sidelined

Russel Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court copped a bit of flack last year when they made moves to free Souths from being reliant on income from the pokies. With the news that the taxes the NSW government impose on pokies revenue are hurting the leagues clubs, the intelligent CEO may be looking towards Crowe and Holmes a Court. The grants from the leagues clubs to the footballs clubs are smaller and hence the need for new revenue streams.

Oh, we could call upon the NSW government to ease the taxes but that is unlikely to ever happen. Phil Gould cries “Something needs to be done” but after outlining the problem comes up with nothing.

Gould does suggest that management inertia is a problem and he is right. Making pokies the centre of a successful club is a failing business plan. The NRL is also at fault with not negotiating a good enough TV deal. But the future is finding revenue streams outside of reliance on gambling. The Broncos run a profitable football club as do many of the AFL clubs.

There is an insular mindset that inhabits the upper level of NRL management that is also tied with notions of past success. If the clubs are to survive then they really need to start to look at their long term business strategies and find new revenue streams. It can be done. The clubs that have been constrained by long serving administrators could be the ones feeling very soon the need for cultural change.