Off the Wall

One of the fall outs from the new television rights deal with Nine and Fox is that expansion of the premiership is most definitely off the agenda for at least five  years.

This does not come as a surprise to me.

The two key players in deciding whether or not the premiership will expand beyond the current 16 teams are the television rights holders AND the 16 existing clubs.

Neither have the remotest interest in supporting it.

Nine calls the shots when it comes to television - Fox generally seems to follow.

David Gyngell made it clear when the new deal was announced that he saw no value in expansion.

And what do you think the 16 clubs would think of an expansion that divided their share of the cake by 18 rather than 16??

They won't be supporting it - I doubt if it would get 2 votes among the clubs.

The ARLC should make a clear statement - it won't be considering expansion until 2016 at the earliest (with the new deal expiring in 2017).

And it should tell the various "bid teams" to take a ling, long break.

We don't need the distraction any longer.

I am not saying whether the decision is right - I am just calling it as it so clearly is!

No expansion during the life of the new agreement is an absolute certainty!