The Chief wrote:
The AFL in Australia have announced a record $1.25bn TV deal for the next 5 seasons (2012-2016).
The opinion is that the NRL should at least equal this figure for their next TV deal (2013-2017) which could see the new salary cap in the NRL rise as high as $7.5m (£4.9m).
The current NRL salary cap is $4.3m (£2.8m). Therefore with this new spending power, can we envisage an exodus of top line SL players moving down under?
I think the pressure must now be on Richard Lewis to ensure the next round of bidding produces more money for the clubs to ensure they keep hold of their stars. Surely its in Sky's interest to make sure they pay what the competition is worth, but more so, pays enough to the clubs to ensure the game doesn't skew even more in favour of the NRL.
Yes the SL clubs have to do more to raise their income levels, but an increase in the salary cap must also be on the agenda.
I agree something needs to be put in place from the top down but the sport needs mega investment to allow clubs any increased investment on salaries. Hardly any clubs are breaking even let alone making a penny, so spending an extra £1+ million in salaries just to compete financially is not an option, that money is going to have to come from completely fresh investment/increased revenue, any major improvements have also got to be sustainable, too many clubs spent like there was no tomorrow when SL started and have still not recovered (Halifax, Oldham are prime examples).
To help sustainability there could be rules introduced to see clubs academy graduates part exempt from the Cap (an arbitary 50% for example) this would encourage significant investment in youth systems, this provides players for the long term and allow the clubs with successful youth systems to spend on marquee names.
A 4 year deal encompassing £1 million extra per SL club and £200k per championship club per year is a basic rise of over £20 million per year which would be more than double the existing deal and it still wouldn't come close to the NRL cash. It is going to be hard for the RFL to get any significant rise in the current climate let alone a double your money deal...
Games like Good Friday are what the RFL should be selling hard, domestically nothing outside of football comes close to the levels of skill, passion and commitment on show from players and fans (to me football doesn't come close, but am sure you get what I mean), a strong competitive international game would help but that is many years away.
The RFL are going to have negotiate like never before and come up with something big for the future, market it right and get strong financial and commercial partners on board, I won't be holding my breath, but I sincerely hope I am wrong!
