This is the recession rugby league had to have

There’s no interest like self-interest. And it’s self-interest that has left rugby league teetering on the brink of a coronavirus crisis bankruptcy.

And, when it’s all over, hopefully many will have a good, hard look at themselves in the mirror. It’s unlikely, but some may even admit they were part of the problem.

The self-interest of so many over so many years left the game with nowhere near enough money in the bank. The Super League war, the reluctance of players – and managers – to adopt an orderly draft, the wont of clubs to spend more and more on players, coaches and football departments, and live beyond their means ... on and on and on it goes.

This collective greed led to the game spending every last cent it earned for decades. It lived like a university student who never grew up, matured, had a family, invested in a home and accrued superannuation.

During those same years, their southern cousins at the AFL built a war chest that has left them in far better shape. The AFL has its own stadium. The NRL is running around in circles trying to get the state government to build it new ones.

As the NRL’s revenue from television rights exploded, just as your wage grows after leaving uni, there were far too many fingers in the pie.

Bulldogs interchange players and support staff, seated well apart, look on at an empty ANZ Stadium on Friday night.Credit: Getty

For the five seasons from 2013-17, television rights revenue alone reaped the game $1.1 billion. From 2018-22, the deal is worth $1.8 billion, or $360 million a season. That's a staggering $1.8 billion in the past seven years. Just in TV revenue.

That’s without selling a ticket, or signing a sponsor.

From all of that money, the game has no assets and has $70 million in the bank.

Less than two years ago, NRL HQ was forced to secure an advance from broadcasters to pay bills because the banks would not lend the game money.

Just look at this coronavirus crisis around the world. We need to be prepared for events like that.

ARLC chairman Peter V'landys' comments on February 29

The players alone are owed about $100 million from now until the end of the season, and their wages are paid by way of the NRL’s annual $13 million grant to each club.

If coronavirus wipes out the season, the game is broke. The $70 million evaporates in a heartbeat. End of story.

Just three weeks ago, I interviewed Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys after the NRL’s annual general meeting. He was critical of previous administrations for the game’s lack of assets. Pointing to the NRL’s $30 million profit for the previous 12 months, he said that amount had to continue to grow and the game needed to buy assets. Fast.

"Just look at this coronavirus crisis around the world," he told me on February 29. "I was involved with racing when it was shut down by equine influenza and I know what it can do to a sport if something like that comes along and shuts us down. We need to be prepared for events like that."

Three weeks is a long time. A world shut-down was not in anyone’s thoughts then.

When I aired the interview, some people told me he was being alarmist "going on about coronavirus". Well, three weeks later, here we are.

Because of the perilous state of the game’s finances, the "street fighter" in V’landys – the Greek migrant whose family arrived here in the 1970s with nothing – has come to the fore.

ARLC chairman Peter V'landys has called on the government to give the NRL massive financial assistance.Credit: AAP

With sponsorships and broadcast revenue the last remaining hope in the absence of crowds, the game most go on to stay alive.

V’landys began the campaign to secure rescue funding from the government, something he did successfully to save racing during the equine influenza outbreak in 2007. It went over like a lead balloon with the public who were watching from home worried about their own jobs and businesses.

The public aren’t dills – they’ve seen the game squander money. As much as they love rugby league, they are not going to support government handouts to highly paid league players at the same time as their jobs are in jeopardy and their savings are evaporating.

They would rightly think that as they dip into their own savings, which have accrued since leaving uni or completing an apprenticeship. The NRL should do the same. Only, it doesn’t have any.

An empty feeling

After sitting in an empty ANZ Stadium to watch the Bulldogs host the Cowboys on Thursday night, here are my thoughts on a crowd-less NRL.

• The match was competitive and the players put in. It was fierce, there were big hits, it was a regular match. The players said as much afterwards.
• I came away with serious doubts that it is sustainable as a spectacle for another 24 rounds of eight matches a round. There will inevitably be some shocking matches.
• Hardcore fans, those like me who don’t mind watching NSW Cup, will be fine. Other members of the family will disengage. Mine will.
• The engagement of the bench is crucial. The Cowboys’ bench was right into the match, cheering on enthusiastically, while the Dogs’ bench was mute. It seemed to make a difference.