bookmakers will be paying on the storm to win the wooden spoon!!

RL 40 minutes on news show, afl 10 minutes, rest 10 minutes

in 2 weeks time everything will be back to normal.

news ltd will stand by the storm so the damage there will work itself out pretty quickly too

in the meantime everyones is talking nrl

this isnt our first major salary cap scandal. the last club it happened too has grown its crowds by 50% and increased membership revenue by millions after it.

nrl clubs are very resilient

We'll survive fella.

103 years and going strong.

*fixed

Also, we need to ask if going strong is good enough. Austalian rl is the best we have to offer, imo it should be using its strength to spread the game to: the rest of Aus, the rest of New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Somoa, PNG, South Africa, Japan etc and helping spread the game to Europe, and the US (Without proper international competition, league will suffer, big time), rather than being happy with using its strength to overcome scandal after scandal.

I agree with some of this Dally, but the Bulldogs had a couple of generations of support to fall back on whereas the Storm only just became a teenager, they can survive, but it's going to take a lot of hard work.

as long as news ltd back them financially they are safer than any other nrl club bar the broncos

to show people how big the nrl is, the s14 expanded to 15 teams, expanded the number of games, and just signed a TV deal for $450 million for the 3 nations combined

our TV deal will double that just for australia and a small bit of nz.

when you are talking about the nrl, its a big, big thing

at a guess, tens of millions of people will have heard this news story in the past couple of days.

thats lots of people hearing about the nrl

Its completely different and you know it, their first season was 1998, they've been cheating almost half of their existance. Everything they have ever won is due to their cheating. You think fans and sponsors will accept that and carry on as if nothing has happened? You think fans will continue to go to the games, considering all their games this season are effectively friendlies?
Assuming the sponsors start dropping them, and the the fans dont bother turning up to see a season full of friendlies, will they be able to stay financially viable in the short term (even with plenty of money form news ltd)? Struggling to find sponsors, and having driven away half their fans, i can hardly see them thriving in the short to mid term

To qualify, SANZAR signed up a deal for the 3 union nations (the pinnacle ones - Australia, SA, NZ) for about $150 million per nation yesterday.

The NRL will get around $1 billion for Australia only.

The NZ rights are separate.

they won a title in 99! thats untainted.

but ignoring that, news ltd are backing them

RL fans are a loyal bunch.

with a move to the new stadium theyll be fine.

this has happened to other clubs before

indeed the dogs survived a worse SC scandal, had massive rape allegations against them and are stronger

if news ltd werent behind the storm that would be different!

yeah sorry mate thats spot on!

the nz rights are separate for the nrl

I'm failing to see your point, millions of people heard about Josef Fritzel, they're hardly lining up to invest in/become sponsors of the Josef Fritzel Home Renovations and Sound Proofing plc


(Ok then, if we're resorting to pathetic playground style insults 1.8564453125:5