- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Opinion
About a year ago, I wrote an article about how I, as a complete outsider, thought rugby league was struggling from administrative and cultural problems.
I believed these would doom it to second-class status behind the AFL without a massive change at all levels of the game.
One year later I’m feeling vindicated, and a lot less hopeful about the future.
The AFL has secured a $4.5 billion broadcast rights deal to start in 2025, leaving the NRL $100 million to $260 million behind per season, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
This is the market reacting to the reality of the two leagues. The way sports leagues succeed is having money to grow the game at a grassroots level and even if the AFL does have more teams to support, they’ve got a lot more money to do it with now.
How, we might wonder, has the chairman of the ARLC been protecting and growing the game he’s there to govern? By making jokes at the expense of the AFL, while his southern counterpart was negotiating the largest broadcast rights deal in Australian sports history.
Gillon McLachlan is an understated media figure, really only making news when he has something to announce, and you’d be forgiven for forgetting he exists when you’re not looking at him.
Peter V’landys is flashy, loud, and loves the spotlight, just like league, that’s why the fans love him and exactly the reason he’s the worst possible person to be in his position.
V’landys would be a great figure of Australian sport if his job was just to promote the sport but he’s inherited the reins at a time when it needs serious reform.
Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter Vlandys. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
But that’s not what league fans want to hear. League’s not in danger, it’s stronger than ever. Yeah but so is soccer, and rugby (union that is) has never had more money and they’re nowhere near catching the AFL or NRL juggernauts and will continue to languish because of it.
The real danger now is that AFL will continue to outpace league and the ARLC and NRL are doing nothing about it but moan to the broadcasters that they deserve more money because the AFL got more.
Believe it or not, I doubt Rupert Murdoch or Channel Nine are going to be particularly moved by these words.
You know what did move Nine? The AFL. Nine had a bid of $500 million per year to broadcast the AFL on their own (and reports are they upped that bid again to closer to $600 million) – money they were not going to throw at the NRL.
Plus Paramount and Ten were involved too. When did the NRL last get a serious offer from Channel Ten?
Maybe this is the kick in the proverbial that the NRL needed to seriously consider its place in the Australian media and cultural landscape but unless the attitude that V’landys embodies is abandoned by those who govern the game, we’re all screwed.
At least I’ll still have the AFL – hell, maybe even by then, the league diehards will have the AFL too – but that is the problem isn’t it?
I’ll finish this piece with the same lines I finished my other one on.
Protect your game and help it grow, advocate for fixes to problems and own it because it is truly your game. While we both have our poorly behaved fans, AFL fans do want you to be happy with the game you love, just like we are.
CLICK HERE for a seven-day free trial to watch the NRL on KAYO
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.