BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson has passionately advocated for the NRL taking over Super League to help the sport grow in the UK and internationally.
Richardson, a former Gateshead boss, travelled to England last year and held meetings with several English clubs. The Tigers executive has been working with the NRL for some time over a proposed deal with Super League.
Speaking on James Graham’s podcast The Bye Round today, Richardson explained the idea of NRL Europe, why it would work, the wider benefits in terms of television rights contracts and the current difficult situation the sport faces in its birthplace.
“England have always had this insular competition… But they live in that [M62] corridor and as long as you have Batley with the same vote as St Helens, you’re going to have the fight [civil war] that’s going on now,” he said.
“They try to change it all the time but nothing ever changes. The only way they get any recognition at all is because of St Helens, because of Wigan, because of Hull, because of Warrington.
“What I’m saying is those millionaires that are involved with the game, and one of them is a billionaire, they sit there and think what the hell is going on here?
“When you’ve got a situation where darts has become twice the TV product of rugby league [in the UK] it gives you some idea of where they’ve gone backwards and the standards they are.
“The NRL has a view of an international game. All of the league, including the [NRL] clubs, know that England is really important to international rugby league, and so is France.”
Richardson believes the creation of NRL Europe is possible over the next 18 months because of the ending of the current TV broadcasting deals all marrying up.
“For the first time ever all three TV contracts have come up at the same time – the NRL, the Super League contract with Sky, and also the international game,” he said.
“All at the one time. So we’ve got a chance to go as a package, as a group together, and say ok let’s look at this as a world stage. Let’s set up a competition that can genuinely be promoted and this is the way it’s got to look.
“You can’t have promotion and relegation, you’ve got to have two teams from France, there’s six certainties from England and two based on what the finances are and what we put in, so we don’t have a Salford [situation] again.
“You set that up and have 10 teams, you take that product to these people who are looking for world things… You do a deal at the highest level, then they all buy in, the teams get more money, the game gets more money.
“Nothing affects the RFL or the running of the amateur game because at the moment there’s a pool that they get a percentage of that goes back to run the RFL, which is about 27%.
“They’ll still get 27%, but they’ll get 27% of a lot more. But they’ve got to run the game like we run the game. When you bring a franchise in it has to be strong, worthwhile and it’s got to part of the plan going forward.
“We can do all that but the NRL has to control it for the period, because we have to put people in who know how to run the game. It should be called NRL Europe. But it’s a whole global approach to it to get more money and people to run the game, have the same rules.
“Two things will come from it – firstly, you will get a strong competition with more television money, and more importantly, you don’t halve the salary cap, you double it.
“The second thing… is you have this competition in Europe and you might say we’re thinking of going to 11 teams. Well, the 11h team isn’t Halifax, it might be a rich banker from New York who’s seen this competition being run properly… If you build it they will come.
“There’s nothing built, in fact it’s [Super League] decaying. I want it to be successful, I’m not here bagging the English game. I’m saying it’s magnificent that its survived.”
