Marquee players payment could be made up from sponsors and owners, Similar to how other big competitions around the world dip into owners and sponsors pockets. Doesn't need to be the NRLs money. But even if it was the NRLs money, they have close to a billion revenue pa, it would be chicken feed to spend a few million to keep the games most marketable players.
IF R360 takes off they'll take the NRLs top 50 players, that will put us back a decade, we'll lose the casual fans and the gains we've made in crowd attendance and viewership. And how much do you think DaZN and Nine will pay for broadcast rights when the biggest star is Will Kennedy?
If R360 takes the top 50 players, which is never happening cause they need forwards and not backs that have never played Rugby Union in there lives and can't setup a ruck properly or read defences, it says that Union players just aren't good enough and our product is better.
Your building a pretty big strawman argument, and really the only people who will leave are some wingers/fullbacks chasing money, or at the end of there careers.
It's all very alarmist for something that is a bad idea to start with, and players should tred cautiously when looking into it, ensuring that the money is in the bank account from the start.
Like one of the main attractions is that it's tax free. Well the Australian tax office might have a different idea given you can base yourself in Australia, and to collect tax free money you would need to live overseas for over 6mths of the year. It's all a bit of a can of worms they are opening.
Here is a good article explaining this minefield.
The rebel rugby competition isn’t a stupid concept, but there are huge risks for players tempted by the millions of dollars being promised.
www.smh.com.au