Can the NRL bounce back from the coronavirus?

It will be interesting to see what happens, but at the moment the places that make the most money out of pokies are the poorer areas where people can ill afford it. When you're down and out, they have the allure of the quick fix.

It's almost as bad as someone who hasn't posted before complaining about a Guru who has been around for years.

Hopefully that is true. I believe Australians are the worlds biggest gamblers so I'm not sure what will break that habit. As a society we gamble and borrow too much and it will only be a long depression where food is in short supply that will change all that nonsense. The global financial crisis had no effect in curbing the problems.

Read the smh today – clubs are petitioning the NSW to let them re-open now and say that there is a risk that some clubs will not recover. I do think this is a game changer, and some of these pokie palaces will close or be scaled down. Some will break the pokie habit, and others will be restricted because they’ve lost their job or had severe pay cuts. The pokie industry isn’t magically immune from the impacts of this shutdown – they’ll take a massive hit, short and long term.

You’re in a rabbit hole ?

"The pokie industry is an example of an industry that may never fully bounce back from this event", yeah, good luck with that (unfortunately)

Here is some Irony. You just wrote a comment critical of people being critical. If I criticise you. Then it’s a comment being critical of you being critical of everyone who criticises......... it’s cold and dark in the rabbit hole.

Online casinos.

I don’t get the Nine hate , well I do actually, but I doubt the people who constantly criticise them understand why they do . We live in an era where social media allows people to criticise everything, and I would hasten to add , most of the time it’s purely because people are becoming much more like sheep ( Not Shaun though , he’s actually clever) and just get on board the hate train, to agree with their peers . I keep saying it . Watch what you wish for .

Yep, it's a tango, whether they like it or not.

Because, believe it or not, channel nine has to take into account a lot more than just the NRL. A lot of people would argue that they have had far too much input into the schedule etc for years and that is hard to argue against. However as a business trying to maximise its profits from the product it is paying handsomely for, you can also understand why. I don't know what else nine has lined up at the end of the year, but their broadcast schedule relies on so much more than just the NRL, and they need to ensure they are not disadvantaging their other commitments. If the NRL was unhappy with the coverage or demands from nine they could have tested the waters years ago, but I have never heard of the NRL ever even putting things out to tender. Nine may have too much input, but the NRL happily lets them. It could certainly be to their detriment in the end, they did lose the cricket after all but you also have to wonder if they were happy to lose the cricket. Nine are not the bogey man here. The NRL wants to play as long as possible in order to collect more money, pure and simple. Nine want to keep the schedule shorter for their own reasons, pure and simple. Everyone has lost money over this shutdown, it's not like Nine is lining their pockets with the money they are not paying out, they are also losing from all the money not coming in. In a perfect world the NRL would create a schedule and everyone would shout hoorah and get on with it. Unfortunately as soon as parties become invested in something monetarily then that perfect world will disappear very quickly. I don't see any other broadcaster not wanting to maximise their take from the game either should they get the broadcast rights, and I certainly couldn't see another broadcaster picking up the games that Nine doesn't want to show. If you want to take the "weight off our neck" then give exclusive rights to the ABC, tell the players to go find midweek jobs again to cover their wages and drag the game back to the semi-pro status.

What are they gambling on??

Does it concern you about how sick a person must be to advertise in this very serious thread, another code? Not just today, but for years on end?

I reckon #'s 1, 2 and 6 are likely. #3 is a utopian pipedream that belongs in amateur worlds. Look at the GAA in Ireland to see how badly that rule impacts the equality of hurling and gaelic football competitions. #4 and #5 would be lovely, but the NRL will be even more beholden to TV moving forward.

I thinks in 2021, the NRL will: # Be played in suburban grounds where numbers are limited rather than large stale stadiums # You’ll be able to bring your own food and drinks to the game # Revert to players playing for the region they grew up in and they want to stay close to family and friends # Games will be played at times that attract families to watch together, rather than have to wait until after some dumb reality TV program gets priority # GF will be a 3pm kick off so supports can get out during daylight hours # Trainers and second referees are banned to avoid excessive humans on the playing field at one time. We can only hope.

I don't think there's any question the NRL will bounce back, but what will it look like in 2021 is another matter entirely. Much depends on what happens with the broadcast. I'm not talking about the rubbish going on with Foxtel or 9, but whether the Yanks or other countries pick up the NRL and run with it, in lieu of any other live sports. If they do and get good audiences, the NRL could be in a really great place, come the end of the season. It would also put the frightners up the Australian broadcasters because the NRL wouldn't be so dependent on their money. 2020 will play out with 16 teams and towards the end of the season, I'm sure some games will have fans. Hopefully that's the case for the Finals and the SOO, assuming the series happens after the Grand Final. Players have already shown intensity doesn't drop much when playing to empty stadiums and these guys will be jumping out of their skins to get stuck in, so I expect to see some pretty solid hits as guys settle back into the season.

There are no other options at the moment. Obviously. If the digital carriers wanted it, they'd have come forward by now. Ditto the NRL reaching out to them. So, when you got no other options, you have to give a little bit of ground to the networks. "Its time we took back control of our game even if that costs us money in the short term." A sentiment that would be supported by precisely 0% of the playing group when you tell them that they will need to take ANOTHER pay cut in 2021.

It's a fair comment GoGWS. In the past month there has been an extraordinary 67% increase in money spent on online gambling in Australia. No doubt a lot of that would be due to gambling addicts - and considering you can lose far greater sums online far, far quicker and easier than the pokies, it may just be the case that the addiction shifts online.

Yep. Good old channel nine, always trumpeted them selves as the true media supporters of the game. Yep, they love league.

GoGWS, one of the problems is that many of these large clubs do own multiple small clubs which are not that profitable but are there as a community club. With the recent closure some of the smaller clubs may never reopen and some have already have publicly said that. The flip side is the government are very reliant on poker machine tax so will probably reopen as soon as the government permits. Some of the larger league's clubs these days are struggling to make a profit as they have invested in property development. Look at Manly Leagues club making about $80k and Penrith and Parramatta both struggling to make profit so the NRL grant of $13 million in some aspects is still propping up clubs. The NRL have only done some fancy accounting. Instead of loaning them money they give them a grant to cover salary cap and administration costs which is far too much. They will always struggle because they are not good money managers.