Has hubris got the better of Peter V’landys?

[A Country Member]

Five days later..
April 14, 2020

Marks hopped in a taxi bound for Druitt Street in Sydney, the head office of Racing NSW.

Nine wanted answers on a few key items. The first is an indication on what V'landys intends to do about the NRL's "bloated head office". There is no doubt V'landys will change that.

"Today, Nine CEO Hugh Marks and I had a constructive and co-operative meeting about rugby league in 2020 and beyond," V'landys said.

"I am buoyed by Mr Marks’ support of rugby league and his commitment to the game. The meeting provided us with the opportunity to outline our positions and discuss next steps to navigate this crisis.

"We are both focused on the long-term success of the game and, while there is more work to do, I am optimistic we will find a way through this together. Our next meeting, where we will endeavour to construct a road map for the game this year, must include Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany."

The NRL is desperate to return, possibly as early as May 28. It had hoped for the support of Nine, but more work needs to be done.

Nine also wants the NRL to use the break to come up with fresh ideas to rejuvenate the game for the long-term benefit of the code and clubs.

[David Sutherland]

Broadcasters pay big bucks so they will have a say in the game whether people like it or not, as basically, without this money, the game would be in dire trouble.

It's hard to see all clubs being able to fully fund their NRL/NRLW teams going forward without the NRL Grants nor players receiving the payments they do now as a result of these broadcast deals.

The old days of a few thousand dollar contracts and $200 win and $100 loss match payments are long gone.

Channel 7 was far from happy with the Ashes Series, as was Cricket Australia, as both lost considerable revenue — Channel 7/Fox paid 1.5 billion for the cricket - 7 year deal.

I do wonder how free-to-air TV can afford to pay so much for broadcast rights — they have to charge premium/ exorbitant advertising and sponsorship rates as a minimum to recoup the costs.

There would be a ceiling on the payments advertisers and sponsors would be prepared to pay, noting talk of a 5 billion 7-year broadcast deal.

Clubs should be more proactive in signing up members. The Roosters are in the 20k membership range, which pales in significance as all NRL clubs do compared to AFL clubs. Some have memberships of over 100k — Richmond and Collingwood, for example.

[Andrew Walker]

Has hubris got the better of Peter V’landys?

While he once zinged in trademark style to a similar question -
"is that the bloke who runs the local fruit shop?"

For all of his achievements I feel he has slipped onto the negative side of the ledger in recent times and bad decisions have outweighed the good.

• Extracted revenue from bookmakers who trade on NRL
• Sacked CEO Todd Greenberg for Andrew Abdo
• Got the season going in the midst of COVID outbreak
• Renegotiated the broadcast rights in the middle of COVID outbreak for much less than their worth
• Implemented 6 again set restarts for penalties
• Introduced 17th team, Redcliff Dolphins
• Reduced costs at NRL HQ
• Increased revenue
• Bought assets for the ARL
• Launched NRL season in Las Vegas, USA
• Brought back the Bears with assist from WA govt
• Gave Perth a coach and ceo out of their depth and 2 years to get team together
• Extracted a deal with the federal govt to fund PNG team
• Sacked, hired and poached PNG administrators that includes a gossip journo Michael Chammas
• Change fabric of game by letting team who got scored on the choice to kick or receive

Whilst the bottom line has improved, at what cost to the so called ‘greatest game of all’ with rash changes in an effort to extract more dollars out of governments, stakeholders, sponsors, broadcasters and punters alike.

His actions could be likened to many Ancient Greek mythology about the feared sin of hubris: Icarus, Tantalus, Sisyphus - with Uncle Nick being the almighty Zeus or father like Daedalus. And being a noted Greek Australian, he should be aware of such dangers.

The highlighted are good points imo

The tv deal thing from memory was neccessary as from memory they were broke due to overspending from the previous administration

[SupermanSupportsEasts4Eva]

The PCB should seek out PVL to help navigate the broadcasting trouble they are about to get themselves into.

[SamKerrSimp]

For all of his achievements I feel he has slipped onto the negative side of the ledger in recent times and bad decisions have outweighed the good.

• Extracted revenue from bookmakers who trade on NRL
• Sacked CEO Todd Greenberg for Andrew Abdo
• Got the season going in the midst of COVID outbreak
• Renegotiated the broadcast rights in the middle of COVID outbreak for much less than their worth
• Implemented 6 again set restarts for penalties
• Introduced 17th team, Redcliff Dolphins
• Reduced costs at NRL HQ
• Increased revenue
• Bought assets for the ARL
• Launched NRL season in Las Vegas, USA
• Brought back the Bears with assist from WA govt
• Gave Perth a coach and ceo out of their depth and 2 years to get team together
• Extracted a deal with the federal govt to fund PNG team
• Sacked, hired and poached PNG administrators that includes a gossip journo Michael Chammas
• Change fabric of game by letting team who got scored on the choice to kick or receive

Theres probably more (please add) and you can make your mind up if these are good or bad.

This was disgraceful too there was no need for it but he just gave his mates over at 9/Fox a free kick that they didn't deserve he should've been ousted immediately for that one.

I'm going to be very cynical here but I think that Vlandys gets way too much credit for "getting the game back during covid" the government most certainly would have wanted both the NRL and AFL to get up and running ASAP because professional sport is one of the easiest distractions to put on the masses (bread and circuses etc) and with most people sitting at home doing not much else because chat online and tempers flaring up getting both sports going at that time was in the government's best interest as well.

I think Vlandy is a slimey crook I have never been a fan of him. I hate his rule changes every year, I hate that he's the head of racing NSW, I hate the Vegas junket which is just a paid work holiday for News Corp journos and is all about sportsbetting, I hate his Trump like behaviour that he always backs down on anyway. The sooner Vlandys pisses off the better the game will be.

[Mickie Lane]

This was disgraceful too there was no need for it but he just gave his mates over at 9/Fox a free kick that they didn't deserve he should've been ousted immediately for that one.

I'm going to be very cynical here but I think that Vlandys gets way too much credit for "getting the game back during covid" the government most certainly would have wanted both the NRL and AFL to get up and running ASAP because professional sport is one of the easiest distractions to put on the masses (bread and circuses etc) and with most people sitting at home doing not much else because chat online and tempers flaring up getting both sports going at that time was in the government's best interest as well.

I think Vlandy is a slimey crook I have never been a fan of him. I hate his rule changes every year, I hate that he's the head of racing NSW, I hate the Vegas junket which is just a paid work holiday for News Corp journos and is all about sportsbetting, I hate his Trump like behaviour that he always backs down on anyway. The sooner Vlandys pisses off the better the game will be.

People like him & people dont like him, thats normal.
Its tough gig that Vlandys does along with Abdo, me personally I think they're are the right people to run the game. If either of those 2 applied for a job as an Executive, CEO or Chairmen of a high end big money making company they would be top of the list.
Not everyone like yourself agrees with them but at the moment they/re in charge so you have to put up with it.