I never said its a bad thing, and is there need for the insult? I said it wouldn't make much difference to the clubs bottom lines. Currently all clubs earn enough from football operations alone to pay the salaries of all players and coaching staff. It is in paying for all the other stuff to keep them competitive that they are coming unstuck.
Penrith who would be one of the poorer clubs before Leagues grant get $12.5mill from football operations alone. That should be enough to cover player and coaching appointments. The difficulty is that someone like Brisbane has $20mill from football operations so can spend that extra $7mill on all the other stuff that makes them a competitive team year in and year out. Giving Brisbane $3mill more to spend and penrith $3mill to spend doesn't make any difference if Penrith still want to be competitive, they will still be playing ctach up and relying on their Leagues grant to help them do that.
Manly could take the $3mill and not rely on private owner grants but it would only push them back to the middle of the pack, owners might be happy to not be spending but then again they could refuse to spend now and Manly wouldn't go bust, they would just become mediocre.
no easy answers but if people think just increasing the NRL grant solves all the problem they are kidding themselves. I hope clubs get more money and use it wisely, just as I hope the WARL gets more of the pie, along with all the other levels of the game that could benefit from it.
I agree with Perth Red on this one. An across-the-board increase in grant is not the way to go. Sure it'll come in handy for some clubs more than others, but it won't, CAN'T, level the playing field.
Having said that, the playing field never WILL be level. If the NRL were to agree to subsidise clubs that can't find their own cash through sponsorships etc to a certain threshold, then the clubs will just stop looking for more sponsors, safe in the knowledge that they'll have their shortfall made up by the governing body.
The clubs SHOULD be required to fund all of their own operations. If they can't afford new tackle bags for training, go find a sponsor to buy them. Can't afford an editor to compile DVD footage for review at training? Go and find a cheaper alternative, or get a keen TAFE student on intern rates. If they can't afford to run their OWN administrations, then they'll have to either cut back in outgoings, find cheaper suppliers/alternatives, choose to go into short-term debt, or simply learn to go without!
If my business running costs go up, I need to find the cash myself to cover them. I don't get a handout just so tat I can be competitive! Nor should an NRL team.
If a team can't keep it's own head above water, then the rules of attrition should take their natural course. A minimum criteria for ALL clubs would help minimize the risk of losing a club, since they would have to prove their self-sufficiency. Any who cannot prove this will be exposed as bad business risks, and abandoned as such if required.
