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Richo has come out and hammered the concept, saying it's destroying crowds. FOXTEL won't want to give it up. This will be interesting.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...et-for-scrapheap/story-e6frexnr-1226025069285
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...et-for-scrapheap/story-e6frexnr-1226025069285
NRL clubs will not tolerate Monday night football when the next TV rights deal comes into place in 2013.
The NRL is considering scrapping Monday night matches after a torrent of complaints from club bosses.
In a massive win for clubs - who are sick of low gate receipts on the school night - the NRL is looking into switching the Monday night game to a Sunday twilight match.South Sydney chief executive Shane Richardson said the only way Monday night football will exist after the TV rights deal expires at the end of 2012 is if the NRL pays clubs "massive compensation".
"I don't care where they move it to on the weekend, as long as it's not Monday," Richardson said.
"Fans hate it. Clubs hate it across the board. Sponsors hate it. It is a financial disaster for us. Clubs are incredibly dissatisfied. We're all fed-up on Monday night.
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"It's a disgrace that Fox Sports gets the third pick of the matches anyway and puts an absolute blockbuster like last week on a Monday night."
Richardson said Monday night matches regularly lose 10,000 fans who would have attended on a weekend.
The NRL may pay for the fixture relocation in the hip pocket because Fox Sports prefers the existing arrangement.Game-day broadcasts of NRL matches made up 39 of the top 50 programs on Australian subscription TV last year - most of them Monday night matches.
NRL boss David Gallop said the next TV rights deal would take a hit if Monday night matches were scrapped.
But he confirmed it is a very real option.
The Sunday twilight timeslot is already a proven winner for the AFL and Fox Sports.
The only other timeslot being considered is early Sunday afternoon, which is unattractive for bidding networks.
Gallop expects the league's next broadcast deal to be extremely lucrative, whether or not Monday night football is killed off.
"It's certainly a very attractive TV product," Gallop said of Monday night matches.
"Next time we do a deal we need to value Monday night footy and say 'is it worth it'?
"We're doing some work at the moment to assess the value of that and weighing that up with the impact that it has on home crowds.
"There's no doubt Monday night has worked really well on television, so it's clearly going to have a bearing on our rights fee."
Gallop said he understood the frustration of clubs over low Monday night crowds.
The NRL gives clubs $40,000 for every Monday night home game.