Big difference was the Dolphins admission was based on the next Tv deal being agreed and an increase in TV $'s which allowed the NRL to go back to the clubs (lets not forget the clubs were not in favour of Brisbane2 and went to the trouble of paying for a study to show why) and offer them a significant grant increase based on the extra tv revenue (and reducing funding in grassroots). As we are in middle of tv cycle they cant do the same this time so are relying on the bids bribing the clubs to say yes. Knowing this why they've left it till after submissions to demand a huge fee only they could tell us.
What do you mean they can’t do the same? The prospective new clubs aren’t scheduled to enter until this current TV rights deal is about to end and/or has ended.
It concludes in 2027. Club 18 enters at this stage 2027, club 19 enters at this stage 2028/9.
So it doesn’t matter if the game is in the middle of a current deal because it was never intended for any new club to enter now. The additional clubs are to bolster the next deal, clearly.
The continuous comparisons of Dolphins and the next new franchise is bonkers. It’s apples and clams here. They’re not even in the same food groups. People need to learn to move on and accept that there are new parameters now to what was expected and/or required a few years ago. Exactly how the parameters around Dolphins were vastly different and changed from Titans.
Yes, clubs want money. Fair enough. Any new club is entering the pie share to a pie the current clubs have built, in the product the game sells. Returns get marginally smaller for each in relation to potential maximised availability of said returns due to more mouths to feed. Meaning clubs could be getting back a certain % of overall returns if there’s only certain amount of teams to share the returns with and that % obviously gets smaller the more teams that are added. So license fee or maybe truer definition in compensation for losses of potential revenue - call if what suits I guess.