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Agree with all of that. I have a feeling the next tv deal will be worth less than the current one. The nrl need to address crowds now.
Nowhere near 24k at the SFS
Why would there. E? Two teams with the lowest supporter base. In fact lowest of low, both of them
Noticed during the Fox coverage the cameras were fixed at lower levels of the the stadium where most of the crowd was located ….. deliberately avoiding wider shots which would clearly show that it was in fact just an average attendance.
So Yes our crowds are really poor. It just shows that people are just sick and tired of how the NRL are running the game, the obvious favouritism to out of town teams and towards big end of town corporate supported teams like the roosters.
They deserve what they get and if things like rorting the salary cap via allowing no cap TPAs don’t get attention in the off season ..... they will just further allinate the fans.
I have to agree with much of what you say.The NRL have caused nearly all of the apathy involved by allowing certain clubs to use unlimited TPAs to basically cheat the cap.To many supporters it is not acceptable and these are the people that Toddles and his fellow incompetents are losing from the game.All the administration seem to care about is keeping their own nose in the feeding trough and not delivering a fair product which is what they are supposedly there for.
I will believe the NRL is a fair and equal playing field when teams such as roosters/broncos get caught and punished heavily for systemic cheating.That action would restore many peoples faith in the system.
I think the first move is for the NRL to publish salaries and TPAs. That will bring transparency to the discussion and eliminate a lot of the conspiracies.
I honestly and genuinely believe that you are wrong about the NRL not trying to make the comp fair and even. I believe that the NRL are applying the same rules to everyone, it's just that some teams are stronger financially than others. There's only so much the NRL can do when some clubs constantly run at an operating loss and can't attract sponsors.
In fact the NRL regulalry intervenes to save clubs when they could just allow them to go broke and redistribute the clubs with a more strategic geography.
And the salary cap is evidence enough alone of an intent by the NRL to even out the comp where possible. You can't argue that the NRL is failing to or doesn't want to police the salary cap and TPAs when it was the NRL that introduced these limits in the first place.
If you want Tigers to be on even footing with Easts or Broncos - well that's a fantasy. We aren't on a level footing. Broncos crush every club in terms of sponsorship, revenues, crowds, members etc. It's only the NRL's intervention that stops Broncos buying every good player and dominating the league.
But you have that impression, and that also means something. #penaltybroncos is not entirely a joke. The NRL needs a strategy to combat the conspiracy theories, and I think the first move is to publish salaries.
I also expect that the RLPA will fight hard to the courts to prevent published salaries. It's not in their best interests.
In terms of poor crowds, that's a Sydney apathy thing. I believe the average crowds are slightly up 2018 or 2017 compared to historical highs, but yes AFL blows that out of the water. Melburnians will send 100,000 to an Origin match (even if a significant amount of that is NSW or QLD ex pats or travellers), so they obviously like watching live sport.
Go to any NRL game and you can see there are lots of attempts to improve the gate - cheaper tickets and food, merchandise discounts, marketing for memberships etc. But Sydney-siders dont attend sports in huge numbers. 40K to an all-Sydney AFL is an indication of the number of AFL supporters in Sydney rather than an alternative passion for live matches in the AFL vs NRL supporters. If there were only 2 Sydney league teams you'd get huge crowds.
I don't believe the TV deals have much to do with the crowds. NRL still dominates TV ratings FTA and Pay, and advertisers pay for it. Full stadiums would be a preferable look, but hundreds of thousands watch on telly all over the country. Whether or not the next deal is a big payday I believe will depend a lot on the health of the FTA networks, who are struggling against modern viewership trends (netflix etc) and may not have the funds to outlay big year on year. That reduces the competition that drives up the current prices.
Ultimately the NRL might like to have full control of their viewership product - FTA to meet the requirements by law, then a paid streaming service direct to fans, bypassing Foxtel's cut.
