NRL Europe? In Winter?

[Worzel]

3 hours ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

This has been simmering in the background for over a year however the English press havant been on it.

The NFL don't have to buy Super League there is nothing to buy,all they have to do is put 5 million each on the table for 12 clubs and off they go.

NFL Europe even Phil Gould backs it.

 

I don’t know the details of the IMG contract, but I doubt they’d have written a partnership agreement that didn’t consider the possibility of a 3rd party attempting to either make a direct offer for the sport, or indirectly engage parties within the sport and establish a separate comp. Which means they’ll have an effective veto on any change.

If IMG believe in the viability of commercial growth over their 12 years, they won’t want to exit early. A lot of their costs are front-loaded. There’s no way my own PE investors would sell their stake early for example, unless the buyer was paying close to their future target price. I think IMG would similarly want to hold and build.

So whatever discussions are going on, or not, it’s definitely not as simple as chucking £60m on the table.  

[Tommygilf]

John's point seems to be that he doesn't understand how loans could work between the NRL and Super League...

[The Rocket]

12 hours ago, Worzel said:

I see Matty is struggling for content this week

Maybe he could go and stick his hand up a cow’s a### again? People loved that last time 

 

Seen that done countless times as a boy growing up on a dairy farm, if you`re wearing a glove it`s not really a big deal. The more challenging one is during a difficult calving where you`ve got to stick your arm in the cow`s ####, sans gloves, because she can`t get the calf out on her own, usually the leg`s folded back or even the head sometimes. First time I did that when I was about 14, parents were out, so it was either me or no one. 

Very satisfying though when you see that calf alive on the ground though, when you know if you weren`t there it would most likely have died.

[Fly-By-TheWire]

1 hour ago, Coggo said:

Oh. I'm seeing words like 'much closer'. The opposite will happen. It is happening.

And making SL play in winter will almost certainly accelerate that widening gap.   I'm going to put forward my own idea of SL clubs being NRL second teams but retaining their own names and branding.   Whenever Latrell Mitchell or Cleary or Manu have a bad game, they get sent over to play in SL for the next weekend or until they prove they are ready for the NRL first team again.  And since I suggested it, Warrington get first dibs on the Penrith team.

Edited February 23 by Fly-By-TheWire

[JonM]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

Until it turned out that they'd spent £30m on an app that didn't work, I did say the Australian sport the RFL could learn the most from would be soccer.

Except soccer in Australia is far bigger than RL is in the UK and has all kinds of marketing advantages that RL doesn't have.

If you're picking an Australian sport which seems to have been well run for decades, AFL would be the one to go for, although RL has done a far better job of international expansion on a fraction of the income. And maybe the fact that AFL gets essentially zero coverage here means that whatever things they mess up go unnoticed. 

[fighting irish]

8 minutes ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

And making SL play in winter will almost certainly accelerate that widening gap.   I'm going to put forward my own idea of SL clubs being NRL second teams but retaining their own names and branding.   Whenever Latrell Mitchell or Cleary or Manu have a bad game, they get sent over to play in SL for the next weekend or until they prove they are ready for the NRL first team again. 

Dual registration agreements. Only one winner there. 

[Fly-By-TheWire]

3 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

Dual registration agreements. Only one winner there. 

And there's always the risk that the NRL might snap up Gil Dudson.   I'm prepared to take that risk though.

[JonM]

1 hour ago, Griff said:

Do you think the NRL would be as successful here?

How did the Brisbane Broncos takeover of London go? Not as well as they thought?

There have been plenty of administrators and officials who've worked in both SL and the NRL too.

Shane Richardson was Souths CEO for over a decade, also Cronulla & Penrith & now at Wests I believe. He was NRL Head of Strategy (and on the RFL board at one point). His attempt at expanding UK RL by setting up Gateshead ended up with them being merged into Hull FC.

Blake Solly went to boarding school in NSW before coming here and ending up as the SL General Manager before going back home to become CEO of the club he supported as a child - Souths.

[Griff]

2 minutes ago, JonM said:

There have been plenty of administrators and officials who've worked in both SL and the NRL too.

Shane Richardson was Souths CEO for over a decade, also Cronulla & Penrith & now at Wests I believe. He was NRL Head of Strategy (and on the RFL board at one point). His attempt at expanding UK RL by setting up Gateshead ended up with them being merged into Hull FC.

More success.

[Simon Hall]

41 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

Seen that done countless times as a boy growing up on a dairy farm, if you`re wearing a glove it`s not really a big deal. The more challenging one is during a difficult calving where you`ve got to stick your arm in the cow`s ####, sans gloves, because she can`t get the calf out on her own, usually the leg`s folded back or even the head sometimes. First time I did that when I was about 14, parents were out, so it was either me or no one. 

Very satisfying though when you see that calf alive on the ground though, when you know if you weren`t there it would most likely have died.

Well, I've seen some off topic posts in my time...

[jim_57]

Can someone explain how this hypothetical buyout would even work?

[JonM]

13 minutes ago, jim_57 said:

Can someone explain how this hypothetical buyout would even work?

It's a throwaway quote, with zero thought behind it, but I could imagine the NRL approaching the SL chairmen with an offer to buy the SL Europe competition. Or in a semi-hostile takeover, I suspect they could buy the six or seven weakest clubs from their owners relatively inexpensively and vote through whatever changes they wanted.

