Perth Red
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Masters pouring cold water on Beattie’s comments, didn’t take long for the sydney media to come up with negativity!
If former Queensland premier Peter Beattie wishes to woo Sydney clubs to support him as the incoming chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission, he ignored local politics when he recently talked up expansion.
Fifteen of the NRL's 16 clubs posted a loss last year, if grants from the 10 clubs with licensed club backing and others reliant on benefactors are excluded from total revenue. Seven of the clubs depending on poker machine income are in Sydney, where teams would presumably be culled if expansion is to occur. Sydney clubs, except Wests Tigers, are now demonstrating a rare unity, opting to vote as a bloc at a recent phone hook-up to appoint two club delegates to a new 10-person ARLC.
Based on the hostility expressed by some Sydney club powerbrokers to Beattie's "if we stagnate, we die" cry in a recent interview, he will need to reinforce the message that expansion will only occur well after the current broadcasting deal expires.
Given the precarious balance sheets of the free-to-air TV networks and the monopoly position of Foxtel as a pay-TV provider, the next broadcasting deal for the NRL won't be an 80 per cent increase of the 2018-2022 contract.
The last time the game expanded – three clubs were introduced in 1995 – it fuelled inflation in salaries, with retired players unretiring to receive the largest pay cheques they had ever been paid.
Expansion ignited the Super League war, which further fuelled inflation, leading to the closure of the Adelaide Rams, Hunter Mariners and South Queensland Crushers, while Perth now field junior teams in the NSWRL competition and North Sydney play in the NSW Cup. Another four clubs collapsed to form two joint ventures.
While some commentators argue there are enough first-graders in the NRL to field another two teams, I believe up to three of the starting players at some clubs are short of the desired standard.
Perth has a new stadium, adds an additional time zone for broadcasters and could capture disenfranchised rugby union fans. But it does not have a State Cup team.
While Beattie is right to send a signal to State Cup teams that they are candidates for inclusion in the NRL, they will have to wait until a Sydney club falls over well into the 2023-27 broadcast cycle before they can win a start.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...p-rugby-league-expansion-20180201-h0ryjc.html
If former Queensland premier Peter Beattie wishes to woo Sydney clubs to support him as the incoming chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission, he ignored local politics when he recently talked up expansion.
Fifteen of the NRL's 16 clubs posted a loss last year, if grants from the 10 clubs with licensed club backing and others reliant on benefactors are excluded from total revenue. Seven of the clubs depending on poker machine income are in Sydney, where teams would presumably be culled if expansion is to occur. Sydney clubs, except Wests Tigers, are now demonstrating a rare unity, opting to vote as a bloc at a recent phone hook-up to appoint two club delegates to a new 10-person ARLC.
Based on the hostility expressed by some Sydney club powerbrokers to Beattie's "if we stagnate, we die" cry in a recent interview, he will need to reinforce the message that expansion will only occur well after the current broadcasting deal expires.
Given the precarious balance sheets of the free-to-air TV networks and the monopoly position of Foxtel as a pay-TV provider, the next broadcasting deal for the NRL won't be an 80 per cent increase of the 2018-2022 contract.
The last time the game expanded – three clubs were introduced in 1995 – it fuelled inflation in salaries, with retired players unretiring to receive the largest pay cheques they had ever been paid.
Expansion ignited the Super League war, which further fuelled inflation, leading to the closure of the Adelaide Rams, Hunter Mariners and South Queensland Crushers, while Perth now field junior teams in the NSWRL competition and North Sydney play in the NSW Cup. Another four clubs collapsed to form two joint ventures.
While some commentators argue there are enough first-graders in the NRL to field another two teams, I believe up to three of the starting players at some clubs are short of the desired standard.
Perth has a new stadium, adds an additional time zone for broadcasters and could capture disenfranchised rugby union fans. But it does not have a State Cup team.
While Beattie is right to send a signal to State Cup teams that they are candidates for inclusion in the NRL, they will have to wait until a Sydney club falls over well into the 2023-27 broadcast cycle before they can win a start.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...p-rugby-league-expansion-20180201-h0ryjc.html
