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Financial fragility of the game

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,546
Either way, I think there were better merger options out there than the ones we got.

The greatest disappointment was the Central Coast Bears IMHO. Timing and circumstances stuffed that, and sure, it's all in the past now, but a decent CC now would have been worth it. That the NRL stood by and watched it all collapse is on them and indicative how they really run/ran the game now/then.

They could have stopped at 16 and not excluded Norths & Souths
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
Again, this is all anecdotal... there was a sense around town that WE had a team. Dad and his brother grew up in Kogarah and were obviously Saints fans until the Raiders started in their adopted home. I’m sure there were many people of their generation who moved to Canberra from Sydney who were already league fans.
People do often say Canberra developed a heart when the Raiders won in 89 though.

That's a bit of a warped interpretation. Canberra always had a heart, everything that's alive has a heart.

89 was the first time that the majority of people from/living in Canberra were proud of being from Canberra.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
I never thought about it, but these regional teams actually made it harder to clear out Sydney via relocation

The biggest cities/regions within the borders of NSW (following Sydney) are:
Newcastle
Canberra
Wollongong/Illawarra
Gosford/CC

If we had left these vacant, we might have seen NSWRL clubs voluntarily move out of Sydney (We saw Bears try to move to Gosford, Jets try to move to Campbeltown, Magpies actually move to Campbeltown, Dragons basically absorb the Illawarra)

Maybe moves to regional NSW would not have felt as dramatic as moves to other states.
That's an interesting "what if". On the positive side, you preserve all the classic NSWRL brands from circa 1980, however as far as competition size goes, the gains turn out to be minimal, compared to what we currently have via mergers.

If instead of expanding to Canberra and Woolongong, the league decided to relocate St George to the Illawarra and (let's say) Newtown to Canberra, you have 12 teams with a bigger geographical spread. I picked Newtown as going to Canberra as they were struggling financially, so maybe they the league nudges them towards the ACT instead of their choice of Campbelltown.

The next club to hit the wall is Wests, so maybe the NSWRL/CRL suggests they move to Newcastle. Newcastle Magpies start operations in the mid '80s, then Norths move to Gosford.

So, by the time the league is ready to expand interstate, it still has 12 teams, with a better state-wide spread.

Then add Brisbane, Melbourne, North Queensland & Auckland (Sorry Gold Coast), to make 16 teams, and move some Bulldogs home games to Campbelltown to make them a similar west/south-west team to how Wests Tigers

Well, you pretty much have the current competition footprint, just with Central Coast included in the 16 team line-up instead of Gold Coast.

There would still be the same pressure on the remaining Sydney clubs (in this case Souths, Easts, Bulldogs, Parramatta, Manly, Cronulla & Penrith)
I see no reason to believe that the Sydney clubs would have been more willing to move to regional locations such as Canberra and Newcastle over bigger cities further away.

When you are totally adamant that you won't move out of Sydney at all, you aren't considering possible locations and which would be better.

Before you say it, yes the Bears did agree to move to the Central Coast, but firstly they are the exception that proves the rule, and they only agreed because they bordered with that region and thought that they could still connect with and control the NS market from the CC, something that wouldn't have been possible in most other cases.
On top of that they only agreed to move because they thought they had a promise that if they relocated they wouldn't face the axe when rationalisation came.

I also suspect that they always intended to slowly phase out their representation of the CC in the long run. Basically they'd do what the Dragons have done in the Gong; Base the team there, but play the majority if not all of their games out of NS Oval. So basically it would have been more a relocation in name only.

I also think that Sydney teams relocated to regional cities would have been much more likely to be rejected by the locals and to fail as businesses.

Most people in the regional towns that we are talking about would only follow a relocated team from Sydney if they already supported that team.

Take me for example, if anyone other than the Bears had relocated to Canberra/Queanbeyan then I wouldn't have followed them, I'd have stayed a Bears fan and only gone to games very casually or when the "Canberra Jets" were playing the Bears.
In a big city that's not a problem because there're plenty of fish in that pond, but in a smaller regional market (particularly back in 80s) to support a local team you needed as much of the local RL community to be behind the team as possible, otherwise it was going to go broke very quickly.

On top of that, all the successful regional clubs in the NSWRL/ARL/NRL have been built on strong leagues clubs, and if the clubs that were relocating out of Sydney had strong leagues clubs then they wouldn't be relocating out of Sydney in the first place.

If Newtown relocated to Canberra they would have struggled just as much as they did in Sydney. It might have delayed the inevitable, but that's all it would have done.
 

Dark Corner

Juniors
Messages
1,320
Either way, I think there were better merger options out there than the ones we got.

The greatest disappointment was the Central Coast Bears IMHO. Timing and circumstances stuffed that, and sure, it's all in the past now, but a decent CC now would have been worth it. That the NRL stood by and watched it all collapse is on them and indicative how they really run/ran the game now/then.
Why did they waste money building Central Coast Stadium.
 

Heisenberg

Juniors
Messages
75
That's a bit of a warped interpretation. Canberra always had a heart, everything that's alive has a heart.

89 was the first time that the majority of people from/living in Canberra were proud of being from Canberra.

