I argue this would have been the best result. WAIT, HEAR ME OUT!!!!
If this had have happened, it would have resulted in a massive review at what went wrong and maybe, just maybe, league would have been reborn as a better competition under a far more professional organisation as a result and the game could have actually eventually grown instead of a slow implosion on itself.
I get the idea that a super league is what's needed to reshape the competition into something better (primarily less Sydney teams and less of an East Coast centricity (probably incorrect use of the word, but whatever)), but in a world where the NRL dies or is damaged so badly that it's bought out and revived... I think it loses too much of what built it and stigma would be created... and they would lose too much ground to AFL to ever fully recover.
No doubt the product on its own sells itself, but they've pretty well only just managed to get itself onto even footing with AFL, in terms of revenue and visibility in the market.
Before the big deals with Fox the NRL were having to fight off ESL, Super Rugby and European Rugby (and even AFL) to be the number 1 sporting comp for their players... at the moment all of those comps appear miles behind if it came to poaching a current superstar like Turbo, Teddy, Cleary, Haas, Fifita, etc. away from the sport.
If NRL "died" during Covid all of a sudden every player under contract is looking for a new job and the game is basically back to semi professional status where the peak athletes can get a better pay day elsewhere... that's a huge barrier to overcome and re-establish yourself as a comp again.
I just can't see how they would be able to overcome that unless some multi-billion dollar private investment came from the clouds and was able to somehow recreate the same'ish competition that can immediately:
- recreate a talent pool (assume poaching from the sports you've just lost all your talent to because your previous comp died and they've all defected elsewhere)
- create a connection to its target audience (especially a Sydney audience that you're planning to cull probably half the teams and history from in order to expand elsewhere)
- re-establish the tv revenue back to its current level to sustain the competition (need to pay the players so they don't start defecting again)
I just can't see it happening, because you're going to have to sacrifice something from the above after letting the competition die. Also a huge risk tampering with the Sydney audience... we all fucking hate the Sydney-centric nature of this competition, but choosing which portion to cut out is a very delicate decision.
It's needed, but I don't know the Sydney politics to know which clubs "should" be excised.
