It has heavily been invested in a board biased to Sydney and Melbourne. We saw this with the GF controversy with most clubs being blindsided. Basically not all the clubs have much say.
I was fortunate enough to have an extended conversation with one of the owners of a club outside the loop 18 months ago. He said then it was a dictatorship run by Townsend and that he would stuff it up and do a runner....how true.