Your maths is a bit off there Ryan.
Lets say we get $1 Billion and expand to an 18 team competition. This means we have 20 parties that have an equal share in the ownership of the ARL (IC run), including NSWRL and QRL.
$1 Billion / 5 years = $200 Million per year
$200 Million per year / 20 clubs = $10 Million for each club PER YEAR (and $10 Million for the NSWRL and QRL each). That is 3 times the amount they are currently getting. I would expect on that deal a rise of the Cap by about $3 million minimum to $7 million. This would also mean the wages are fully funded plus the club pockets $3 Million per year...and that is before sponsorships. Add them on and a club could quite easily be pocketing $5 million + per year. We'd be able to build the extensions ourselves by the next TV deal on that kind of cash!!
(This is estimated as we all know the administration will need a cut per year. However, this can always come from sponsorship from Telstra and the yearly Government payment to keep the GF in Sydney. It wouldn't cost too much to keep the back end stuff going. Too much of our money is going back to News Corp atm)
On the current deal each club SHOULD be getting $5-6 Million. Unfortunately we are getting $3 Million and the rest is going to News Corp and the ARL.
Finally lets put this into perspective. If for arguements sake we were to get $1.5 Billion, an extra $500 million to the above dollar we are looking at:
500 / 5 = $100 million / 20 = $5 million PER CLUB PER YEAR extra!!!
Therefore, we are talking:
$15 million for Manly (and each of the other clubs) per year
$15 million for the NSWRL and QRL each per year
If you want your club to save $5 million + a year we could make the cap $10 million... thats $400 000 PER PLAYER in your top 25 on average. No club in the competition would have to worry about losing players anymore. No club would have to worry about debts. More companies would buy into clubs to make them financially stable. News Corp would get their money's worth out of Brisbane. Our competition would be able to compete against the best of them.
That's why we need to hit $1 Billion on this deal and I don't think Gallop is the man that can do it. Our only advantage is the fact that Nine lost the AFL rights. If they believe they could lose the NRL rights they will do what Seven did and up their price for the competition. With Ten having a bit of a go as well might bump this up as well. Foxtel is the worry. If they have already spent 600 million on the rights to AFL, how much do they have left for the NRL, a game they have already been showing all games live on?
I have always respected Demetriou, so much so that I wish he was our CEO. He really knows how to run that company and I think once the IC comes in, Gallop should do the negotiating...but for one reason. If we don't get $1 billion, if we don't get expansion, if we don't get to choose the games pre season like the AFL, if we don't get LIVE GAMES IN MELBOURNE each week, then we cut off his head, fire his arse and there is nothing News Corp can say or do about it. It will just prove what we have always known: Gallop has always been selling the NRL out for his real bosses News Corp.
One last thing: I think the fact we don't have a pre-season cup will be to our detriment this TV deal. That would have to be worth at least $200 million in revenue over 5 years at least. That may be the reason (and should be the reason) why we get $1 Billion and the AFL got $1.25 billion