[gingerjon]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

Except soccer in Australia is far bigger than RL is in the UK and has all kinds of marketing advantages that RL doesn't have.

That's fair, and I think I did say at the time that it wasn't a perfect fit but, with the knowledge I had at the time, it did look like a sport that had made peace with where it fits in general in the sporting landscape and was doing solid things with regards to building event attendance and wider participation - in contrast to an earlier period when they'd made all kinds of wild claims about how huge they were about to be whilst spaffing money away on stupid fading international signings.

[Dave T]

An NRL takeover would be worse than Private Equity. 

At least PE investors would want to make the game as big as possible to make as much money as possible from it. The NRL would want to keep the comp in it's place and use it as a feeder. As we've seen in recent years, the way the international game was progressing without the NRL controlling it was soon halted.

[unapologetic pedant]

1 hour ago, The Rocket said:

The more challenging one is during a difficult calving where you`ve got to stick your arm in the cow`s ####, sans gloves, because she can`t get the calf out on her own, usually the leg`s folded back or even the head sometimes. 

Farmer John Hopoate. Who knew?

"Held, Release, Markers Square, Wait, Hold, Go 1"

[unapologetic pedant]

"The North of England is a very volatile region. Mass unemployment and socio-economic issues. A large population with xenophobic views that might have sympathy with right-wing nationalists in Russia. We should convince Albo another round of soft diplomacy is needed in the region and get the Aussie government to fund NRL's ESL takeover"

The above is a post from the L.U. forum. Pretty sure it's a wind-up. But in the context of other posts, it took a while and several reads.

[EggFace]

NRL in the USA, NRL buying Super League, NRL buying Rugby Australia....maybe just maybe the NRL should concentrates on expanding their own comp and maybe do something to semo pro leagues like NSW/QLD Cup and the likes of the Newcastle,illawarra and bush comps.

[EastLondonMike]

Someones been drinking. The lazy nature of the comments that have been aired is evidence enough. They have no idea at all about the RL landscape in the UK.

The comments made about winter and players playing short term stints in each comp are so basic and without any real thought. 

[tuutaisrambo]

They'd be better off concentrating on the USA........Which I think they probably are.

Even if SL was open to the idea.........I really don't see how it would benefit the NRL.

It'll be clickbait ahead of the WCC.

[Damien]

8 hours ago, EastLondonMike said:

Someones been drinking. The lazy nature of the comments that have been aired is evidence enough. They have no idea at all about the RL landscape in the UK.

The comments made about winter and players playing short term stints in each comp are so basic and without any real thought. 

The lazy nature of RL journalism is in full force too. Practically every outlet has now repeated this with a different twist.

[rlno1]

12 hours ago, JonM said:

Except soccer in Australia is far bigger than RL is in the UK and has all kinds of marketing advantages that RL doesn't have.

If you're picking an Australian sport which seems to have been well run for decades, AFL would be the one to go for, although RL has done a far better job of international expansion on a fraction of the income. And maybe the fact that AFL gets essentially zero coverage here means that whatever things they mess up go unnoticed. 

Rl was only run poorly due to interference from news corp now they have the game it is no coincidence that everything is headed in a positive direction as they are partners now.

[gingerjon]

7 hours ago, Damien said:

The lazy nature of RL journalism is in full force too. 

Gives them something to do in between all repeating exactly the same take about the start of the season rules clampdown.

[Sports Prophet]

I don’t understand why people would think the NRL would be interested in taking over SL, only to run it into the ground and have it as a feeder comp, when smaller sized investments into NSW Cup and Qld Cup would achieve that goal.

I mean businesses don’t expand their reach into new markets by taking over an existing business, with the purpose of deliberately diminishing the appeal of that product. It’s laughable.

If the NRL did have thoughts around running the professional game in Europe, it would surely be doing so with its eyes firmly on expanding the sport to the large number of mass European financial economies on the British doorstep. Economies the Pacific could only dream of.

I think the story is a load of bull, but if I did want to entertain it as real, then the theory I would go for is that the NRL see SL is onto a good trajectory and a buyout now to own the European market will be a lot cheaper and viable now than if the future where if SL continues to improve, a takeover may not be possible at all.

[The Future is League]

On 23/02/2024 at 00:42, Henson Park Old Firm said:

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/nrl-in-talks-to-buy-super-league-with-winter-return-discussed-reports

It's not going to happen.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

I don’t understand why people would think the NRL would be interested in taking over SL, only to run it into the ground and have it as a feeder comp, when smaller sized investments into NSW Cup and Qld Cup would achieve that goal.

I mean businesses don’t expand their reach into new markets by taking over an existing business, with the purpose of deliberately diminishing the appeal of that product. It’s laughable.

If the NRL did have thoughts around running the professional game in Europe, it would surely be doing so with its eyes firmly on expanding the sport to the large number of mass European financial economies on the British doorstep. Economies the Pacific could only dream of.

I think the story is a load of bull, but if I did want to entertain it as real, then the theory I would go for is that the NRL see SL is onto a good trajectory and a buyout now to own the European market will be a lot cheaper and viable now than if the future where if SL continues to improve, a takeover may not be possible at all.

It isn't necessarily that they want to run it into the ground, but you would have to ask what the objective is. If it's to make cash, I expect there are far better investments with higher returns. 

If it's to ultimately have full control of the sport of RL, and therefore international RL, and as a player development base, then that won't necessarily be the best thing for UK RL. That's the fear for me.