It’s not. Topping the list is what TV money can be secured beyond 2022. Everything falls in line behind it. That’s where Netflix and Stan come in. The existing five-year NRL broadcast deal is in its second season and is worth $1.8 billion with Channel Nine and Fox Sports sharing the load across free-to-air and pay TV. The cash component is in excess of $300 million a season. But free-to-air and pay TV are under siege from streaming platforms. Television executives are concerned by the trend. Viewers are making their own choices. It’s not going to slow down. Yes, league rates, but if the networks don’t have the cash to keep paying more for it, they won’t. They can’t.

League rates: But how much can the TV channels afford to pay for it? Credit:NRL Photos Foxtel is trying to get ahead of the trend by offering sport on streaming service Kayo – at between $25 and $35 a month, which is far less than you pay for access to Fox Sports. How this will affect overall revenue at Foxtel in the next five to seven years is unknown. But less is less. All of this adds up to the strong possibility that the next five-year NRL rights deal from 2023-2027 may be worth LESS than $1.8 billion. Which would be disastrous. Clubs would receive lower annual grants, player payments would stagnate. The game would stagnate.

Loading The ARLC is acutely aware of this; acutely aware operating budgets may fall. In all the expansion and relocation debate, there really is only one certainty: there will be a second Brisbane team. It's a no-brainer and the powers that be know it. The growing talk about Perth is just that, talk. The NRL winces at how much money the AFL has pumped into the GWS Giants and Gold Coast Suns: $100 million each. And rising. The prospect of less, or even the same, TV money will end the hopes of any Perth NRL team. Getting excited about a packed house for a one-off Origin match in a new AFL/cricket stadium will get us nowhere.

How will it look when Perth play the Titans on a Saturday afternoon? The game most likely will not have the luxury of matching the AFL and pump $100 million into a team in a non-heartland state. Phil Gould this week spoke about 20 teams in two conferences. In a perfect world, this would be the future. But are there enough good players for that? Is there anywhere near enough cash around for that? Sadly, no. Money will drive all decisions and the uncomfortable truth for fans is the Sharks and Manly are the two clubs most vulnerable to relocation as a possible second Brisbane team. To a lesser extent, Wests Tigers. Financial viability, or the lack thereof, will be the only factor that results in a club being moved. People power: More than 50,000 people marched from the South Sydney Leagues Club to the Town Hall to protest against the Rabbitohs exclusion from the NRL competition in 2000. Credit:Craig Golding

Loading There is zero appetite among the ARLC to forcibly move a club. Memories of the South Sydney protest in 2000 burn bright. The last thing the game needs is fans marching down George Street. The Sharks and Manly have teetered on the edge of financial disaster seemingly forever. They continually rely on 11th-hour saves from benefactors and, in the case of the Sharks, promises of developer money for apartments and shops on adjacent land. A story/promise that goes around and around … Manly have the Penn family, but how deep is their commitment? They don’t want to pump big money into the Sea Eagles, but can’t part with the club either.