the laying.
This doesn’t mean Peter Beattie thinks Todd Greenberg is a goose, quite the contrary. “We will stick with Todd when he makes the tough decisions.” KAPOW.
Pistol can be as supportive as he wants; the truth is that Teflon has been left with minimal money to invest. The Superhero and his sidekick are running a business that will almost fully distribute its earnings to stakeholders.
The NRL clubs, players and state leagues get most of the cash, and not necessarily in the right order or amounts, but that’s an article for another day.
The money that doesn’t go out of head office is used to run the game and invest in this fancy thing called digital. Pistol and Teflon have embarked on a mission to build a competitor of sorts to the broadcasters who currently pay them billions of dollars.
Risky yes, clever maybe, either way the business case for “NRL Digital’’ would be compelling reading … if it exists. One hundred and fifty million dollars will be thrown at this very strategic play in the hope it becomes an income-generating asset.
Teflon’s last big spend was on the bunker and you can make up your own mind on what that generated.
This week the Australian Rugby League Commission released its five-year strategic plan. On the surface it appears to address most of the challenges the game faces. Participation in traditional demographics and formats is declining.
Stadiums in Sydney are poor, as is their connectedness to the city. Expansion is a necessity but currently an unaffordable option. And it’s the second part of that last statement which deeply concerns me. It takes real money to engage in strategic activity, money the game seemingly doesn’t have.
When you consider over the last five years the NRL did have money to invest, yet still owns nothing, and ended up having to borrow to pay its bills, we have a right to be concerned.
Rugby league stakeholders have been fed a misleading commentary from head office on the supposed bright future of our game for too long.
Assuming this “new commission” has familiarised themselves with game as it exists at the coalface, they should now get to work delivering solutions to rugby league’s biggest problems.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...d/news-story/e3e39f15531a1a621f81cc1941af738c
