Makeup of next years competition

[imported_Rasputin]

The public message coming from the NRLis that we willhave a 15 team comp next year with clubfundingremaining at 2.5M covered by the extra fromthe NZ tv rights. That's the public message.

The inside rumouris that the NRL is hellbent on havinga 14 team comp andis madly workingbehind the scenes to achieve this with 3 clubs being targeted, namely Sharks, Tigers and Eagles. My mail is that should the Eagles fold there is no way in hell the NRL will allow Manly& Norths back in as seperate entities and that the Sharkshave been told they have 2 years left at most andthe Tigers are being heavily pushed to merge with the dogs at Liverpool. This line is being pushed by many club ceo's.

What have you guys heard?

 

[legend]

Mate, that is all news to me. If the beagles fold I thought the licence reverted back to Manly. I would rather see those two de-merge and the Bears play out of the Central coast and Manly back on the peninsula. Sixteen is the ideal number but I have not heard of any more culling of teams. That would spell disaster for the NRL.

 

[imported_Bigbopper]

I have not heard any rumours but have a few questions.
Why would the Bulldogs want to merge with anyone let alone a merger?
How could the licence revert to Manly if the merger collapsed financially? They would only get the licence if Norths walked out.
Is North Queensland on the hit list? News own them so they could simply withdraw them from the competition.
Personally I hope we just get on with 15 teams (16 is better but it won't happen).
Cheers
Bigbopper

 

[legend]

I dont think the Tigers/Bulldogs thing will take off as that would be seen by most as a takeover by the dogs. I dont know how the beagles arrangement works but I definitely know the licence reverts to Manly if and whenthe j/v collapses. Fifteen is good but the only concern I have is the whole North Shore is open slather to union so Manly back on the peninsula would be vital for league over the long term.

 

[Willow]

Mate, that is like music to my ears. Cronulla were a mistake. I haven't changed my view on that since 1967. It's about the only grudge I ever had.

But I haven't heard anything other than rumour. But I do have a mythical wish list.

Apart from Cronulla, changes are needed in Qld and NQ need to be saved, somehow.
I have no idea why they are failing but they definitely have the smell of death about them.
Also in Qld, we need a team on the Gold Coast. That's where Cronulla can re-locate to.
IMO, the Eagles should de-merge.
We're stuck with the results of the AFL mismanagement / SuperLeague destruction of RL so we should make the most of it.

Teams:
NQ and Central Q Cowboys
Brisbane Broncos
Gold Coast Sharks
Newcastle Knights
Central Sea Eagles or Bears
North Sydney Sea Eagles or Bears
South Sydney Rabbitohs
Sydney Roosters
StGeorge - Illawarra Dragons trading as the St George Dragons
Canterbury Bulldogs (with option on re-location to Wellington)
Western Suburbs Tigers trading as the Balmain Tigers
Parramatta Eels
Penrith Panthers
Canberra Raiders
NZ Warriors
Melbourne Storm

That's 16 teams in 16 rounds of premiership footy. Plus the semis.
We should have a pre season and maybe even post season comp which promotes the game in rural Australia, interstate Australia, NZ and the Pacific Islands.

 

[imported_Rasputin]

Personally, I'd love to see 16 with Manly and the Bears on the central coast, I miss having a team to hate ) If the beagles go belly up the license is void and reverts back to the NRL. If the beagles dissolve by paying all their debts then the license reverts to Manly. Norths never had a license as they were cut. The only wayManly can get the license back is to ensure that all the beagles debts are paid up, including player paymentsfor players they don't want, and Manly don't have that much cash.

What I keep hearing is that the tigers are financially bust and the NRL, no News, is really pushing them to join with the dogs and forma super club based inLiverpool. The doggies need this to happen as they can't get the pokie licenses for their proposed new club out there without folding some of the other leagues clubs into it.

AFAIK, Nrth Qld are safe as they are part of News longer term plans but the Sharks have been told they are not and are somewhat locked in by their infrastucture at Endeavour so it is not easy for them to relocate.

