It is time for the NRL to assume responsibility for the remuneration of the game’s top tier of players and abandon the current TPA system.
Tell me this. When was the last time you saw an NRL player promoting a product or service, outside of the context of their club or Rugby League. I can’t think of any. Yet, apparently across the Rugby League there are hundreds of companies independently organising third-party-agreements with players who the everyman has likely never even heard of.
Let’s also recognise this. If you’re a business, a third party agreement with a player, could possibly be the worst possible spend of your sponsorship or marketing dollars. For a typical $50k TPA investment, you could run a small national television campaign, months of radio advertising, a comprehensive social media campaign or days of full-page advertising in major newspapers
So here’s the crunch. Nobody does a TPA because they’re good investments. They’re gifts from wealthy supporters to Rugby League clubs, pure and simple. And that gift is, in essence, a mechanism to circumnavigate the salary cap.
TPAs only really make sense for elite players. Sponsoring an individual makes sense when that person is a household name, or easily recognised, especially when TPAs prevent you from using any NRL or club branding. The argument for TPAs, is that the game should not limit a player’s earnings. However, what we’re really talking about is allowing for the game’s superstars to maximise their income, or else they will be lost to a sport that will. Non-representative Rugby League players are simply not marketable enough as individuals for the removal of TPAs to impact their earnings.
To give you an example, last year, I was contacted by a marketing manager at a company I’ve done numerous sponsorship and event deals with. She is a Parramatta fan and they were looking to bring on a new sportsperson in an ambassador role for use in their advertising. She asked if there were any Parramatta players, she should consider. The only player I could really see as a possible fit was Tim Mannah, but I could tell from her response that she really didn’t see him as being identifiable enough to fit the campaign. Late last year, I noticed they had recruited Jarryd Hayne to the role.
The irony of this is had Hayne been playing in the NRL, he may not have been able to land the deal, given that a TPA can not involve any use of NRL or club branding. They can’t appear in their jerseys or make-use of NRL/club imagery in the promotions.
Jarryd Hayne could never have done this Under Armour endorsement as an NRL TPA.
So while the theory is that the TPA system, allows elite players to maximise their earnings thus saving them from other codes, the reality is that the TPA rules actually limit these players possible endorsement opportunities. It is a point Hayne has complained about previously, that while in the NRL, he had limited rights over his own imagery and brand. And if Jarryd Hayne - possibly the most recognisable player in the game - is struggling with those limitations, then it is so much more the case for every other player in the NRL.
What the NRL requires then is a two-tier system. On one level, it ensures that its stars can be remunerated as highly as possible, however, not at the expense of the equalising factor that the salary cap has on the NRL, which ensures a hotly contested competition each year.
To my mind, that system would involve the NRL taking responsibility for the wages of the games top players. I would have two players at each club, paid by the NRL on rich minimum contracts that would make them the highest paid players in the games. The NRL itself would negotiate these contracts with the players, giving them the ability to pay whatever amount was necessary to retain them. They would not be included in salary cap calculations. The game would never lose a player it wanted to keep. Importantly, these NRL contracted players would have the right to sign their own sponsorship agreements, but without the current TPA restrictions. So they could appear in advertising in their jerseys, or alongside clips of their performances. This would make those players far more marketable, and this would truly allow these elite players to land bigger endorsements.
Players not contracted to the NRL would not be allowed to enter into any individual sponsorship agreements. All sponsorship agreements would be via the clubs. And you know what the outcome of that would be? Let’s say, just to pick a number out of the air, that each club currently had a roster carrying $500k of TPAs. If that money went back into the profitability of the clubs, then the NRL could justify raising the salary cap and if that in turn was used to increase the minimum contracts, every single player in the game would benefit.
As a by-product, the game’s best players would tend to stay with their clubs, because their marketability is greater with the club they are generally identified with.
I don’t want to use this blog to get bogged down in the logistics, you would work through that in course, but, as I see it, clubs would nominate two of their players to be NRL contracted. I think this would result in even more parity across the competition, because the players with X factor that every team wants and which would likely be nominated for NRL contracts would be unlikely to congregate at the successful clubs because the financial reward of going to a struggling club is so much greater.
Because as much as the NRL likes to boast about how close the competition is, there is a pretty established order in place. Clubs like Brisbane, the Cowboys, Roosters, Melbourne and the Bulldogs have seldom missed the finals, leaving the rest of the clubs to quibble over the last three remaining top eight places. It’s no coincidence that each of those clubs has a financial advantage over many of the other clubs, being one-city teams or having well-heeled benefactors. Meanwhile, clubs like Newcastle, Wests Tigers, Titans and the Dragons struggle to field rosters anywhere near that of their wealthy peers. Equilibrium in the NRL is a myth. I believe the system I’ve described would make the competition more equal, help the NRL keep its top players, and result in players earning more from top to bottom. It would also be far more difficult to rort, with a compulsory filing of player tax returns, meaning clubs and players would have to resort to fraudulent cash payments to work around the system.
As much as I have bleated on about the lack of accountability at our club for a very long time, the NRL also needs to accept that it has created the environment that encourages clubs to cheat the cap. There was feigned disbelief that any club would dare cheat again, after the punishments handed down to Melbourne and the Bulldogs, but in a business where non-performance almost always results in the loss of jobs and livelihoods, many will continue to see that there is no option but to push the boundaries of what is an inherently blurry and subjective system. The NRL must address that and I encourage them to consider a central-contract system as a better way to achieve the same objectives hoped for out of the current TPA model. Hopefully, then no other supporters, need to go through the pain suffered by Parramatta Eels fans this week.
Replies
I tend to think we are really being punished for being stupid enough to get caught and the real issue the NRL wants fixed is to stop the Leaks and get better people on board more appropriate to keep the books more "in order" as the NRL know a lot of clubs are cheating they just don't want this rubbish all over the media and be in a position where they have to step in and act it's embarrassing for them as they have really never caught any club of their own accord only through leaks and snitches!
BOOM well said Putty
Putty, exactly. How can any TPA be at arms length & the clubs not being part of it? Over the years almost every high profile player signed at clubs on big money also have an announcement that there are TPAs also available. At the very least the clubs would have to have names of businesses that could be available, agents say are the club says could.
Yesterday I posted a thread written from a Roar post by Tim Gore regarding eels breaking the 11th commandment, thou shall not get caught, says it all.
Phill as usual a well thought through post, the Jarryd Hayne example shows it out for all to see.
A full investigation into the salary cap as well as TPA's is now essential, already Melbourne & their supporters are wanting court action over the leniency handed down to the eels, NSW police are looking into the business now as they picked up the use of the word Fraud that Greenburg used yesterday, was it a slip or deliberate?
the reason ladies and gentlemen is it is a massive cash cow ! Better to keep the players and clubs restricted in what is essentially a restriction in trade dressed up as "we need to have a cap in place so clubs remain viable" or kept in there place?
Putty WTF have you been son? great posts and good blog Phil.
Unfortunately I haven't heard a single word from Greenberg or the NRL that indicates they're even slightly interested in admitting that the current cap/TPA system is anything but fit-for-purpose.
I'd love to see the system looked at as I'm sure there are many better solutions, but I can't see it happening.
Dan also pushed for clairification on the players taking pay cuts like the 02 - 04 Bulldogs and was also given no real answer.
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