Clubs want the NRL and ARL Board to boost their funding with money that would be drawn from the games “Future Fund”, and it is expected to end in a showdown between the clubs and the league that will really show who is running the game these days.
The ARL’s future fund is a huge asset for the game. Players chose to take less money so that the game could build a future fund that is expected to be used to fund expansion of the competition and other ventures that it is hoped will grow the game over the long term. Clubs are arguing that the future fund is only possible because of them, but I would suggest that players have a lot to do with that future fund as well.
The game has been run on the smell of an oily rag for so long that it never had the ability to save money for any big projects. Rugby League in Australia basically survived hand to mouth. The future fund allows the game to go back to the days of big ideas and expansion. If clubs erode that future fund the growth of the game long term will be effected.
Clubs will always cry poor and look for more handouts from the NRL. You don’t have to look very far at all to see how poorly some clubs are run. I hope the NRL and ARL Board stands up to clubs and refuses to eat into the future fund. All it will be doing is handing some clubs money they will waste away anyway.