It is not culling, they are calling it natural attrition )

 

[Willow]

Or politics.
Thanks for that background info Rasputin.
It certainly sounds as if things are swelling in the under currents.
There's one that I've noticed in poltics and that is when major changes happen, they usually happenovernight and catch everyone unawares. Sure, they may have been developing for years but it's true that when the moment of change occurs, it occurs swiftly.
Neccessity is the mother of invention.
IMO, if they can bring down the Berlin Wall, they can re-locate Cronulla and from you're saying, there's a pile of compost heading for the ceiling fan as we speak. )

 

[imported_Rasputin]

Yeah, keep in mind that it was the NRL itself that leaked the Beagles financial difficulties, the Sharks/St George/Illawarra and the Dogs/Wests/Tigers triumvirates into the public forum and for discussion amongst ceo's,that I do know for a fact. Being the political cynic that I am I just can't escape the feelingthey are testing the waters as to which will be the most pallatable path with least resistance. Also keep in mind that the Knights have approched a few of the wealthier clubs for more loans and are in the most perilous financial position of all yet because of their strategic location have been guranteed assistance from various boards and have been shielded from the latest manouverings.

Oh well, with the money comes the politics and we will just have to wait and see but my informationis that come the end of this season and after all the bullshit clears we will still have 14 even with the inclusion of Souths.

 

[Hass]

The last thing Rugby League needs is the culling or merging of clubs. It can only spell out negative things for League.

*We need a team on the North Shore and a team on the Central Coast. How do we achieve this? De-Merge the Beagles.

*We need a second team in SE QLD. How do we achieve this? Some may say re-locate Cronulla. But that should only happen if Cronulla choose whole-heartedly to do it themselves. Otherwise we create a new team or revive an old team ie. Valleys.

*We need to dramatically shorten the season. How do we achieve this? Have a competition with somewhere between 16-18 teams and have everyone play eachother once.

*We need to have more representative Rugby League. How do weachieve this? Use the weeks spared via the shortening of the season to play a truckload of Internationals.

Unfortunately- none of these things are likely to happen.

Cheers.

 

[imported_Rasputin]

Willow, speaking of the compost heading for the ceiling fan, extracts from a press release from C7

In a statement, Seven said it was seeking orders requiring News Limited, Foxtel, Fox Sports, Telstra and the NRL to provide Seven with all relevant documents relating to the negotiation of the 2001-2006 subscription rights for the NRL.

If this infoever hits the public arena it will really make a splatter.

 

[Willow]

Rasputin:
OK, here's what I dug out of last year's compost heap:

14 Dec: Media reports state that the NRL and FOXTEL have signed a $400MIL deal which gives FOXTEL exclusive Pay TV rights on Rugby League for the next 6 YEARS. Apparently C7 also put in a bid. Channel 9 retains the free to air rights. FOXTEL's 3 largest shareholders are multi nationals Telstra, News Corp (Murdoch) and PBL (Channel 9/Packer).
The whole deal, as well as the ownership of Rugby League was capped off with Telstra gaining naming (cup) rights for the next six years.

Are you saying that C7 are claiming that something is rottern in the compost?

 

[imported_Storm]

News have said a few times and would like a 16 team comp, its just the other clubs don't want it. If it went 16, they possibly would reinvite the Chargers.

 

[imported_Rasputin]

Hmm, have to be carefull here Willow. None of the clubs have ever been told exactly how that 480m (including Telstra naming rights) was to be distributed.

The original deal following the peace was thateach club was to recieve around 2M from News per year.The sale of the TVand naming rightswas supposed to beadditional income but only aroundan extra 500K has found its way to the clubs, and that was only granted for this year but not guranteed for future years. Even if News no longer funded any clubs directlyand the NRL only used the tv and naming rights to fund the comp thenbased on the original 14 team comp 2M per yearoversix yearsaccounts for168M and if it is maintained at 2.5 then it is 210M.

There have always been questions regarding the rest (either 312m or 270m whichever way you look at it) and many club officials believethere neverreally was any480M and that it was made up of the original News deal pluscontrapayments toNews andadvertising on Fox sports 2. Considering those RL fans that have fox mainly have it for the games the point of advertising to them does seem somewhat pointless.

I really believe those documents will make interesting reading and every club ceo will behoping they see the light of day