Looking further into this it doesn't seem the NRL stake is about reaping profits, rather shoring up the two games. It's often said the NRL has no care for the English game, which may be true if we think about International Rugby but if this is about ensuring RL keeps a decent world profile then maybe the two major cornerstones of the sport are somehow better together.
Revenue has been hammered by the ban on spectators and it is hammered a second time by the impending lowering of the SKY deal, and a third blow is the possible loss of betting company sponsorship and advertising revenue as the English government seek to stop betting and lotteries from draining people's pockets in these arleady hard times.
But of course we are going to carry on giving away Superleague places to New York, Ottawa and Toulouse. Time to get real.
What real is going to look like 2022 I'm not sure, the Australians already run a kind of unofficial system where the English/Aussie/NZ/south seas professional Rugby League player pool is administered by the very best players going to the NRL, with English clubs effectively getting second pick. In addition as SKY reduce the sums they have been paying for League maybe the Aussie/English erm "Partnership" is about protecting the World game i.e. having a joint English/Aussie approach to TV deals in which the Aussies encourage SKY not to drop off supporting Superleague, because without a Superleague in England would we really have a real World game. Would the Aussie game retain the same stature? Yes we have had an imaginary Transatlantic game in recent years but this was never going to pay the bills - only heavily rack them up as we saw........................
