‘We’ve got to have some influence’: UK owners await details of NRL deal

1 day ago 4

One of English Super League’s most prominent team bosses admits a deal with the NRL could take the sport to the next level, but maintains club owners must retain a degree of influence in the event of a partnership.

The NRL could invest millions of dollars into the northern hemisphere competition as part of its ambition to strengthen the code internationally.

St Helens ownner Eamonn McManus sees great upside in an NRL-Super League partnership.

Speaking in Las Vegas a fortnight ago, ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys said the English game was headed for a “train crash” and set a three-month deadline for Super League to hand over control.

The proposal has been floated as V’landys seeks a record broadcast rights deal in Australia to build on the $2 billion agreement with Foxtel and Nine Entertainment (owners of this masthead) that ends in 2027.

St Helens owner Eamonn McManus said Super League team owners saw the value in an arrangement with the NRL but wanted to know what it looked like before supporting a deal.

“Everybody is open-minded,” he said. “There is a degree of confusion, should we say, here in that there’s been an awful lot of talks but no detail.

Leeds winger Maika Sivo scores one of his four tries against fellow Super League side Hull KR in Las Vegas.

“I think everybody sees that there is a match here. Rugby league in Australia is a top sport … but the market is possibly near to saturated, the broadcast deals, how much growth is there left in there? And Super League and rugby league in the UK is the antithesis of that: there is a lot of growth to be had and the combining of the two entities could be strong.

“As with every business deal, everything is about detail. I think everybody is agreeable [that] if the deal is structured correctly, both sides could benefit.”

V’landys said the NRL was compiling a business case on the Super League to be put to its clubs for approval in the next month.

It would involve the NRL making a capital injection into the competition, whose teams lose an average of £2 million ($3.75 million) a year.

Joe Burgess scores for Hull KR in last season’s Super League grand final.

“We’d do it to get them back to where they were and hand it back to them,” V’landys said. “We’re not trying to do a takeover. All we’re trying to do is get them viable. We’re there just to invest and get rugby league going in England.

“For us, it’s not about making money. If we break even, we’re happy.”

Invigorating Super League is part of the NRL’s plan to broaden the reach of the sport and the revenue it returns. The Las Vegas venture and the proposed Global Round, with possible games in London and Hong Kong, comes under the same umbrella.

While rugby league is booming in Australia and New Zealand, the gulf between the NRL and Super League has widened with poor management and plummeting broadcast income since the pandemic.

McManus said the management structure of Super League was misunderstood in Australia, with control in the hands of the independent board of the Rugby Football League, England’s governing body, and team owners only having a vote on select matters, such as the competition’s broadcast deal.

The St Helens chairman insisted, “We’re not precious about that ... we’re open to discussions on that”.

But owners want to retain some level of input.

“We’ve got to have some influence because it’s our sport, and we own it,” he said.

McManus said the competition had turned a corner with new leadership at the RFL, expansion to 14 teams and crowds and television figures up in the new season this year.

But joining forces with the NRL could hasten their recovery, he said.

“We don’t feel as though we’re on our knees. We feel as though we are weak, but we are able to work our way out of this gradually,” he said.

“But with the NRL we could do that on an accelerated basis that would obviously be better for both parties and the game as a whole.

“We [could] take each other to the next level. If we do have some sort of merger or partnership for the two sports, it’s a powerful body to grow from.”