"It has been loss making sport for decades. Costing FoxTel millions of losses all shared by News Corp and Telstra."
Mate, that's like saying the NFL is a loss making sport because ESPN aren't profiting from it.
The NRL is far far from a loss making sport. They got a $1 billion for their tv rights through channel 9 and Foxtel and had $30 million in cash put away. The players' salary cap has increased enormously due to the surge in revenues. After reinvesting in the game, including development, community programs, club grants, and the running of headquarters, it came out with a $30 million surplus last year.
The NRL in no way is a loss making sport and the AFL are in a much better position. The clubs may struggle to break even and rely heavily on grants from their own leagues clubs (part of most leagues clubs charter) and rely on revenue shared by the governing body.
You are confusing this with companies like Foxtel, Telstra, Newscorp and even channel 9 companies who DESPERATELY need and want live sport, so often they pay overs for it. This is so that they can entice subscribers with packages including movies etc. In today's competitive market, corporation pay a premium to get live sport to package it.
Now these companies may choose to withdraw, renegotiate etc, but the NRL will adjust accordingly with their REVENUE and curb spending. The NRL has been criticised in recent times and rightly so for not putting aside PROFIT in case of times like these. The NRL is bloated at headquarters and could cut a lot of spending.
