The NRL and its purpose is broken

[jbb/james]

The NRL as i see it is beyond repair. Their job to administer the game for the good of their partners ( the clubs) the fans seems to be the last thing on theie mind. Building a strong competition, with financially viable clubs, an entertainment package that people want to see , attend and play, and funding the future of rugby league is a mission statement we will never see in league headquarters

To build Strong viable clubs require promotion and assistance to pull them from the financially crippling years of undervalued TV rights and superleague. Clubs, their brand, theie fans are the business of rugby league and are sacrificed short term for the good of broadcasters. This avenue is only available to a select few selected by the league ( cough cough) in conjunction with organisations responsible for the single biggest rort, travesty and darkest days of Australian sport.

The NRL should not have to bail clubs out. They should give them avenues to increase their business, extra promotions, extra TV games to attract sponsors , fans and memberships. The current model where clubs derive income from home games should be manipulated further to allow these teams to further grow their business with help in either time slots or ground location , but its not due to serving outside organisations not connected to Rugby League or vested in its future

The NRL's system of keeping the teams, weak and dependent is a doomed model which only serves to gain control of the club and its decisions

The conflicts of interest at NRL are too numerous to name and i am lost to see how these have not been challenged

Rugby League is dead man walking, sure it will be dressed up on life support to protect investments made by outside corporations but make no mistake its dead

There are only 2 saviors as i can see:
1. A regulatory body intervenes which is unlikely given the powerful friends the heavy hitting broadcasters can summon
2. Fans put aside their club allegiances and take it back to the NRL which it seems only Souths fans have the courage and stomach for.

So it's dead

 

[Briza]

It's in its worse state since I can remember, and at a lower point than the super league days.

 

[The Wheel]

What a great job Toddy has done to get us to this position - oh for the days of David Gallop

 

[Clint]

I never understand the Gallop hate on here. Notwithstanding the B Stewart affair, I thought he did a terrific job.

 

[Peter C]

Once the NRL sold its soul to the TV stations the game has gone backwards, the game has suffered, the fans have suffered, and attendances have gone backwards, the only ones who haven't suffered are the players.
Today we have these ridiculous time slots just to cater for a TV audience, the night games should start at 7pm, but no chance of that happening, even the Sunday 4pm game is a bad time slot, but put back an hour later just to appease channel 9, so we end up having half a game in the daytime and half a game at night.
Also the NRL's fixation of wanting the game to be played out of large arenas is never ever going to increase attendances like it has done for the AFL, which is a different beast entirely

 

[Peter C]

I never understand the Gallop hate on here. Notwithstanding the B Stewart affair, I thought he did a terrific job.

Except for the fact that he was a News Limited puppet who got screwed over by Fox/News when it came to negotiating the pay television rights deal.

 

[jbb/james]

Except for the fact that he was a News Limited puppet who got screwed over by Fox/News when it came to negotiating the pay television rights deal.

I was looking for something far more juicy but wont post until i find something corroborating

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/out-of-favour-out-of-friends-20120608-201dh.html

 

[Harvies elbow]

It's rotten from top to bottom.
The deadsh*ts running it (into the ground) need to be thrown out.
There can be no other way of improvement.

 

[manlyfan76]

Sack everyone at NRL HQ and pay the afl $100 million a year to run our game.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

What a great job Toddy has done to get us to this position - oh for the days of David Gallop

And who’d have thought we’d ever say that???

 

[Tragic Eagle]

IMO this mob have no idea. IMO They are puppets and the puppeteers are the broadcasters and corporate power brokers. IMO They are like our politicians who now days are preoccupied with winning the next election, with their focus the next broadcasting deal. We don't have visionaries in politics nor do we have them within the NRL Commission. I agree that they have lost sight of their published objectives and I have quoted those objectives quoted from their web page a number times on various threads on this forum. The reason we changed from the previous model in 2012 was bad governance resulting from conflicting state interests and agendas. Sadly IMO we have fallen right back into the same conundrum where conflicting interests and agendas have again resulted in very poor governance and no direction. In 2007 broadcasting rights were valued at 500 million dollars and in 2012 the broadcasters paid the NRL approximately 1.025 Billion dollars for broadcasting rights yet in 2018 the NRL had to get a cash advance from broadcasters. The NRL have acquired no real estate or infrastructure in this period of time. That's a lot of money and quite frankly the game is on the nose with fans, and IMO the crowds at last weeks semis finals in Sydney prove it. On television I saw Beattie invite Sydney fans to attend games like the Queenslanders do, well they only have two teams in one state so you are comparing apples to bananas. Additionally most working class families cannot afford a cable subscription and to also travel away from their home area to take their family to live football at a cost of about $200 including the expensive stadium food and beverages. They take home semi finals away from sides to play them in large empty stadiums and wonder why families don't come. IMO the NRL Commission needs to be restructured and power taken away from individuals like Beattie and Greenburg who shouldn't be permitted to make any major decisions, particularly regarding refereeing and rules mid season, all of which should be determined by vote of the commissioners after appropriate consideration of reliable data and receipt of appropriate submissions at seasons end. IMO this administration lacks transparency, the salary cap lacks transparency, TPA's lack transparency and resistance to full transparency of players salaries and TPAs causes me not to believe in the NRL anymore. I can't believe somebody that wouldn't be totally accountable. I for one believed in 2011 we really needed the NRL Commission but not for one minute did i expect we would end up with another dictatorship. The game is on track to die. The obsession with playing NRL games at huge stadiums has IMO been a fatal flaw in the strategy for future of the game. It is a strategy built on the total disregard for the history and tribalism of the game of Rugby League.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

We need to face facts , Chan 9 and Foxtel now own the game, the NRL just administrates it.

