National Rugby League clubs have expressed "mounting frustration and disbelief" that the Australian Rugby League Commission has "not cut a pay-TV deal" with Fox Sports in a closed-door meeting at League Central, according to Darren Davidson of THE AUSTRALIAN. Club chairmen on Wednesday floated the idea of a "breakaway 12-team competition at a high-level summit in Sydney amid angry mutterings" about ARLC Chair John Grant's "courtship" of telecom Optus, which has "expressed interest in buying the rights." They are "furious" at Grant for putting at jeopardy a A$1.8B ($1.3B) deal by encouraging Optus to "table an offer while dragging out a new round of talks" with Fox Sports and Telstra, which "came close to clinching a new contract two weeks ago." Speaking on condition of anonymity, one club chair said that they "refused to sign their participation agreements until a pay-TV broadcasting rights deal was clinched." The club chair said, "There is a massive amount of frustration among the clubs. They were told the week before last that a deal was as good as done. They are as angry as a hatful of spiders and muttering again about a breakaway competition." Another club chair said, "Fox Sports are relatively ready to go with a pretty attractive deal, but the NRL traction is not as quick as it should be. There is no other partner. I would have thought there weren’t too many barriers to a deal" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 11/19). In Sydney, Dean Ritchie reported Grant "has been given a fortnight deadline to appease cash-strapped clubs or face a full-blown Christmas revolt." The NRL is "still shopping its rights around despite fans' fears the remaining live games could be sold" to a telecom with "no reliable platform for delivering coverage." NRL clubs have given Grant an ultimatum -- "find the money by the next meeting on December 2 or face a possible vote of no confidence." One club chair said, "What we're asking for isn't unreasonable. We deserve it, we’ve earned it. We have to stop relying on poker machines. Those days are gone." Club chairmen claim "things could get ugly" if a resolution is not "finally found going into Christmas" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 11/18). In Sydney, Daniel Lane reported it was forecast as "explosive" but Melbourne Storm Chair Bart Campbell described as "positive" the meeting on Wednesday between a delegation of NRL club bosses and the NRL's negotiating team about "wide-ranging issues that included funding, the salary cap and changes to the constitution." Campbell described the latest round of talks as "positive" but there reportedly is still "a long way to go before the NRL placates clubs about the points they raised -- especially funding." Campbell: "We met with the NRL and met with the club chairs afterwards, as planned, to update them on that meeting. We will meet with them again on December 2 as we try to move forward. All of today's meetings were positive. Today's discussions are constructive and I would hope we would make some progress on the second of December which is when the NRL present to all clubs" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 11/18).
