NRL bosses Dave Smith and John Grant facing revolt from key stakeholders in wake of TV deal
The end game for the growing number of disgruntled NRL club bosses is to see Dave Smith and ARLC John Grant depart the game.
While talk of a rebel competition has been rife, and several club chairmen are seriously considering not signing a participation agreement, the first concern is to engage in sensible discussion with a new NRL leadership team who can solve the game’s crisis brought on by inept management and what has been acknowledged this week as a shocking broadcast deal.
With senior Foxtel and Telstra management now considering pulling the pin on their nearly billion dollar investment in the game, Smith’s own goal in announcing the Channel Nine deal without consultation, has wreaked havoc in the fragile world of clubland this week.
The chance of an early negotiation with Foxtel has gone, Telstra is so furious that the naming rights sponsorship on which the 16 clubs also rely for their daily bread, is also in limbo.
David Gyngell has tried to head talk of rebellion off at the pass, but even he knows that if a deal is not struck with Foxtel and Telstra that is not close to a total value of nearly $2 billion, his own deal will come under close scrutiny from the clubs.
Smith is there because Grant keeps him there. Club powerbrokers and even senior heavies at Telstra, Foxtel and other major sponsors want both the chairman and Smith gone before anyone engages in more negotiations with a league that has lost the trust and the faith of its key stakeholders.
The blueprint that head of strategy Shane Richardson has produced is far from what any of the clubs had hoped for and cannot save an administration paralysed by its lack of league knowledge.
One league legend and powerbroker told me this week that the Commission looks more and more unable to cope with managing the game, or Dave Smith.
“The problem is that they have come into the game with no league knowledge, and they have Smith and his inept staff as their teachers, so that they now know even less than when they arrived,” he said.
Two names continue to come up as genuine replacements for Grant. They are former league boss,
John Quayle, who at least several club bosses hope would consider returning to the game as executive chairman of the Commission, and
Katie Page whose business and league knowledge was one of the strengths of David Gallop’s NRL board.
Andrew Demetriou is another candidate several clubmen believe could come in and clean out headquarters within two seasons.
The rebellion is very real and, while some will publicly hose it down, the talk has become much more than whispers and rumour. Rugby League cannot afford to start the next broadcast contract with a billion dollars less than what was expected.
The disaster for Smith will get worse in coming months- not one of the remaining potential broadcasters wants to have a discussion with him because of his gobsmacking breaches of trust committed in recent weeks.
The fact that Foxtel is now privately claiming they will not look at a deal until close to the deadline of this agreement at the end of 2017 means the code will remain on tenterhooks for a long time to come unless something gives. That something is the departure of Smith and Grant.
http://www.news.com.au/national/nrl...-wake-of-tv-deal/story-e6frfkp9-1227494564558
