United in different ways. Where would the money come from? Rupert? Packer? Both already in the new Nrl deal. They would have to pay 2 tv deals. Well push did come to shove when super league happened. I'd say like last time approx 50/50 split would happen. And like then players had a fair say in that to. I think the Nrl would actually go ok.
Well unlike last time, all the clubs are united. At the end of the day people support clubs. The reason superleague failed was that they didn't get all the clubs. Half the popular clubs went to superleague, the broncos,raiders, bulldogs and the other half stayed in the arl, the likes of manly, newcastle, dragons. Supporters largely stayed with their clubs so it becamea stalemate.
Say hypothetically the16 clubs split straight away and announced a breakaway comp for next year. Fox and 9 would be looking to get out of their deals straight away. But lets say they can't where to from there? Well you would think channel 7 or 10 would jump at the chance at a rugby league comp featuring the broncos, souths and bulldogs etc. Fox knowing they'd lose a chunk of subscribers would likely have to make a play for the new comp anyway. It probably won't be as much current deal but it would be a start. Next comes sponsorship. Sponsors would want to stay with established brands. That's especially true for the one town teams. Would a townsville based company want to support the Cowboys or Nrl's new Townsville Bushrangers? What hope would a Brisbane team have trying to gain sponsors over the broncos? So immediately the breakaways start having momentum.
Next is what does the nrl do for teams. 16 teams would take alot of money to establish. Then there's the question of where do the teams go? Would you try put another team in places like townsville, newcastle, auckland
, Canberra? Hunter Mariners ring any bells? How many sydney teams would you include? Do you really expect fans to jump ship from clubs they've supported their whole lives for new plastic clubs? Would anyone jump ship from the south sydney rabbitohs to support the south sydney bandicoots? How many Brisbane teams? Would you lump in 2 teams to compete against each other and the broncos juggernaut? Afl are losing shit loads trying to establish teams in volatile markets imagine doing a whole comp. So any money advantage the nrl had from a big tv deal would evaporate quickly.
Which leaves the players. The clubs already have the rlpa on its side. It's easier to get a player to stay at his current club then to switch sides. How many would gamble on going to a newly made club? Enough to make 16 teams? At the end of the day people will still support their teams no matter who plays for them. I'd still watch the rabbitohs even if they dug up shannon Hegarty and joel Reddy over a souths sydney bandicoots club featuring GI the the burgii and reynolds. The nrl would need to keep 80% of current players to remain competitive with a new comp which would be impossible.
The nrl needs it's clubs more then the clubs needs the nrl. The clubs (and players through people watching them) is how the nrl makes it money. It's had power in the past because clubs could agree on anything. If you asked all 16 club bosses last year what colour the sky is not all 16 would say blue. It shows the incompetence of the current nrl leadership that they've galvanized the clubs together and created a monsters for themselves
