NRL Europe.

[Henson Park Old Firm]

"The 16 NRL clubs were told that head office may consider purchasing the UK Super League competition if a business case could be made for the move. As it stands, the NRL doesn't own a single asset."

[GUBRATS]

Is this the organisation that's just cut $ 65 million from its budget ?

[Cumbrian Mackem]

I’d much prefer it if the NRL would buyout the NZRL.

[Scubby]

I am actually at the point in thinking that if RL has any chance of succeeding it needs to be united. The combination of world TV deals, streaming rights, branding and assets would make a lot of sense in a normal world. The RFL would be like the ARLC with power over the community and national games.

However, the term here is normal world. Clubs by nature are selfish and rarely think about the sport's development at all. Saying that, it does make a number of club susceptible to being swayed with a cash injection.  

[The Rocket]

2 hours ago, Henson Park Old Firm said:

"The 16 NRL clubs were told that head office may consider purchasing the UK Super League competition if a business case could be made for the move. As it stands, the NRL doesn't own a single asset."

This is a criticism that gets trotted out a lot and I`m not sure that it is justified. I am sure there are a lot of businesses who prefer to withhold their earnings or to reinvest in their own business and not feel obliged to buy ` assets`.

The NRL has taken 100 odd years to get to a point where it generates half a billion dollars in revenue every year, surely this  income generating entity qualifies as an asset any way. Don`t they call this in accounting `Goodwill`.

It was widely publicised in the last broadcast negotiations that the NRL refused to include the Digital rights as part of the deal. A couple of years previously one media analyst put the potential future value of these rights at one billion dollars. Regardless whether this estimate may have been optimistic, doesn`t this still qualify as an asset.

 

[fighting irish]

I personally, would be cock-a-hoop if they bought in and got involved.

I hope you are right too Rocket and the minuted statement will provide an extra lever in the Sky negotiations. 

 

[Tommygilf]

5 hours ago, Scubby said:

I am actually at the point in thinking that if RL has any chance of succeeding it needs to be united. The combination of world TV deals, streaming rights, branding and assets would make a lot of sense in a normal world. The RFL would be like the ARLC with power over the community and national games.

However, the term here is normal world. Clubs by nature are selfish and rarely think about the sport's development at all. Saying that, it does make a number of club susceptible to being swayed with a cash injection.  

Ironically, for all the hate the Super League war and Murdoch etc gets on here, that is exactly the sort of thing they were trying to set up 20 odd years ago. If the NRL does assume that unifying role, it will just be a couple of decades later with different figures at the top

[Scubby]

7 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Ironically, for all the hate the Super League war and Murdoch etc gets on here, that is exactly the sort of thing they were trying to set up 20 odd years ago. If the NRL does assume that unifying role, it will just be a couple of decades later with different figures at the top

I love the game but SL is going absolutely nowhere and simply cannot break the shackles because clubs are not interested in anything but surviving the year.

Would it be a shock to the system? Yes like anything new. But the NRL World Club Championship with the European winners playing the Australasian winners - all under the same brand - at least has a chance. Also, the Watch NRL app is set up for both competitions' content for viewers around the world. Members in this country would also have to justify their existence as an elite club which is sadly missing too atm. 

[THE RED ROOSTER]

I think you will find that this entire debate down under is predicated on the NRL accepting private equity investors. Then with a cash surplus you could consider purchasing the Super League for a nominal fee.

Now many voices would say that with an ambitious expansion agenda down under, working with the Australian Government to promote the sport within polynesia that that windfall would be better spent there.

https://www.dfat.gov.au/people-to-people/sport/sport-for-development/pacific/Pages/sport-for-development-pacific

You only have to look at the roster on any NRL team to see the impact of Pacific Island heritage and national players. A ready made market for development.

Equally there are parts of Australia and New Zealand where such a windfall would aid the development of the game a lot more than subsidising what is seen to be a loss making secondary sport in a geographically confined area of the UK.

Lets face it whatever is introduced in the NRL from Golden Point doiwnwards is adopted in the Northern Hemisphere anyway and young up and coming players within the super league are keen to prove their mettle in the best league on the planet so it's a good deal anyway for the NRL.

Assuming that they did buy the Super League, then for many of you be careful what you wish for. Certainly there is a view that the league would need to be expanded within the UK and this would be the deathknell for many a traditional heartland club - No room for scutterton scorpions in NRL Europe...

But the biggest single reason why this will remain a pipe dream is simple - Can you imagine the twelve fractious Super League Chairmen taking a backseat to and receiving instructions from Moore Park in NSW ?

[steve oates]

On 28/02/2021 at 08:52, Henson Park Old Firm said:

"The 16 NRL clubs were told that head office may consider purchasing the UK Super League competition if a business case could be made for the move. 

I personally would not dismiss this. The two games are heavily linked by the way in which our game takes the Aussies surplus players who can stay playing at a decent level, their bad boys whilst they serve their bans and learn to behave, their stars who are too old for NRL but OK for here, and those up and coming Aussie lads who fancy some time abroad. In turn they like to take our best players. There really must be a value for the NRL in ensuring these links are maintained. Same for Aussie.v.Great Britain, they may not be that interested but the NRL would not like to lose the big International clashes forever.

 

It has to be the case for me that if SKY really did stop the contract and we had to go semi-pro the game would be very badly damaged here, and this would have serious  ramifications in Australia (and probably France too as they head for two clubs in Superleague) Again it seems to me there's a good case for the NRL and SL to join up to protect the sport as a whole??.

[The Rocket]

20 hours ago, Scubby said:

I love the game but SL is going absolutely nowhere and simply cannot break the shackles because clubs are not interested in anything but surviving the year.

Would it be a shock to the system? Yes like anything new. But the NRL World Club Championship with the European winners playing the Australasian winners - all under the same brand - at least has a chance. Also, the Watch NRL app is set up for both competitions' content for viewers around the world. Members in this country would also have to justify their existence as an elite club which is sadly missing too atm. 

Does it have to be a buy-out ? If your broadcast deal is reduced to 20m pound, what`s to stop the NRL offering another 20m as an annual grant but with strings attached, or in other words a business plan attached, like who`s in and who`s out and what sort of fixtures can be put up for television. 

Ultimately a yearly `Super Bowl` type event would be ideal, northern champion  versus south champion, if that could be eventually developed into a big event, it could generate a fair amount of revenue, SOO generates about $10m per game.

So unfortunately some of the smaller struggling SL clubs are out, and clubs that bring growth potential to the game are in, with an increased annual grant from the Sky deal and annual NRL grant combined.

So to take an example, a club like Newcastle are in, their annual grant is ~ 2m pound, 12 clubs. Don`t take these figures too literally, it may be more, but you get my drift.

In return the NRL might want something like you listed above and the return on their investment is that ultimately the game is bigger and  their SH broadcast deal is bigger.

As they said they`d think about it if there was a decent business plan, wouldn`t mind being a fly on the wall when it`s being discussed.