It’s a fabulous TV game , much more so than AFL which is a great attending live game.

And TV loves ratings , so the darling clubs will always have everything and the rest make up the numbers.

That’s what it’s become and nothing will change.

 

[manlyfan76]

We need to face facts , Chan 9 and Foxtel now own the game, the NRL just administrates it.

It’s a fabulous TV game , much more so than AFL which is a great attending live game.

And TV loves ratings , so the darling clubs will always have everything and the rest make up the numbers.

That’s what it’s become and nothing will change.

True but I believe TV viewership is decling and services like Netflix and YouTube are taking over. Today (and other days) the Major League Baseball stream the game of the day on facebook. This is part of the way forward.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

True but I believe TV viewership is decling and services like Netflix and YouTube are taking over. Today (and other days) the Major League Baseball stream the game of the day on facebook. This is part of the way forward.

Yes I agree, don’t forget the NRL in partnership with Telstra allow you to stream each game , data free, on your IPad / Phone!!

 

[manlyfan76]

Yes I agree, don’t forget the NRL in partnership with Telstra allow you to stream each game , data free, on your IPad / Phone!!

I had this last year and the service was poor. You should see the quality of the mlb app. Games are shown /filmed 60frames per second, watch any game live, choose home or away commentary, news stats, replays, on and on.
I'd pay good money to have the same quality here.

https://amp.mlb.com/221915386-mlbtv-is-back-for-15th-year-with-new-features.amp.html

 

[Raven Mad Manly Fan]

The whole thing is a mess and the only way to fix it is to basically scrap it all and start again. Starting from the top, here are some of the issues;
- Vision - do we have one? What is the strategy to get there?
- Commissioners - virtually invisible from day one, and seem to have no control over or interest in overseeing the game. I seriously have no idea what they do or who they are.
- Chairman Beattie - who simply has NFI. What does he do apart from rubber-stamp everything Toddy does.
- CEO Greenturd - my stomach turns just thinking about that smarmy corporate slime. Clearly only cares about No. 1 and couldn't give a **** about the game.
- The referees - a closed shop boys club with zero accountability to anyone. When was the last time any ref got demoted (beyond a token one week stint in the bunker as punishment). Apart from Checcin of course, the best ref who has been outcast by the closed shop boys club.
- The broadcasters - taking the game for a ride and milking it for everything its worth while they can, aided and abetted by weak as piss so called administrators who have sold the games soul for six pieces of silver.
- The commentators - focus their coverage almost entirely on their chosen so-called personalities (Thurston, Smith, Slater etc). Once they all retire, who/what is Vonnie going to be gushing over every week?
- Game day experience - no longer exists. Lower grades ridiculously scattered to various nonsensical venues and times, to what purpose? Who knows. No one is watching. Overpriced tickets to watch a single game, eating over-priced food at half empty soulless concrete monstrosities.
- The game itself - with rare exceptions, most games are so predictable and bland its almost unwatchable. The wrestle has destroyed the game. But lets glorify Cam Smith, the best exponent of modern game management as the the greatest player ever
- The juniors and grassroots - have no idea if anyone is even managing junior league any more, apart from mum and dad on weekends.
When the game was run by people like Arko and Quayle, you knew they had the games best interest at heart. They made decisions for the long term benefit of the game. The current so called administrators just ride the games coat tails in between media rights deals.

We need a revolution. A call for a coup d'état. An overthrow of the old regime. A new superleague war. Call to arms.

 

[StuBoot]

A little bit of serendipity.
I literally just saw this on facebook and as much as it's regarding soccer in the UK the sentiment is similar.......and a thread had just started where I could put it.

 

[Loobs]

 

[OneEyedEagle]

 

[NYEagle]

The clubs no longer have any regional identity - broncos, seaeagles, bunnies, sharks, titans - who the hell cares about these animal and warrior names?. There is nothing to fight for other than money.

The clubs have no history. Back in the eighties all clubs were talked about in reference to their history giving them an aura of a dominant or underdog status. Now it's just whether your team is a betting favourite or not.

Homebush is a depressing wasteland and should still be a swamp.

Club loyalty has been killed. It's just mate against mate going through the motions. Even all these one point close games in the finals are no way near as exciting as games were in the past.

NYEagle