Article from February this year
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/v-...nberg-future-grows-murky-20200227-p544z5.html
OPINION
V'landys' secret Murdoch meeting as Greenberg future grows murky
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports Writer
Rugby league executives have been clocking up the frequent flyer points in the past two weeks, jetting from one side of the world to the other.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg was in the UK last week for the Roosters’ successful World Club Challenge campaign, while ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys and chief commercial officer Andrew Abdo were in the US this week.
his remarks at a Carbine Club lunch at the Magic Millions racing carnival in early January about juggling his day job as Racing NSW chief executive while ruling rugby league stirred plenty of chatter in both sports.
“I'll decide in the next 12 months,” V'landys told the room, according to several people at the function. “If I see that I can't do both, I will have to make a decision.”
Power player: Lachlan Murdoch with father Rupert.CREDIT:BLOOMBERG
V’landys’ contract with Racing NSW ends at the end of this year, having taken over as chief executive in 2004 and fought — and won — many, many battles.
Rugby league is a different beast, though. In racing, V’landys owns the room. In rugby league, he remains an outsider.
He runs racing through fear and has adopted a similar approach at League Central, promising to sack anybody who leaks sensitive information to the media.
He also made it very clear at his introductory media conference as chairman that he will live and die by the size of the next broadcast deal.
He promised a “better result” than the current deal of $1.8 billion with Channel Nine (publisher of this masthead) and Fox Sports.
This coming season is the third of a five-year deal, but negotiations have been cranked up early because the NRL is wrestling with the idea of expanding its so-called “footprint” from 2023. If new teams are to be part of the next broadcast deal, they will need to be set-up sooner than later.
V’landys tripped himself up last year when he declared in
The Courier-Mail he wanted a second team in Brisbane, in a 17-team competition, with Perth to be snubbed because it's an AFL city.
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Many within the game considered the interview to be grandstanding. At the very least, it caught a lot of people off-guard. Why he would make such bold statements about what “the footprint” would look like without first consulting its key stakeholders?
His trip to the US with Abdo and not Greenberg has been interpreted by some club bosses as a sign that V’landys wants to cut Greenberg out of the broadcast deal. It’s no secret that V’landys is a huge supporter of Abdo.
Greenberg attended the WCC after Roosters chairman Nick Politis complained about the lack of any NRL officials at last year’s match against Wigan. He also met with key Super League stakeholders, as well as Australian High Commissioner to the UK, George Brandis, about the Kangaroo tour at the end of this season.
Abdo was supposed to be on the same trip but was a sudden withdrawal before being redirected to the US with V'landys.
(For the purposes of transparency, this column covered the Roosters’ WCC campaign as a guest of the NRL).
ARL Commission sources say the board has been split about Greenberg’s contract being extended. Is Greenberg the right man for the game’s most thankless job — even if it does pay upwards of $1.2 million a year plus bonuses?
The announcement on Thursday of a $30m profit for last season suggests he’s doing OK, although club chief executives will grill him at the annual general meeting about the game’s costs.
Peter V'landys and Todd Greenberg ... Can they work together?CREDIT:EDWINA PICKLES
There’s still a belief, certainly among the clubs and the states, that Greenberg is more worried about surviving than having vision; about perception and optics.
He’s made some mistakes but had several wins, and at the very least the game cannot really afford to sack another chief executive and find a new one, especially this close to the start of the season. Better the devil you know and all that.
Should he survive, it will be compelling viewing as he goes about his business for the next two years with V’landys sitting on his shoulder.
They are two different types of sports administrators: Greenberg is a slick media performer who also has the ear of Premier Gladys Berejiklian. V'landys loathes ceremony, avoids a microphone at all costs, and works brilliantly in the shadows.
The game probably needs both but, as it stands, you can fit several cigarette papers between both of them.