Opinion
The Rugby League Players Association and the NRL have agreed to a new pay deal.
The players will receive two months pay, but then the money will stop if the game does not recommence. The cutbacks have been shared equally between headquarters and the players, and as a fan it has been pleasing to see a joint effort in securing the sport’s future in such perilous times.
However, should the NRL have been in this financially strapped position in the first place? Unfortunately the NRL had not adequately planned for economic hardship and as a result has been left exposed. Granted, the league isn’t as bad as other sports – rugby union comes to mind – but it’s certainly less equipped than others.
Under the last media rights deal players became ‘partners’ in the game. This meant that along with the clubs they would receive a financial stake in the game. For the 2019 season the salary cap for players was set at close to $9.6 million, club grants totalled $13 million and, moving forward, the players total was to climb. This agreement all seemed very positive, right?
The players thought so, the clubs were happy and the NRL agreed. The administration was thinking that with the clubs getting 30 per cent above the cap, the game would be financially secure. Obviously the current situation has pulled back the curtain and revealed the horrible truth. There is not much coin in the bank either at headquarters or in clubland.
Unless the NRL gets a season of some sort completed, the salary cap in the future is going to fall, and fall drastically. Actually, the landscape of the sport will change significantly if no season commences.
Herein lies the problem. Reducing everyone’s pay to align with dropped revenue doesn’t solve any problems. The administrators at the NRL and in clubland say the cost base needs to be reduced, but I fear this means that it will be the junior base that gets reduced. An example of this is that Penrith recently announced that they may not invest in junior development. This may be expected given their leagues clubs are currently closed, but this only exacerbates the problem facing the game.
When the pandemic subsides and the game continues the sport needs to recognise the errors of the past.
Firstly, the NRL must set up a future fund that can secure assets and generate income for the game. Secondly, monies are only to be split up after such coin has been placed into savings and investments. Thirdly, and maybe a little contentiously, the players percentage needs to include the women’s game, representative football and lower-league players, not just the top 30 players and six development players. Finally, a salary cap needs to be put on football departments at the clubs.
For the financial sustainability of clubs there has to be a salary cap for the football departments. Over the last couple of years expenditure on football departments has ballooned. Any salary cap on football departments should include costs for coaches, trainers, physios, recruitment and quite possibly the executive administration team. I recognise that this idea is pie-in-the-sky thinking, but if clubs do not seek a way to make a profit, their future will be limited and they will face a continued struggle for survival.
The NRL needs successful profit-making football clubs that serve the community. Otherwise the game will find itself in the same predicament, with clubs making losses and going broke and the competition struggling to survive, just as it has been doing for the past 112 years.
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