Former premier Barry O’Farrell once said Peter V’landys is a man “always more than three steps ahead”. He’ll need to be if the sporting supremo hopes to pull off an audacious bid to become executive chairman of the NRL.
If O’Farrell’s assessment is correct, V’landys will have spent months, if not years, considering how to handle the make-or-break moment which arrived on Monday when NRL chief executive officer Andrew Abdo called it quits.
Abdo’s departure was not a surprise; there had been persistent talk he wanted out, and V’landys says his chief executive kept him abreast of a potential defection to Tennis Australia for some time. The real test of smarts and strategy lies in the battle over how Abdo is replaced.
V’landys has refused to deny that his endgame is to wind up his two-decade tenure as Racing NSW chief executive officer and focus on league by merging his existing role of Australian Rugby League Commission chairman with the newly vacated role of chief executive officer.
Unorthodox doesn’t go close to describing the idea of an all-powerful NRL executive chairman – all other major Australian sporting codes are governed by a partnership between a chair and a CEO – but V’landys is not shy in challenging tradition.
The polarising “PVL” has many descriptors: Australia’s best sporting administrator, the most influential man in Sydney, hard taskmaster, disruptor, mad genius, hero and saviour of racing and league. Master strategist is on the list too, or, as O’Farrell would describe it, someone always a few steps ahead of everyone else.
V’landys’ ascension to the role of executive chair is not yet a given, and he would need to lobby hard to make it happen. It is a potential high-risk, high-reward option for V’landys personally and the league more broadly. It might also just be a thoroughly bad idea which runs counter to good corporate governance. “This is actually not about whether people like or hate Peter,” one senior league figure said. “This is about whether it’s sensible to give one bloke two distinct jobs.”
Only six years ago, V’landys thought such an idea should never fly. When Todd Greenberg’s disastrous tenure as CEO came to an end in 2020, there was speculation that V’landys might have a stab at an executive chair role. He wasn’t interested at the time and even argued that a merged role would be problematic.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate,” he said of the concept of an executive chair. “There needs to be a segregation between the board and management. I’ve always believed in proper corporate governance, so it would be hypocritical to do anything other than that.”
Six years later, V’landys won’t rule out a tilt at such a role. While his loyal NRL board will endorse any run, he has told those close to him that he hasn’t made his mind up about what to do because he’s focused on securing a lucrative new broadcast rights agreement. He may also avoid putting his hand up if he gets a sense that clubs and other stakeholders won’t support his elevation. Why enter a fight you know you’re going to lose?
If he ultimately decides to go for it, the next few months of his life will be dictated by three key numbers: 16, two, and $4 billion.
Sixteen is the number of clubs needed to seal a change to the Australian Rugby League Commission’s constitution, which currently states a director can’t be chief executive. Some clubs love the idea of King V’landys, and see it as a chance to keep pushing the boundaries of what league can achieve. O’Farrell, who is now the Wests Tigers chair, told the Herald earlier this week that elevating V’landys “makes a lot of sense” and could only further enhance the game. Sydney Roosters’ billionaire chairman Nick Politis, Melbourne Storm chairman Matt Tripp, and Gold Coast Titans owner Rebecca Frizelle have also publicly endorsed the idea.
There are 17 clubs in the league. The need to have 16 of them vote for a constitutional change means any bid by V’landys could be sunk by just two unhappy clubs voting no. Much has been written about the at-times fraught relationship between Souths and NRL HQ, for instance.
One senior league figure said on Friday that while most clubs had no problem with V’landys personally, placing too much power in one man’s hands was fraught with danger and bad for corporate governance.
V’landys’ second crucial number, two, represents the state leagues: NSW Rugby League and Queensland Rugby League. Both must support any constitutional change for it to be successful. V’landys and NSWRL have had a particularly fraught relationship; the ARLC and NSWRL faced off in the Supreme Court four years ago, and all sides have argued among themselves over funding levels and how it is spent. Despite the past disagreements, both state organisations could still sign up if they think it’s in the best interest of the game.
The final key number may make any difficulty with getting clubs and state leagues on board magically evaporate. Four billion dollars is the price V’landys is seeking for a new five-year broadcasting rights deal. The notoriously hard negotiator has become obsessed with striking a deal larger than the mammoth $4.5 billion, seven-year agreement the AFL inked with Foxtel and Network Seven in 2022.
In an era where the commercial television advertising market is challenged and a crackdown of gambling advertising imminent, $800 million per year for broadcast rights is an outlandish ask. But he may well get it. Nine, the owner of the Herald, has lobbed an aggressive bid to broadcast all the games on free-to-air television and Stan, and global streaming giant Amazon is also interested.
The bid is high-stakes for Nine because not only are the costs huge, it would edge Foxtel – currently a co-rights holder – off the field, and potentially trigger a merger down the line between Stan and the Kayo Sport platform.
The stakes are even higher for V’landys. If he can emerge from the negotiations as league’s Four Billion Dollar Man, it would be harder for detractors to argue against his elevation to executive chair.
V’landys is not to be underestimated. He is driven by a desire to win, fuelled in part by a challenging upbringing in Wollongong defined by language barriers and schoolyard bullies.
But he is also more vulnerable than he’s used to. For the first time in a long time, he is not running his own race, and his fate rests in the hands of others.
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Bevan Shields is a senior writer, and former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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