Financial fragility of the game

[Perth Red]

"But this doesn’t excuse why the NRL has poured $80 million into the digital arm of its business over the last three and a half years.
Bear in mind, this genius idea runs in direct competition with the NRL’s two primary commercial partners – broadcasters Fox Sports and Channel 9.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you."

In true conflict of interest style he fails to mention the revenue that is being generated by Digital. In 2018 it was $23.6mill, in 2019 $24.1mill. As long as the revenue continues to grow as expenses reduce then it is a wise use of the NRL's money, not to mention giving us an exciting self generated content sales option for years to come.

 

[juro]

Always wise to take with a pinch of salt but.....

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg and NRL chief financial officer Tony Crawford are as popular as self isolation.
The empire at NRL headquarters has hit back in the last 48 hours, pointing the finger squarely back in the direction of the 16 clubs.
n classic rugby league fashion, it’s degenerated into an old-fashioned street fight. Gloves off, do your best.
Every man for himself.
The clubs claim Greenberg and Crawford even tried to low ball them to the tune of $22,344 each in the most recent monthly grant payment.
Each club was due to receive $1.2 million but when it landed in the accounts the NRL had short-changed them a collective $357,504.
Surprise, surprise, it took V’landys stepping in to fix the problem.
The plan was to do the same thing over the next three months and hair cut the clubs out of $1 million.
The level of trust has sunk to an all-time low.
Then the NRL doubled down and came up $28,125 short to each club out of the distressed clubs fund as well.
The 16 clubs were supposed to get $450,000 each. Collectively, the NRL was $450,000 light.
Are they for real?
It’s true the clubs each get a $13 million annual grant from head office and plenty are guilty of over-spending on coaches and football departments.
But this doesn’t excuse why the NRL has poured $80 million into the digital arm of its business over the last three and a half years.
Bear in mind, this genius idea runs in direct competition with the NRL’s two primary commercial partners – broadcasters Fox Sports and Channel 9.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Some Porsche-driving, ponytail-wearing technical geniuses produced a presentation to convince head office this was the best way to secure the financial future of rugby league.
And they went all-in to the tune of $149.8 million - $80 million of which is gone.
You can’t make this stuff up.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg confirmed on Sunday the NRL employs more than 400 staff, of which around 200 are game development officers.
Compare this to one of the world’s biggest sports, the English Premier League, which employs 154 staff.
While the powerbrokers among club land and NRL head office are all at war, thankfully the players are all united about getting back on the field as quickly as possible.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...f/news-story/862f227b2fb44fdf7d39e66fc37050d4

Who wrote that pile of dogshit???

 

[juro]

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg confirmed on Sunday the NRL employs more than 400 staff, of which around 200 are game development officers.
Compare this to one of the world’s biggest sports, the English Premier League, which employs 154 staff.

​

Not sure what relevance the EPL has to anything. AFL has somewhere between 500 and 1000 according to linkedin. By comparison, NFL had 1800 employees back in 2013.

 

[LeagueXIII]

Who is the worst journo out of Kent, Hoops, and Rothfield? They are the low of the low. Agenda driven News Ltd lackys.

Read that article attacking management, if he really cared about the game he would be attacking the clubs and putting pressure on them but no the agenda comes through in the end, the digital arm that News Ltd wants destroyed, set up by the pony tailed marketing guru. NO Hoops it was set up by very copable men who read the landscape and are piloting or tried to pilot the game away from control of your self serving masters at News Ltd.

Under the digital arm, we get quality like this
https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/12/13/sneak-peek-the-professionals/

Under News Ltd we get dished up rubbish and toilet humour.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

​

Not sure what relevance the EPL has to anything. AFL has somewhere between 500 and 1000 according to linkedin. By comparison, NFL had 1800 employees back in 2013.

They had to find a big Sporting body that doesnt have many staff to make their point....

Just a guess, but i assume the EPL is just able to leave game development to other groups. The better comparison is the VFL in Melbourne, but that wouldnt suit the agenda.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Always wise to take with a pinch of salt but.....

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg and NRL chief financial officer Tony Crawford are as popular as self isolation.
The empire at NRL headquarters has hit back in the last 48 hours, pointing the finger squarely back in the direction of the 16 clubs.
n classic rugby league fashion, it’s degenerated into an old-fashioned street fight. Gloves off, do your best.
Every man for himself.
The clubs claim Greenberg and Crawford even tried to low ball them to the tune of $22,344 each in the most recent monthly grant payment.
Each club was due to receive $1.2 million but when it landed in the accounts the NRL had short-changed them a collective $357,504.
Surprise, surprise, it took V’landys stepping in to fix the problem.
The plan was to do the same thing over the next three months and hair cut the clubs out of $1 million.
The level of trust has sunk to an all-time low.
Then the NRL doubled down and came up $28,125 short to each club out of the distressed clubs fund as well.
The 16 clubs were supposed to get $450,000 each. Collectively, the NRL was $450,000 light.
Are they for real?
It’s true the clubs each get a $13 million annual grant from head office and plenty are guilty of over-spending on coaches and football departments.

