At a previous job, the looming threat of mass layoffs was explained by the fact the company had huge overheads – millions of dollars per week – that meant fewer people on staff was the only way to stay afloat, despite the fact there were hundreds of millions in the coffers.
“We can’t just spend the money we’ve got saved, that’s for a rainy day,” the bean counters said.
Leaving aside the fact we were at the height of the pandemic – I’d have thought it was evidently pissing down, but never mind – my follow-up question was pretty straightforward: how much money do we make?
I get that the cost of keeping the lights on is substantial, but surely too is the cashflow. In a nutshell, you’re quick to decry costs, but how about you also tell us just how much money this place makes?
The response, as is so often the case when someone asks a straightforward question, was “ahh, you don’t understand the complexities”.
I’m the first to admit I probably don’t – I’m a words, not a numbers, guy.
But if it’s easy to explain one side of a financial equation, maybe you should make a concerted effort to simplify the communication of the other side too.
Nevertheless, citing issues beyond the comprehension of the average punter’s peabrain is a classic line of attack and one that the NRL loves to trot out.
In February this year, Andrew Abdo was keen to trumpet 2021 as “an incredibly strong year” for the NRL, as the game recorded a $43.1 million surplus.
Earlier this month, the Courier Mail reported the “surplus next season is expected to hit a record $50m”.
“The game’s finances have never been better,” ARLC chair Peter V’landys told News.
We’re making so. Much. Money. That’s the takeaway the ARLC is keen for you to have.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Unless you ask them to spend some of it, as Penrith CEO Brian Fletcher did last weekend, taking to News’ Sydney papers to ridicule the paltry $200,000 his club received for winning the 2022 premiership.
“Peter V’landys keeps putting the prizemoney up in the racing but they go and halve it in football. I’d understand if the NRL had no money,” Fletcher said.
“We’re supposed to be bigger than the AFL but their premiers get $1.1 million.”
Abdo responded in Monday’s paper, saying next year’s prize pool “will be up by four times the current levels, subject to commission approval”.
“We halved it during Covid so it will go back to pre-Covid levels and then I’m putting a proposal forward to double those original levels. It would be the same principle for all prizemoney,” the game’s CEO said.
The Daily Telegraph trumpeted Abdo’s claims as the NRL’s “$1m prizemoney boost”, getting that figure by adding the grand final winners claiming $800K and the minor premiers taking home $200K.
I’ll make the observation that the reporter, Dean Ritchie, is clearly not a numbers guy either: “Abdo will recommend to the ARL Commission that all prizemoney be increased fourfold for next season… Winning the minor premiership was worth $100,000 but that figure may now double to $200,000”.
So which is it Dean – double or fourfold? Because fourfold $100,000 is not $200,000.
I’m not just highlighting Ritchie’s lack of calculation skills for poops and giggles – $400,000 is a figure that moves the needle for winning the JJ Giltinan Shield. And it’s an aspect of the competition that needs a bit more oomph about it, because $100K is not a just reward for the 25 weeks of excellence required to win the ‘minor’ title.
As for $800K for the winners of the whole shebang? Look, it’s a marked improvement, but can we agree that it’s still chicken feed for a competition that V’landys claims is about to have revenue “in excess of $600 million”.
This is, in Abdo’s words, “a premier competition”, yet the carrot to be the absolute best of the best is a figure worth a little more than one one-thousandth of total revenue.
It’s also really, really important to note that all these figure comes with the huge caveat of being a “proposal” that is “subject to commission approval”. At this stage, next year’s premiers will still be rewarded with two of Daly Cherry-Evans’ monthly paycheques.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
As for why an organisation clearing $40 million in profit each year is still offering once-in-a-century-pandemic prizemoney, Abdo reasoned “we need to rebuild the balance sheet and think about what the distributions are in the new world.”
Which is a roundabout way of saying, “ahh, you don’t understand the complexities”.
It’s simple: the NRL is rich. It makes hundreds of millions of dollars every year and clears tens of millions in profit.
But it’s hugely, wildly, exhaustively difficult to explain why that money should be spent.
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Nat
Roar Guru
I'm sure you're little fantasies play out in your smoky little head cheech but reality has still eluded you. Maybe reread your little story about the gas bottle you purchase and relate them back to oxygen? Buy your oxygen in bottles for home do you? Then slowly consider my reference to methane and where you expel it from. I get my word play is a fair space above your head but I do enjoy when you repeat what I day back to me in some clever retort you missed in the first place. Life i said, single syllables cheech. That's your lane boy.
Kanye East
Guest
The script goes like this . Lambo searching Google.... Is oxygen a gas ? DOH ! Is air made up of only oxygen? DOH ! Do I breath out Co2 ? DOH ! Does methane come from my dumb a r s e ? DOH ! Same ol story, picks another fight , and loses another fight . You're like playing g chess with a pigeon. You knock the pieces over, schit all over the board and still strut around like you've won the game. Stick to being a phuckwit in your schitty world and try , just try to leave me out if it , if you can . Until next time gay boy .
