Clubs fear Gallop has sold the game short
SMH
Last updated 09:50 11/07/2008
NRL chief executive David Gallop and Hollywood actor Russell Crowe kicked back and took a long drag on the peace pipe yesterday but serious concerns remain about comments from the game's leading official that the AFL deserves its superior broadcast deal.
Gallop responded to the South Sydney owner's criticism of the game's $500 million television rights agreement compared to the AFL's $780 million deal by highlighting that the rival code offered bigger crowds in more capital cities and generated more advertising revenue because it was a longer game.
Many of the NRL's stakeholders were bewildered by those statements, with Rugby League Players Association chief executive Matt Rodwell claiming Gallop should be more "aggressive" in promoting the code. "I thought the comments were very defensive," Rodwell said. "You'd love to see the chief executive of the NRL being more aggressive and making the point we are the No.1 television sport in the country in terms of ratings. When it comes to taking on the AFL next time, I'd like to see him push that the NRL is the game people watch the most on TV.
"He's the leader of the game, and he's entitled to his opinion. [But] the game's in a lot stronger bargaining position than what's often perceived."
One club chief executive, who asked not to be named, echoed a familiar sentiment when he said: "It's disturbing when the man who runs the game is talking it down to justify how bad our current television deal is. It certainly makes it difficult for him to enter the next negotiation process from any position of strength."
Indeed, the AFL hit the jackpot at the end of 2005 when Channel Seven paid a whopping $780 million for the rights over five years - or $156 million a season.
Apologists for rugby league's deal - worth around $85 million a season over six years - often point out that it was a deal forced by the hand of Channel Nine owner Kerry Packer on his death bed.
"There were two broadcasting heavyweights who drove up the price back then," St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust said yesterday.
Since then, the deals of the two major football codes have been inexorably compared against each other. When Crowe described league as "the poor cousin" of Australian sport on Triple M on Monday night, it attracted a strong rebuke from the NRL.
"The AFL has teams in more states and draws crowds more than twice the size of ours," Gallop said in a statement. "Television is sold on the basis of five capital city audiences and we do not have that footprint. It also isn't a solution for us to simply throw a team in those areas where we have limited interest in our code.
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"Also, the AFL has an extra game on free to air; its games go for 20 per cent longer than a league game and (it follows that they) allow for greater advertising revenue."
Broncos chief executive Bruno Cullen said he agreed with Gallop that the AFL commands more from its broadcast deal - but that itself was proof it was time for the NRL to consider becoming a national competition.
"We need to seriously investigate in the next five to 10 years how we go about placing teams in Adelaide and Perth," Cullen said.
"If we don't, the restrictions are always going to be there because we aren't a national competition.
"I agree with David that AFL can command more because it goes into more capital cities. We need to start doing the same."
That was irrelevant, another CEO said on condition of anonymity: "We might not have geographic dominance, but we have demographic dominance. We will dominate the eastern seaboard, and in the next 20 years that's all that matters."
Asked if he had devalued the NRL's bargaining power for the next round of broadcast negotiations after admitting the AFL was the number one football code, Gallop said: "I was just stating the facts, well-established facts. I can't see how stating reality is a problem. I fully expect by 2012 when the rights are up again for the NRL to be in a very strong position."
As for his relationship with the Oscar winner, Gallop said: "Russell and I have smoked the peace pipe today. He's got a big investment in the game and deserves his say as much as anyone."