I would put my lifesaving on a wage that there is far more to this story than this rubbish....

But this doesn’t excuse why the NRL has poured $80 million into the digital arm of its business over the last three and a half years.
Bear in mind, this genius idea runs in direct competition with the NRL’s two primary commercial partners – broadcasters Fox Sports and Channel 9.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Some Porsche-driving, ponytail-wearing technical geniuses produced a presentation to convince head office this was the best way to secure the financial future of rugby league.
And they went all-in to the tune of $149.8 million - $80 million of which is gone.
You can’t make this stuff up.

Hahaha, if FOX is getting this pissy about NRL Digital, you know the ARLC are onto something good!!!!

 

[LeagueXIII]

Exactly, and Greenberg must be a supporter of it. As was Smith and Grant.

Guess what Hoops, competition drives up price, which is good for rugby league. Well what a dud John Grant was for developing this to potentially get more money for RL.

 

[Perth Red]

They had to find a big Sporting body that doesnt have many staff to make their point....

Just a guess, but i assume the EPL is just able to leave game development to other groups. The better comparison is the VFL in Melbourne, but that wouldnt suit the agenda.

nrl are in reality the epl and FA combined.
Combined they have over 1000 staff!

 

[LeagueXIII]

Don't let Hoops know that will ruin his agenda driven article.

 

[10$ Ferret]

Exactly, and Greenberg must be a supporter of it. As was Smith and Grant.

Guess what Hoops, competition drives up price, which is good for rugby league. Well what a dud John Grant was for developing this to potentially get more money for RL.

What competition ?
I don't know anyone that is going to switch to watching another sporting code from watching rugby league. Plenty of people watch a bunch of different sports but there os no real competition for the Australian market, which face it apart from a small UK market, that is it.

There is no competition for the TV rights they just got conned into paying too much.

We have gone from increase costs to the consumer of foxtel and foxtel with adverts and "no ads" what a big original selling point.

The only place where RL losing people is at the grass roots and the NRL doesn't give a flyinh eff about that anyway

 

[Perth Red]

The only place where RL losing people is at the grass roots and the NRL doesn't give a flyinh eff about that anyway

Why do you think the NRL has gone from spending $46mill a year 5 years ago to $88mill last year on grass roots if that is the case?

I wonder if people base their opinions on any evidence what so ever? it is no wonder people like Trump can succeed when you have people who just throw out opinions with no factual checking before forming them!

 

[10$ Ferret]

Why do you think the NRL has gone from spending $46mill a year 5 years ago to $88mill last year on grass roots if that is the case?

I wonder if people base their opinions on any evidence what so ever? it is no wonder people like Trump can succeed when you have people who just throw out opinions with no factual checking before forming them!

i have been involved in junior club administration for nearly 20 years, I am definitely talking about experience.
While I will always support and applaud the Development officers that are out there. apart from them the NRL is spending nothing.
If you think those number you mentioned are actually spent on "real" grass roots RL then you are kidding yorself.

I have no doubt they are wasting a huge amount of money on changing mini and mod RL rules but most of those changes are so far from what is needed its laughable.

Or maybe you are talking about grants given to clubs to expand the size of their leagues clubs, who knows but the effort towarsd grass roots is token at best

 

[Perth Red]

i have been involved in junior club administration for nearly 20 years, I am definitely talking about experience.
While I will always support and applaud the Development officers that are out there. apart from them the NRL is spending nothing.
If you think those number you mentioned are actually spent on "real" grass roots RL then you are kidding yorself.

I have no doubt they are wasting a huge amount of money on changing mini and mod RL rules but most of those changes are so far from what is needed its laughable.

Or maybe you are talking about grants given to clubs to expand the size of their leagues clubs, who knows but the effort towarsd grass roots is token at best

mate that just isnt true. The nrl last year spent $88million on grass roots. My experience in WA is that the extra resources that have come our way, as meagre as they are, have made a big difference and we have seen numerous new clubs start up and our jnr numbers growing year on year. I have to question if NRLWA can achieve that with just a small funding increase why isn’t nswrl, crl and qrl achieving more with the lions share of that funding? Seems to me that your unhappiness is misdirected and you might want to ask your state organisation what they are doing with the millions?

