Source:
SMH
‘Without the NRL, there’d be no Foxtel’: V’landys defends broadcast deal against AFL riches
Andrew WebsterChief Sports Writer
September 9, 2022 — 5.45am
Few have trolled AFL more in the past three years than ARL Commission chairman
Peter V’landys.
In 2020, when the AFL relocated the grand final to rugby league stronghold Brisbane because of COVID-19 lockdowns, he told Channel Nine’s
Today: “It’s like people going to an ABBA concert when they’re AC/DC fans.”
In 2021, when Fox Sports’
Matty Johns asked him about the rival code, he called AFL “such a boring sport”. Asked what he would watch if he had the choice between AFL or rugby union, V’landys replied: “
The Flintstones.”
Last month, after announcing the NRL grand final would be staying in Sydney after his ugly battle with Premier
Dominic Perrottet, V’landys said: “We wanted to give it to a city that needs a major football event, that’s why we’ve gone with Melbourne … Just kidding! Greetings Gil [McLachlan, the AFL chief executive] if you’re watching”.
The snobs at the AFL
won’t even dignify V’landys by mentioning his name, nor rugby league for that matter, but you can bet they’re laughing deep into their Aperol Spritz – the official drink of the AFL, I’m told – after hatching a mammoth $4.5 billion, seven-year broadcast deal with Seven and Foxtel.
Since the AFL trumpeted the deal on Tuesday night, there has been widespread concern among rugby league powerbrokers about what it means for the future of their code.
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys says rugby league has nothing to worry about after the AFL hatched a massive broadcast deal.Credit:Rhett Wyman
Specifically, they are concerned about the yawning gap between the AFL and NRL deals.
How wide the gap is depends on whom you ask, but figures being thrown around range from $100 million per annum to as much as $260 million per annum.
Comparisons between broadcast deals are often problematic, but more so this time because the new AFL deal is over seven years from 2025. The NRL’s new five-year cycle with Foxtel and Channel Nine (publisher of this masthead) starts in 2023.
The 18-team AFL also plays an extra game per week, although the NRL will add a 17th team, the Dolphins, from next year in a move that secured an additional $100 million over five years from Foxtel.
No matter how the NRL wants to spin it, the AFL deal is a serious blow. This column is only being written because of the legions of rugby league types – including those loyal to V’landys – calling to express their concerns. “Catastrophic” is how one club chief executive described it.
They identify V’landys negotiating a seven-year extension with Foxtel during the pandemic in 2020 as the moment the NRL blew it.
According to various sources, then NRL chief executive
Todd Greenberg and his then chief commercial officer,
Andrew Abdo, presented a paper to the commission in late March strongly advising against signing a new broadcast deal during the pandemic.
Every major sport in the world spruiks the value of new broadcast deals. Chief executives and chairs hang their hat on them. McLachlan will be dining out on the AFL’s for the rest of his days. Yet, the NRL refuses to divulge the number.
The figure I’ve been told – via NRL sources – is the Foxtel component is about $200 million a year from $185 million in the previous deal. Along with free-to-air, New Zealand, international and radio rights, the total deal is about $400m per year.
How did this happen? What about V’landys’ covert trips to Los Angeles to break bread with News Corp boss
Lachlan Murdoch? The fact-finding missions to Amazon and Netflix to make sure rugby league was backstroking in cash for years to come?
When the free-to-air component with Nine was finally struck in December last year, clubs were told the NRL had wrung every available cent out of the broadcaster.
Evidently not: Nine (and Stan) threw $500 million at the AFL in the latest negotiations but still missed out to Seven and Fox.
“So what?” you might ask. “Who cares what the AFL got? Rugby league’s going great. Leave the Man of Golden Feathers, as Roy and HG call him, alone!”
Rugby league will forever be in V’landys’ debt for the dogged manner in which he navigated rugby league through troubled COVID-19 waters.
On his and Abdo’s watch, the game survived, it increased revenue, recorded profits and gave some of that money back to the players. The NRL even bought a bar on Caxton Street.
But the real concern is what the AFL can do with their recently acquired goldmine.
With a strong administration, financially strong clubs and world-class stadiums, there’s not much left to fix.
It means the AFL can heavily invest in expansion and development, aggressively taking on rival codes with typical arrogance and ruthlessness.
The monster AFL deal sees a further slipping of the V’landys crown, but I’m sure he’ll survive. He’s got enough supporters to make sure that happens.
But what ultimately suffers most is rugby league, left once again to make up the shortfall.
