Club bosses are set to seek assurances from the NRL about the treatment of long-standing partners Telstra and Fox Sports during recent negotiations that resulted in the record $925 million free-to-air broadcast deal with Channel Nine.
However, South Sydney chairman Nick Pappas and Penrith general manager Phil Gould took to Twitter to debunk reports that disillusioned clubs were considering breaking away from the NRL.
"Yawn: Rugby league clubs want CEO Dave Smith gone or threaten to leave competition," Pappas tweeted.
Gould tweeted: "Is it just me or is anyone else experiencing deja vu when it comes to reporting on NRL/Fox/tv rights? Seems to me I've seen all this before".
The fallout from the deal with Nine, which angered News Corp executives ? led by Rupert Murdoch ? to such an extent they rushed to conclude a deal with the AFL that trumped the NRL's announcement, has been seized on by clubs as a means to increase pressure on Smith and chairman John Grant over the running of the game and the amount of funding they receive.
While reports of a Super League-style breakaway are little more than News Corp propaganda, the 12 clubs yet to sign participation agreements with the NRL beyond 2017 believe that the Nine deal puts them in a strong bargaining position ? because if they don't sign, there will be no competition for Nine to broadcast.
St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers, Newcastle and Gold Coast are the only clubs to have signed new participation agreements. The other clubs plan to hold out until the NRL agrees to some of their demands.
The chairmen of all 16 clubs will discuss the recent developments during a phone hook-up on Monday that had been organised before Smith's shock announcement of the deal with Nine, which provides four live games a week on free-to-air television from 2018.
The clubs want an increase in their annual NRL grant from $7.5 million a year to $12 million if the salary cap rises to $10 million a year in 2018 ? or an annual payment of more than $2 million in excess of their total wages bill for players.
Some of them are also pushing for the clubs to have a greater influence in the appointment of the eight independent directors on the ARL Commission and believe Grant should consider standing down after four years as chairman.
To remove a commissioner requires the votes of 14 clubs or 10 clubs with the additional support of both the NSW and Queensland Rugby Leagues. Should either of these events occur, the remaining commissioners would appoint a replacement, not the clubs.
Fairfax Media was told by one chairman that Grant and the commissioners had done little to establish relationships with the clubs, who are the biggest stakeholders in the NRL.
However, NRL management has held engagement sessions with 13 of the 16 clubs in recent weeks in an attempt to improve relationships and communicate their plans to grow the game.
Even Smith's fiercest critics within the game have been glowing in praise of the deal done with Nine but there are now concerns that the overall value of the broadcast rights may fall short of what the AFL will receive because of the way negotiations with Fox Sports, owned by News Corp, and Telstra have been handled so far.
It is understood that AFL officials had aimed for a $1.75 billion five-year deal and ended up with $750 million more for just an extra 12 months after a week of frantic negotiations that began the day after Smith trumpeted the NRL's deal with Nine.
The NRL are still optimistic that Fox Sports will pay about $800 million for the rights to broadcast all eight matches a week live, including the four games on Nine, under a simulcast arrangement similar to the one they have with Channel Seven for AFL, and will be buoyed by the pay TV viewing numbers of 322,000 for Saturday night's Roosters-Broncos match compared with 60,000 for the Sydney AFL derby clash between the Swans and Giants.
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