NRL backs bigger cap
Clubs will get $ 9.4m to shower on players after chairmen secure deal
RUGBY league will have to devote up to an extra $ 16 million in total for the NRL clubs over the next five years as a result of concessions given in a meeting with league CEO Todd Greenberg yesterday.
Greenberg will be able to go to his next meeting with the Rugby League Players Association, today, with an offer endorsed by the clubs for the next collecting bargaining agreement.
Previously offered a salary cap of $ 9.2 million a year in 2018, aggrieved Sydney clubs won an additional and op- tional $ 200,000 a year from the NRL for paying veteran players and players developed by a club.
“The clubs are united with the NRL on the final CBA package and the salary cap for 2018 and beyond,’’ Broncos chairman Dennis Watt told News Corp Australia.
“We are ready to proceed with a $ 9.4 million salary cap.
“The package is a huge win for players, with the biggest increase to pay and benefits in the game’s history. The deal will now be taken to the RLPA for finalisation of the CBA.’’
Fans will likely welcome the cap concessions as ways to re- tain a veteran, defined as someone who has been with one club for eight years or in the NRL for 10 years, a player brought through the ranks by one club two or more continuous years before entering the NRL.
As many as nine of the 16 NRL clubs, including the Queensland clubs, had been wanting the NRL to keep the cap at $ 9.2 million.
But Greenberg needed to get at least 12 clubs at yesterday’s meeting to agree to a pay package in order to keep the momentum going towards a completion of CBA talks.
Canterbury are one club that has put themselves in the position of having to release players to fit into a salary cap for next season.
But chairman Ray Dib said after the meeting he was happy with the $ 9.4 million cap, even though he had been agitating for $ 9.6 million.
QRL chairman Bruce Hatcher last month said the NRL’s concessions to the clubs meant $ 20 million a year had been stripped from projected funding to pathways competitions and grassroots league programs.
Looking ahead, players and clubs will hope forecasts of a sharp reduction in broadcast rights fees for Australian sports in the next decade prove ill- founded.
The Seven Network posted a $ 745 million loss for the financial year this week and CEO Tim Worner claimed sports rights values had reached a “tipping point’’.
The NRL’s five- year contract starts next year with Nine, News Corp Australia and Fox Sports and total $ 1.8 billion in income, a 70 per cent increase on the previous rights period.
Seven’s biggest sports investments are in the AFL, Olympic Games and Australian Open tennis.