 

[Simon Templar]

Murdoch won the Super League war and all of the old cronies fell into line. Fox and the Murdoch newspapers control the game and its a cozy club that does nothing for the fans. The NRL if it had any leadership would reset and take control off all its broadcasting like the NFL in the US. The NFL has the crews and produces the broadcasts. If Murdoch Foxtel didn’t like it you could stream it over the Internet and watch ads like terrestrial TV or watch ad free on a subscription. This is Murdoch’s greatest fear.Thats why he had Abbott/Turnbull stick us with the Malcolm ware NBN. Without the NRL Foxtel subscriptions would tank overnight. He has nothing to worry about because he knows the old guard who run the game are toothless hacks. Which brings me on to membership owned clubs because let’s face they are the only people who really care about a club and if you think that’s impossible try Barcelona and Real Madrid.

 

[Perth Red]

Murdoch won the Super League war and all of the old cronies fell into line. Fox and the Murdoch newspapers control the game and its a cozy club that does nothing for the fans. The NRL if it had any leadership would reset and take control off all its broadcasting like the NFL in the US. The NFL has the crews and produces the broadcasts. If Murdoch Foxtel didn’t like it you could stream it over the Internet and watch ads like terrestrial TV or watch ad free on a subscription. This is Murdoch’s greatest fear.Thats why he had Abbott/Turnbull stick us with the Malcolm ware NBN. Without the NRL Foxtel subscriptions would tank overnight. He has nothing to worry about because he knows the old guard who run the game are toothless hacks. Which brings me on to membership owned clubs because let’s face they are the only people who really care about a club and if you think that’s impossible try Barcelona and Real Madrid.

thats the idea of spending big developing the nrl digital dept. it’s future proofing, Fox know this and that’s why they are going all out to sht on Greenberg and dis the investment. They want him removed and they want the clubs to put pressure on nrl spending so they stop developing it.

Re Barca, I’m sure if any nrl club could get anything like 140k fans to pay $250 a year to part own the club they would do as well!

 

[greenBV4]

Which brings me on to membership owned clubs because let’s face they are the only people who really care about a club and if you think that’s impossible try Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Melbourne looked into a fan ownership model last year, sent out expressions of interest and and emails to members but decided to temporarily shelve the idea after bringing in a 4th owner

 

[Perth Red]

Melbourne looked into a fan ownership model last year, sent out expressions of interest and and emails to members but decided to temporarily shelve the idea after bringing in a 4th owner

knights looked at it as well. Reality is you’d need a massive fanbase of fanatical supporters willing to put in a decent annual amount to make it work. Nrl doesn’t have that.

 

[10$ Ferret]

mate that just isnt true. The nrl last year spent $88million on grass roots. My experience in WA is that the extra resources that have come our way, as meagre as they are, have made a big difference and we have seen numerous new clubs start up and our jnr numbers growing year on year. I have to question if NRLWA can achieve that with just a small funding increase why isn’t nswrl, crl and qrl achieving more with the lions share of that funding? Seems to me that your unhappiness is misdirected and you might want to ask your state organisation what they are doing with the millions?

That is fantasic that WA is getting extra money but NSW certainly isn't. Are those the figures John Grant quoted because as soon as he said that I heard laughing right across the state.

I have seen some increases in the after school type programs which again is terrific but there is no increase to match those numbers that the NRL sprout which are just not "real"

To clarify I don't consider junior reps or NSW competitions grass roots RL, they aren't

 

[Perth Red]

That is fantasic that WA is getting extra money but NSW certainly isn't. Are those the figures John Grant quoted because as soon as he said that I heard laughing right across the state.

I have seen some increases in the after school type programs which again is terrific but there is no increase to match those numbers that the NRL sprout which are just not "real"

To clarify I don't consider junior reps or NSW competitions grass roots RL, they aren't

they are in the nrl audited financial report. Most of that increase, probably 80%+ has gone to nsw and qland. You need to be asking the nswrl and crl wtf they’ve done with it if it isn’t building the game in nsw.

 

[Simon Templar]

thats the idea of spending big developing the nrl digital dept. it’s future proofing, Fox know this and that’s why they are going all out to sht on Greenberg and dis the investment. They want him removed and they want the clubs to put pressure on nrl spending so they stop developing it.

Re Barca, I’m sure if any nrl club could get anything like 140k fans to pay $250 a year to part own the club they would do as well!

I think that pre supposes that the fans would have to buy the club for $20 - $30 million. As we know most of the clubs are insolvent and would struggle to get that kind of valuation. As much as they are big well loved brands the clubs themselves are loss makers and the people who run them continue to run them that way as they can go to the NRL for handouts. If you ask fans to pay a premium to buy their club they are of course not stupid. If you asked them to take over a loss making club rather than see it go under there might be a different answer and a different valuation.