Wednesday, May 6th | News Wrap | Nine Media War with the NRL continues, Storm have Albury troubles, Rugby board member resigns and more news

Its a little later in the day than normal but lets dive in to todays news as Nine conducts negotations with the NRL via its Media arms as Foxtel watches on. The Storm have a minor hiccup on Albury, the AFL gets a new sponsor and a Rugby Australia board member resigns – and plenty more in another big news day

General

• Australian sport prepares to restart: how and when major competitions will resume
• Community sporting clubs, particularly in country towns, are facing “catastrophic” consequences because of coronavirus, Australia’s leading sports fundraiser has warned.

AFL and Australian Football

• AFL needs hubs to resume comp: WA premier
• Colgate has signed as an official partner for the AFL and AFLW, in a category-first partnership. The deal means Colgate becomes the “Official Smile” of the AFL, and a supporting partner of the NAB AFL Draft and NAB AFL Auskick program.

ARU and Rugby Union

• Rugby Australia’s dramatic power struggle has claimed another victim as Peter Wiggs tendered his resignation in an explosive email exchange.
• Former Network Ten boss Hamish McLennan looms as Rugby Australia’s next chairman, while former ARU chief operating officer Rob Clarke is tipped to be named interim chief executive amid farcical boardroom bickering that has seen the resignation of new director Peter Wiggs.
• Matt Carroll says rugby must make the “tough decisions” after being endorsed by Australian Olympic Committee boss John Coates to take over the job vacated by Raelene Castle.
• Australian Olympic Committee boss Matt Carroll says he still wants to help lead Australian rugby out of the mire despite the sensational resignation of board member and friend Peter Wiggs on Wednesday.

Broadcasting

• Fox Sports has begun preparing for the possibility of a future without Channel Nine, with the pay-TV operator looking to form an alliance with a rival free-to-air network to broadcast rugby league.
• Rugby league bosses are willing to contemplate a whopping five-year extension to their current broadcasting deals with Foxtel and the Nine Network as they look to future-proof the code and ensure their clubs and players have a billion-dollar backstop for protection. [Daily Telegraph]
• Nine Entertainment Co chief executive Hugh Marks has heaped pressure on the NRL to significantly reduce its broadcast rights fee, expressing a willingness to walk away from the sport if he doesn’t get the right deal.
• Fox in the hole: NRL could go back to the future in TV merry-go-round
• Nine Entertainment Co chief executive Hugh Marks has expressed a willingness to walk away from NRL if the sport does not significantly reduce its broadcast fee, stoking suggestions the network could make a play for AFL beyond 2022.
• Nine tells the NRL no deal over ‘unsustainable’ broadcast rights

Cricket

• Players have formally questioned the scale of Australian cricket’s cash problems, saying the game should be “optimistic and confident” about its ability to weather the pandemic.

Motorsport

• While sport idles due to the coronavirus, work has begun on the upgrade to Sydney Motorsport Park at Eastern Creek.

NBL and Basketball

• The National Basketball League has been a domestic sporting success story but the competition now faces a challenge to its momentum

NRL and Rugby League

• A controversial decision by the Albury City Council to block NRL team Melbourne Storm from using public facilities for training has sparked deep divisions between the council and the local community.The Storm said it would go ahead with its plans after securing the use of the Albury Tigers’ home ground.
• Melbourne has hit out at the “ill informed” Albury Council while the town’s Deputy Mayor has strongly defended the decision not to allow the NRL team to train at the major sports ground.
• NRL players will resume group training on Wednesday after officially agreeing to a pay deal, which guarantees them 80 per cent of their contracted payment for the 2020 season.
• Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the NRL grand final is already “locked and loaded” for Sydney on October 25, while also declaring NSW as the one state that refused to turn its back on rugby league.
• One of five councillors who voted to ban the Storm from using Albury City Council facilities has pointed to the quartet of NRL players – which includes Melbourne flyer Josh Addo-Carr – caught flouting social distancing as the key factor in his decision.

International

• Cycling authorities have announced a plan to run a condensed season featuring a frantic October packed with overlapping Grand Tour events and most of the one-day classic races.
• After weeks of holding out hope the Tour de France would be able to go ahead as planned despite the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s most famous cycling race was finally added to the list of sporting events called off.