And so the drums start beating………
The dark clouds gathering for the NRL that no one wants to talk about: Inside Peter V'landys' SHOCKING mistake that's given the AFL a huge advantage in the battle of the codes - and the clubs are rightfully furious, writes MIKE COLMAN
It's the multi-million-dollar blunder that no-one wants to talk about, but it has left
NRL club bosses seething.
Two years ago, NRL supremo Peter V'landys handed Foxtel one of the biggest sweetheart deals in Australian media history and now the
AFL is poised to cash in.
Having just announced a massive $4.5billion broadcast deal over seven years with Seven and Foxtel starting in 2025, outgoing AFL boss Gillon McLachlan heads off into the sunset with head held high and his sport's coffers bulging.
V'landys, who hasn't been backward in taking pot shots at McLachlan and the AFL since he moved into the NRL's top job, can only put on a brave face and suck it up, but there is no way around it.
At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, V'landys sat down with Foxtel bosses and signed away the pay TV rights to the game for a bargain basement price believed to be $200million a year over five years.
V'landys recently told Fairfax reporter Andrew Webster that at the time of negotiations Foxtel was in dire straits and 'needed an asset on its sheet to continue its viability'.
The fact that at the same time Foxtel was negotiating a $946million, two-year extension to its joint Channel 7 deal with the AFL seems to have been overlooked.
'If we didn't come into play, there'd be no Foxtel,' V'landys said.
To which NRL club bosses could rightly have asked: 'And how is this our problem? We're a professional sporting organisation, not a charity.'
Just as they are now asking questions about the free-to-air deal with Channel Nine that V'landys signed off on last December.
Reportedly for $115million a season plus $15million a year in contra, it is only slightly more than the current deal and, when added to the Foxtel, international and radio rights, brings the total NRL broadcast deal to around $400million a season.
That is around $240million a season less than the AFL deal, or, as the NRL club bosses would say, $240million less to share among them.
V'landys is said to have told the clubs that he and his right-hand man Andrew Abdo had squeezed every cent out of Nine, and there was nothing left in the kitty.
Which they might have swallowed, if early this month Nine hadn't bid $500million a season for the AFL rights.
Given that their long-time partner Nine had in effect valued the league rights at $100 million a season less than the AFL rights, NRL club bosses have every right to feel a bit miffed.
And while none have broken ranks and gone public – yet – it is an open secret that there are plenty of grumbles going on behind the scenes.
Once considered 'The Messiah' by rugby league fans and officials, V'landys has suffered a few setbacks in recent times, most notably his messy and unseemly tussle with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet over the hosting of the NRL grand final, continued controversy over refereeing and the bunker, and now questions over his handling of the broadcast rights.
McLachlan clearly out-did V'landys at the negotiating table, and AFL football is kicking goals against the NRL on the field as well.
Which brings us to the $4.5 billion question: Just what is the AFL going to do with all that money?
The answer won't become clear until 2025, but one thing is certain – it won't be good news for the NRL.
Peter V'landys made a $240million-a-year blunder as he guided the NRL through the Covid pandemic - and now it's coming back to haunt him as the AFL puts it war chest to good use.
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