Rugby league’s long-time broadcast partner Channel Nine has launched a stunning takedown of the NRL, seething about being left out of the planning for the restart of the competition and accusing the governing body of years of mismanagement and wastefulness.
The ARL Commission is due to receive a recommendation from the organisation’s Project Apollo innovation committee on Thursday about when and in which form the season should resume, with chairman Peter V’landys hopeful of a May 21 return.
The proposal to have a rebooted competition up and running again without crowds in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, however, has not won the support of the game’s long-time free-to-air broadcaster Nine.
Nine chief executive Hugh Marks has told the NRL there is less value attached to the game being played behind closed doors and under a different structure and the media company wants to negotiate a new contract with the code.
But with the game’s administrators preparing to announce the shape and timing of a resumed season, Nine has delivered an extraordinary shot at League Central on Thursday.
“At Nine we had hoped to work with the NRL on a solution to the issues facing rugby league in 2020, brought on so starkly by COVID-19,” said a spokesperson for Nine, the owner of The Sydney Morning Herald.
“It would now appear that much has been squandered by a bloated head office.”
Channel Nine statement
“But this health crisis in our community has highlighted the mismanagement of the code over many years. Nine has invested hundreds of millions in this game over decades and we now find they have profoundly wasted those funds with very little to fall back on to support the clubs, the players and supporters. In the past the NRL have had problems and we’ve bailed them out many times including a $50m loan to support clubs when the last contract was signed.
“It would now appear that much of that has been squandered by a bloated head office completely ignoring the needs of the clubs, players and supporters.
"We now find ourselves with a contract that is unfulfilled by the code. We hoped we could talk though a long-term plan."
The attack will add to fears Nine could walk away from the game after a decades-long association with rugby league.
The company announced to the stock exchange last week that it would save $130m if the sport did not resume this year because of COVID-19 as it outlined plans to shave $266m from its costs.
Marks, who was unveiled as CEO at Willoughby in the same month that the NRL’s $1.8 billion television deal with Nine and Foxtel was signed in November 2015, has also in the past made clear his belief that broadcasters can no longer afford to bid exorbitant amounts for sports rights if it is not profitable.
The NRL's long-time free-to-air broadcaster has hit out at the game's powerbrokers.Credit: Getty Images
The NRL’s current agreements with Nine, Foxtel and Telstra, which began in 2018, run until 2022. Foxtel’s deal is worth about $1 billion, or $200m a year, while Nine signed up to pay a reported $625m over the life of the contract, or $125m a year.
Neither company paid their quarterly instalments last week after the competition was put on hold following advice from the NRL’s biosecurity expert.
The NRL has been rushing to get the season started again as the rate of infection decreases sharply in Australia, eager to have revenue from broadcasters pouring into the game again. It has stood down most of its staff and as costs are cut significantly across the game and chief executive Todd Greenberg has agreed to take the same 71 per cent pay cut as players.
Yet with Nine arguing for a new contract - and Foxtel also having told the NRL the value of its deal decreases if the season runs beyond October - there are tense negotiations ahead.