Hi Woodsie,
You are spot on, and take your point 100%. However, if the NRL did not spend the huge amounts of money they apparently did on running the game, and instead gave out more assistance to the licence holders (clubs), they may not require to charge such exorbitant costs to watch a live NRL game.
They complain that many games over the last two years, have half full stadiums. Well instead of spending $3.5 mill a week on who knows what (as they can magically cut 57% of those costs immediately now) why can't they give say $50k a week to each club to promote the game via ticket sales. For example one week kids under 16 have free entry, then following week pensioners get free entry, and so on.
I understand that ticket sales and food costs are up to the clubs, but as we know, what has the NRL done to alleviate clubs survival? If the NRL were fair dinkum in promoting the game and trying to fill the stadiums (by giving something back to fans), a promotion of some type to assist clubs, and fans alike, would be much more advantageous, and one would think it better serves the game than running a $181 mil bill a year on baloney.