The point was when Smith announced the 9 TV deal, instead of News, no other commissioners were in attendance at the Press conference.In fact Smith was on his Pat Malone.Hardly a show of overwhelming support for his decision or in fact if the Commission majority thought it was a great idea.
Having worked on and with boards there is not a cat in hells chance that agreement was signed without the commissions approval.
It wasn’t smith on his own. There was a team of Nrl staff. The channel nine tv deal was a ripper!! 4 fta games a week. I really wish they kept to there guns. I believe fox would of crumbled. They couldn’t of gone without rugby league but we will never know. Smith told em to jam it and quit/resigned/sacked and Grant/commissioners decided to do as the powerbrokers told em and regrettably take the deal on the table. It was only a bad deal when they backtracked on there plan.
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It wasn’t smith on his own. There was a team of Nrl staff. The channel nine tv deal was a ripper!! 4 fta games a week. I really wish they kept to there guns. I believe fox would of crumbled. They couldn’t of gone without rugby league but we will never know. Smith told em to jam it and quit/resigned/sacked and Grant/commissioners decided to do as the powerbrokers told em and regrettably take the deal on the table. It was only a bad deal when they backtracked on there plan.
Please champ,I have a fair idea how boards work, in my job.The point is Smith was involved in the ch9 negotiations.Him alone.Unlike prior Tv negotiations.CEOS can sell deals or prospective deals to Boards,doesn't mean they're on a winner. I Repeat why wasn't Grant there at the 9 TV deal announcement? He stuck his moosh into all other deals and major announcements.
Have a look at disasters with Banks over the last few years.Have a look at Wesfarmers foray into Pommy land with hardware and the disaster that unfolded,all with board approval.Woolworths wth their hardware Masters disaster.Boards make their fair share of blues.Never forget Hardies Asbestos.
Smith stuffed up, jumped the gun, did it his way.He was the one who organised all the high end expensive consultants,who achieved little at best.
Who knows how much the NRL ,missed out on with Rupert.
He did a good job with the drug issues compared to the fumblers.Money in the Bank you may say, but little to grassroots,and it would have still been used to prop up Titans and knights
There was no other board member, involved in negotiations to my knowledge with Nein.The staff involved senior management.
That part of the deal may well have been a ripper.But I find it hard to believe News would have gone overboard for the so called 'leftovers",after being denied involvement at the start.
IOW the Board and Grant realised with the News repercussions ,he had gone a bridge too far, thus both the board and Smith should share the blame for the outcome.
The question I pose, how much did we miss out on money wise by his actions.,that's something we'll never know.Perhaps the deal could have been a hell of a lot better, if all parties had been brought in at the onset.
There has to be more not divulged ,as to why Smith left/resigned or got flicked.Yes we know News hated his every breath,but remember they now don't own 50% of the NRL,so their influence should have waned somewhat.
ULtimate accountability for a decision of that magnitude rests with the commision. They had final sign off. If they didnt have enough knowledge to make an informed call and just decided on smith’s sales pitch then it is their failing. Yes boards do, and it’s still debateable if the nine before fox decision was a major blue, we dont know what the strategy was or if there was something else in the offing, one would have to presume there was otherwise why would you take that strategy that was clearly going to pee news Ltd off? Smith was a scapegoat and not one single commissioner, including the chairman took any responsibility for the decision they made. Again not unusual for boards to sign off on poor decisions then lay the blame at the ceo’s feet if it goes tits up.
Thus showing,neither you or I know what the commission had authorised Smith to do with the negotiations.
Of course it's debatable what the result would be, but when the tV company who pays the bulk of the monies is given a back seat to negotiations,I suggest it's hardly going to assist the final outcome money wise.
I repeat one more time.Smith leaving may also have not only to do with negotiations and possible News pressure(who knows?),but also lavish expenditure on non performing consultants.
He may well have signed his own"death " warrant due to issues also within the admin, and if rumours are correct he got a lot offside there.Those with years of rl experience.
The guy came on board firstly not doing his homework on the Oz captain when making a speech.He the as you continually bang on about, made predictions about 400,000 members,1 million playing etc etc.There is nothing wrong in being positive and pushing your sport, there is when you make rash predictions and it comes back to bite you in the a*se.
He was Grants appointment,Grant saw him off.Go figure. I saw him initially as a good choice, but in the end, he adopted the Investment Bankers' mentality.
News weren’t denied involvement at the start. They chose that themselves. Do you actually think the afl all of a sudden took a week to put a tv deal together? Fox were delaying us and smith and others called them on it. Don’t be blinded by the News Ltd bullish!t.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...r/news-story/dc818ca87f1ddb90989168b0bfca54a3
Wasn’t just smith by the looks of this.
At the end of the day we will never know but I would of liked to see what would of happened if we stuck to our guns. What will be in our favor is by 2022 afl will have nothing to add to there already crap product. We have expansion/nines/touch/austag all yet to get true market tv value.
News weren’t denied involvement at the start. They chose that themselves. Do you actually think the afl all of a sudden took a week to put a tv deal together? Fox were delaying us and smith and others called them on it. Don’t be blinded by the News Ltd bullish!t.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...r/news-story/dc818ca87f1ddb90989168b0bfca54a3
Wasn’t just smith by the looks of this.
At the end of the day we will never know but I would of liked to see what would of happened if we stuck to our guns. What will be in our favor is by 2022 afl will have nothing to add to there already crap product. We have expansion/nines/touch/austag all yet to get true market tv value.
That's News "side of the story." They have their agendas.,
I am not that dumb not to realise,others would be in attamndnace at negations from the NRL>
The facts are and remain so Smith attended the ch9 Tv deal on his own, not with Grant, not with Samuels.Never happened in prior Tv deals to my knowledge
On that basis, one can conjecture he did something outside the Commissioners remit,and the reason he was left to his devices.I saw/heard the announcement ,and it looked weird.Where was everybody, not even 9 execs.
Grant is covering his and any other Commissioners' a*ses,which one does when the sh*t hits the fan.
The only people smith got offside were the sooky, whinging, selfentitled club powerbrokers that think there sh!t don’t stink. The same ones that ended Samuel, Harris and grants time on the commission. Harris’s words the other day showed the problems that exist in the Nrl. Hopefully Grant and smith both tried to fix the system but in the end got them both. Love the fact Grant is lobbing a grenade into the chairman’s meeting next week.
These are the facts!! Was smith still on his own?
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...r/news-story/dc818ca87f1ddb90989168b0bfca54a3
I’ll post the link again if you can’t read?
Ive heard the “smith was paid a lot and hired a lot of expensive consultants” comment over and over. Where is the evidence of this? Certainly the nrl financials would suggest this isn’t true.
Admin costs had risen through 13,14 and 15 under smith. But if true you’d expect to see a significant decrease in 2016 after he left wouldn’t you? As it was they continued to rise another $1million under Greenburg, well above CPI. Hw can that be if smith was so excessive in his spending?
It’s dangerous to take Gould’s comments in a gossip coloumn as evidence Lol