I think we’re both saying the same thing. It’s a great thing
 
Messages
14,480
Why did they waste money building Central Coast Stadium.

Norths expected to play there in 1999. Weather and delays pushed it back. Plus this was the era leading in to the 2000 Olympics with a building boom so costs increased too.
Playing at Gosford, as stated by others, was seen by Norths as them surviving the criteria for 2000.

Living on the CC at the time, Norths went out of their way to promote the Bears. I remember the radio and local papers pushing the Bears and there was good buzz there would be a team.

It was all pretty fked what happened. Merging with Manly was the worst thing they could do. The Northern Eagles were an abortion. But they were broke/desperate and are now a feeder club.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,420
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nr...roadcasters-eye-discount-20200429-p54oe5.html

The NRL is facing the prospect of almost a $60 million drop in broadcast revenue as part of negotiations with its television partners, as Nine Entertainment Co attempts to secure a substantial discount for the shortened season.

With clubs and players waiting anxiously for the NRL to sort out its financial distribution model in 2020, the Herald has learnt that Nine is trying to pay at least 24 per cent less than the terms of the original contract.

Sources close to negotiations have also told the Herald that the Nine Network wants to pay less for the State of Origin series - which has been moved to after the grand final in November - arguing that it will not be able to write the advertising revenue that it would have in the middle of the year.

THE BREAKDOWN: CHANNEL NINE'S 2020 NRL BROADCAST DEAL
  • Total broadcast deal: $118 million ($10 million already paid as part of loan in 2018)
  • Regular season value: $80.24m (68 per cent)
  • Per round (3 games): $3.34m
  • Per game (total 72 games): $1.11m
  • Finals and Origin value: $37.76m (32 per cent)
  • Already paid: $38.5m
  • Remaining: $79.5m
  • What Nine intends to pay: $51.5m
  • 2020 intended saving: $28m
 

big hit!

Bench
Messages
3,452
i enjoyed the one-week we had of it, but the broadcasters know ratings for games with no crowds and atmosphere will fall off after a few weeks. fewer eyeballs, less value to them. and that's a best-case scenario. absolutely no guarantee the league will re-start when planned, or it will play out without any other interruption. just needs one player to be positive to potentially spread it throughout their teams and family, or a f**kwit or two to flout the biosecurity measures for authorities to step-in and have it suspended.

these execs aren't being paid to run a charity
 

Spot On

Coach
Messages
13,897
Exactly Big Hit.

Some need to take the rose coloured glasses off and realise the NRL must take whatever $$$ they can get. They really aren't in much of a position to bargain.

Fox is an absolute mess and was before the virus. Now they've punted 270 staff and another140 stood down.

Ch 7 is in deep shit financially - massive debt.

Ch 10 - lol.

The NRL needs to permantly punt 75 per cent of the staff Greenburgler brought in over his reign. Cut it back to a reasonable number. Massive restructure needed to clean up Todd's largesse.
 
Last edited:

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,546
I saw Campbelltown as a logical extension of Canterbury rather than Wests or Newtown

CC was the logical extension of Bears

Illawarra the extension of St George

Blue Mountains the extension of Penrith

Maitland/Hunter the extension of Newcastle

This is because of transport rail or freeway/highway as the population has expanded and followed these
 

Canard

Immortal
Messages
34,154
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nr...roadcasters-eye-discount-20200429-p54oe5.html

The NRL is facing the prospect of almost a $60 million drop in broadcast revenue as part of negotiations with its television partners, as Nine Entertainment Co attempts to secure a substantial discount for the shortened season.

With clubs and players waiting anxiously for the NRL to sort out its financial distribution model in 2020, the Herald has learnt that Nine is trying to pay at least 24 per cent less than the terms of the original contract.

Sources close to negotiations have also told the Herald that the Nine Network wants to pay less for the State of Origin series - which has been moved to after the grand final in November - arguing that it will not be able to write the advertising revenue that it would have in the middle of the year.

THE BREAKDOWN: CHANNEL NINE'S 2020 NRL BROADCAST DEAL
  • Total broadcast deal: $118 million ($10 million already paid as part of loan in 2018)
  • Regular season value: $80.24m (68 per cent)
  • Per round (3 games): $3.34m
  • Per game (total 72 games): $1.11m
  • Finals and Origin value: $37.76m (32 per cent)
  • Already paid: $38.5m
  • Remaining: $79.5m
  • What Nine intends to pay: $51.5m
  • 2020 intended saving: $28m

Considering what it could have been, the reality is the NRL have done well, and should be commended.
 

Canard

Immortal
Messages
34,154
i enjoyed the one-week we had of it, but the broadcasters know ratings for games with no crowds and atmosphere will fall off after a few weeks. fewer eyeballs, less value to them. and that's a best-case scenario. absolutely no guarantee the league will re-start when planned, or it will play out without any other interruption. just needs one player to be positive to potentially spread it throughout their teams and family, or a f**kwit or two to flout the biosecurity measures for authorities to step-in and have it suspended.

these execs aren't being paid to run a charity

I don't think the crowd thing is going to be an issue for ratings, given that there will have been no live sport at all for 8 weeks+, and games were already being played in front of empty stadiums.

I think that reality is TV stations won't have as much ad revenue available to them.
 

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