Outgoing NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has revealed that the league was mere weeks away from going bust just six years ago.
The league had been plunged into financial difficulties due to the complete shutdown forced by the COVID pandemic.
It meant that no rugby could be played, as the world tried to come to terms with the deadly virus and the best way to combat it.
The NRL’s issues, according to Abdo, started with a lack of planning around their balance sheet.
He also stated that the league had almost no working capital due to receiving prepayments from the broadcasters.
That left the NRL with very little financial reserves as they attempted to remain afloat amid the difficulties created by the pandemic.
Andrew Abdo revealed the NRL was mere weeks away from bankruptcy back in 2020
Abdo told Mark Levy that the COVID pandemic shut down had left the league’s finances in dire straits
The league was able to get up and running again during the COVID shutdown to help ease cash flow issues
‘It was a matter of weeks,’ he told Mark Levy on his morning show on 2GB Sydney when asked how close the NRL came to bankruptcy.
‘So yeah, and Rugby League is funded from the top, from the NRL. So the broadcast revenues and the revenues of the game flow down and fund everything.
‘They pay for the players, they pay for the competition, they pay for the clubs, and they pay for grassroots football. And that flows all the way down.
‘We didn’t have a balance sheet, so we had very little reserves. We had received prepayments from the broadcasters.
‘So we had almost no working capital. And we had to not only get back on the field and find a way through, we had to make sure the game was never in that position again.
‘And so we needed to build assets, build a balance sheet, and build sustainable revenue sources so we’re not so reliant on one particular revenue source.
‘And that’s what I’m really proud of. Since then, our revenues have doubled, our distributions have tripled, and our balance sheet has quadrupled.
‘And rugby league now is a sport that is strong and sustainable with a bright future. And I’m really proud of playing my contribution in the transformation of the strength and stability of the sport.’
Abdo was in fact airdropped straight into the middle of what seemed like a disastrous situation, he took over as CEO just as the pandemic shutdowns began.
It was a process he remembers vividly, noting that he really had to hit the ground running to ensure the league could get some sort of function up and running.
‘I remember it clearly because it was in April 2020 and of course we were in a global pandemic.
‘The whole world had shut down and certainly it was an interesting time to become the CEO we weren’t playing sport we weren’t doing much.
‘We were stuck at home and no one knew how long it was going to last or what it meant but we had done the numbers and it had catastrophic consequences for our sport.
‘So we needed to kick into action and we had a strong leader with Peter [V’landys] the chairman who set the bold goal of May 28th to get back on the field and I didn’t have much time to think about accepting the role it was straight into it, how do we get the sport back on the field? And how do we do it safely? And how do we reinvent ourselves.’
As he departs his role as CEO of the NRL, Abdo has certainly played a real role in securing the future of the sport having helped them sign a massive $5.6 billion TV rights deal.
