Here's the good news: momentum builds for clubs to reclaim the game
Greg Prichard | March 20, 2009
NEWS LIMITED, the half-owner of the NRL, has revealed it keenly supports the league's bid for independence, stating that it does not intend to hinder reforms that include the establishment of an independent commission to run the game and ownership of the competition to be split among the 16 clubs.
A sub-committee representing the clubs has been working for over a year on selling the idea of possible restructuring to News Ltd and the game's other half-owner, the Australian Rugby League, and it emerged this week that the proposal included the clubs taking ownership.
Although it has been understood for some time that News Ltd was prepared to relinquish ownership as long as it felt the game was left in good hands, it has not been a subject on which representatives of the company were prepared to comment.
However, in the wake of recent developments, the Herald yesterday contacted Greg Baxter, corporate affairs spokesman for News Ltd, and he confirmed that the company believed the current push was heading in the right direction.
"Our position is pretty simple," Baxter said. "We have had discussions with the clubs and representatives from the NRL and ARL on this. We think the idea has a lot of merit and we have encouraged the clubs to work out a proposal between themselves and come back to us to talk about it.
"It doesn't require our blessing for the clubs to talk about this, and we're happy to talk to them as often as they want to talk about it. It does require our blessing, as a 50 per cent owner, for any new arrangement to run the game to be put in place, but that's the same as the ARL, the clubs and the NRL. Everyone has to agree with the plan.
"There is a lot to be said for the concept of the clubs having more control over the game and a governance structure for the running of the game to be introduced. We don't want to be a roadblock to that."
News Ltd's position is bound to be enthusiastically received by figures within the game who are driving the process for change. Among those directly involved is Gold Coast chief executive Michael Searle, who is on the NRL sub-committee charged with the responsibility of examining restructuring the competition.
"There are a multitude of options we have been looking at, and that includes the idea of the 16 clubs taking equity," Searle said. "It's probably the most difficult to negotiate, but it's definitely worth consideration. But the most important thing is whether we do a deal that brings independence to the game at all levels."
Searle and other sub-committee members have been meeting on a regular basis with members of the News Ltd and ARL sides of the NRL partnership committee, and have been encouraged by the overall acceptance of the need for change.
The best indication that influential figures view the idea positively is that in a code where leaks and back-biting are not unusual, people involved in the process have been loath to give much away publicly, or privately criticise those involved, for fear of disrupting the process.
Searle did not wish to be too specific either, but he pointed out that at a time when the global economic downturn was making life tough, it was appropriate that league did whatever was necessary to establish the best way forward for the game.
"It's the right time for looking at highlighting the need for efficiencies within the game," he said. "It's obviously not a simple process because if we move on this it would represent a change in the philosophical point of view of both the ARL and News towards the game.
"It's an ongoing process. We're not going to have an answer tomorrow, but we've come a long way down the track in our discussions with the relevant parties.
"Certainly, no one is feeling the need to fly the white flag on any of this. We feel positively about what has happened so far, and we are enthusiastic about continuing to negotiate."
It has always been clear that News Ltd would never give up its share of control over the game if it meant the ARL was going to assume control. The challenge of trying to convince people in power to give up that control was always going to be the biggest hurdle for the negotiators, but indications are they have made significant ground on that score.
