Paying hundreds of thousands of dollars annually (council has not made clear just what the figure is) just so Bathurst could appear on the television for two hours once a year was a waste of money, they said.

But figures released this week of council’s estimation of what the game is worth to the city add some detail to that decision to enter into the original five-year deal and extend that deal recently for another 10 years.

Council estimates that holding the NRL game creates six full-time equivalent jobs, $340,000 in household income and $710,000 for the city’s economy every year.

General manager David Sherley says the benefits include the value of advertising the city through the televised coverage and through the various media outlets covering the game in the lead-up and on the day, and the increased participation in sport that is encouraged by the visiting athletes.

Some will raise their eyebrows at such precise figures when it comes to the game’s value, but even if the quoted figures were halved, the deal is still looking pretty good.

Even if, at the worst, council is paying the Penrith Panthers exactly what the annual game adds to the economy, that still means Bathurst is getting a lot of valuable marketing for not much.

Looking down the list of the fixtures in the NRL season each year, Bathurst still stands out among the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane venues and the games that are taken on the road to capital cities such as Perth or Darwin.

Four years into the deal and council has had plenty of time to evaluate it and admit that it hasn’t really achieved what it was meant to achieve.

Council could have called it quits at the end of the five years, declared the whole thing a worthwhile experiment and moved on.

The fact council didn’t do so, and was so confident in the value of the arrangement that it committed for a further decade, says something important.

So what’s two hours on the tele once a year worth to the city?

According to council’s figures, it’s worth quite a bit.

And if Bathurst ever wanted to give up its game, it’s a fair bet there would be another regional city that would want to enter the big league.