Nat
Roar Guru
Your level of ignorance will never be a surprise cheech, it is well established. You tube educated dole bludger too bent to understand that your best retort is 4hr old fish and chip paper. Stick to the single syllables cheech and puff puff. We both know you got no one to pass to.
Kanye East
Guest
No no no doe pee little lambo . You breath air , oxygen is pure, and is a gas that comes in a bottle. And Co2 is what you breath out, BUT in contrast, methane is what YOU breath out , but that's simply because you talk out your a r s e. Geez ya caught me by surprise there because ya actually dumber than I thought you were. Baaaaaa Baaaaaa
JennyFromPenny
Guest
Master baiter from way back and obviously out of touch, so to speak. Belinda Sharpe has already reffed 8 games.
Nat
Roar Guru
Poor boy doesn't know the difference between oxygen and gas. Here's a tip cheech, oxygen is what you breathe in. Methane is what you expel with every utterance from your ridiculous head.
Womblat
Guest
Your opinion is obviously far more valid to you than the facts. That's what caused this mess in the first place! The irony is so tasty I don't need dinner!
Kanye East
Guest
Poor widdle wambo :crying:, his oxygen is getting used by some else and he's accusing random strangers. Do you have a gas company Lambo ,I dont remember seeing "Lambo Gas" on any of my oxygen bottles ? I buy mine from BOC , and I pay for them , they'd have me charged if I stole them . That's reality Lambo, see how that works ? No one is wasting your oxygen, and you can console yourself in knowing that your pittance of tax money went to Pfizzzer and Scuummo's cut for buying 150 million doses of that experimental concoction that you have coursing through your veins. Baaaaaaaaa Baaaaaaaaa :shocked:
JennyFromPenny
Guest
Yeah, hello. $400k for premiers in 2016 >> $200k in 2022. Was Fletcher so wrong to ask what the heck is going on ?
Griffo 09
Roar Rookie
I feel like we might get a dramatic increase in cannon-bone tackles.
Griffo 09
Roar Rookie
Or geld him...
Succhi
Roar Rookie
I assumed there was prize money, but didn’t know how much. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but considering the NRL tips in $13m to each club, what else do they want? And let’s face it, the clubs that win the GF are usually doing okay financially. As for billionaires and their sponsorships - they didn’t become billionaires by sponsorship sport. They do it with little expectations, probably a high risk that a dumb footballer or administrator will do something stupid with their logo on their jersey, T shirt, website or letterhead, and could just as easily put their spare money into a charity.
Footy fan in SG
Guest
And did you actually read those articles? The substance was quite different from the headlines. Neither said that she personally paid that tax. Hancock prospecting paid the taxes. I would be stunned if her personal taxes broke 2%. It's so easy for her to legally funnel her personal "salary" to a variety of other places and entities
Footy fan in SG
Guest
She's either lying and your foolishly believing it. Or she's a complete fool. If a billionaire is paying that much in personal income tax, she's got a fleet of incompetent accountants. There's no chance she's actually personally paying what the PR is doing. She'll be expelled from the billionaire union for crossing the picket line.
JennyFromPenny
Guest
Wouldn't the about face by the NRL be very much due to Fletcher's query of the stagnating prize pool ? Were they about to quadruple it of their own accord ? Do you assume the Premiership will only ever remain in Penrith and only doing it for their own benefit ? He would have been asking on behalf of all 16 teams. Penrith got no back-pay out of this. I applaud him for sticking his neck out. Talk about needing to pull your head in.
Redcap
Roar Guru
The sheep enthusiast lecturing us on reality. That's made my day. :laughing:
Womblat
Guest
Ding! Round 4! :laughing:
Womblat
Guest
You must have forgotten the $2.7 billion (yep, with a B) that Hancock Prospecting paid in tax for 2020, and more when her statements come in for 2021. She is the highest individual taxpayer in the entire country. https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/gina-rinehart-miner-nets-massive-7-3b-profit-off-bumper-year-for-iron-20211126-p59cma.html https://www.afr.com/companies/gina-rinehart-says-she-pays-more-tax-than-any-other-australian-20181101-h17d56 For the same period, "Messiah" Cannon-Brooks paid $24 million. Don't believe everything the Greens tell you. They lie.
Nat
Roar Guru
He wouldn't be doing his job if he wasn't asking for more. Abdo wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't tell him to pull his head in.
Nat
Roar Guru
Billionaires don't become that way by throwing good money after bad. The real big end of Sydney could have swept in to save Union at any time but wouldn't touch it for how it was being run. A bit like Clive Palmer blaming the Qld Govt for not saving Qld Nickel in Townsville. He wanted the money they were willing to give but they weren't allowed to see the books.