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Australian Rugby / RA

stillmissit

Jim Lenehan (48)
I should have made it clear that this was a part of the article about the costs of buses. I have a daughter who is a teacher and she thinks there is far less aport than 10 years ago.


Thanks Le Cheese I will look into this. My daughter teaches in a private school and half the year 50% of students have to do sport the 2nd half the other half have to do it. Very odd.
 

stillmissit

Jim Lenehan (48)
I by no means suggested that reduced participation in school sports isn't problematic, simply that your implication around transport being one of the biggest issues was potentially misguided.
I should have made it clear that this was a part of the article on SMH re the costs of buses.
 

Adam84

John Eales (66)
Covering the Rebels wages for one, and Waratahs and Brumbies didn’t go running to RA because they were making a profit….

Now the rest of us get to share in their incompetence
 

KOB1987

John Eales (66)
Most of it will be the incorporation of the three franchices. There could also be a a provision for the ongoing Rebels shitshow. We will see soon.
 

Strewthcobber

David Codey (61)
Their creditors will be very generous with $100m coming in from the Lions. Debt will be paid off by the end of this year apparently.

(Imagine the blood bath if there wasn't a Lions/RWC to bail them out)
 

PhilClinton

Paul McLean (56)
For as much as we shit on RA, I’d like to hope there are enough genuine number crunchers in their finance team that things like the Taniela, JAS and McReight contracts wouldn’t be getting issued if the proposition of bankruptcy was on the cards.

The BIL tour was confirmed ages ago and the RWC was locked in back in 2022. Even conservative forecasts for those would have been comforting for RA.

Still, it’s a fair point that without those two events I think it’s likely SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) may not have gone ahead this year. Maybe.
 

Strewthcobber

David Codey (61)
Pacific Equity Partners wouldn't have ever loaned RA $80m in the first place without Lions/RWC. That was in 2023 and really helped tide things over. RA have never really financially recovered after COVID.

The interesting question is where does the revenue come from in 2028+ so we don't just blow through the RWC money in 5 years
 

Adam84

John Eales (66)
The interesting question is where does the revenue come from in 2028+ so we don't just blow through the RWC money in 5 years

or what costs are cut back... Maybe a bit more scrutiny should be run over those loss-making ventures/clubs...

RA can't try and buy a premiership/credibility every year for clubs just because they're in the largest city..
 

PhilClinton

Paul McLean (56)
The issue is going to be that $100M isn't going to be enough to buy us more relevancy this time. The NRL and AFL have come along too much that a BIL tour and RWC aren't going to be enough to propel rugby back into the spotlight like we did post-RWC 2003.

Compounding that issue at least in QLD is the AIC and GPS schools now have fully fledged AFL and League sports programs. We didn't have to compete with that back in the early 2000s.
 

Wilson

John Eales (66)
Potentially they'll have a second crack at private equity, though at best that just kicks the can down the road a bit further. I can't see it being a particularly good option at this point anyway though.

On the rugby side the World Rugby Nations Championship will be part of it, there's definitely an expectation of an ongoing sugar hit from that one. There will probably be as many 'money games' as they can possibly squeeze in otherwise, though I'm not sure they've ever been a particularly sustainable approach. ANZAC Bledisloe will continue to come up too, as NZRU start to feel the financial squeeze from PE and declining broadcast revenue they'll likely be forced back to the table if there's anything like the money reported on offer.

We (and NZ) do need to turn Super rugby (or it's equivalent) into a profitable competition though, there's just no long term future for the game without the bulk of the pro rugby being played actually making money. There have been some baby steps there and there will be a hope that the interest generated from the Lions and home World Cup will flow through, but I think a cross over comp with Japan and possible world club championship is where they'll look to try and bring more money in.
 

Strewthcobber

David Codey (61)
Costs increased by nearly 20 per cent to $156.4 million, largely driven by payments to players who competed for the Waratahs, Brumbies and Rebels, and money spent on match days.
I know this is from the article, but it doesn't make any sense.

Player payments were already coming from RA (Wallaby topus), or through RA grants to Super Rugby teams which surely must have ceased going to the clubs once they "merged".

The direct player payments may have risen, but there should have been an equivalent drop in the grants to clubs?
 

Wilson

John Eales (66)
Grants didn't fully cover the player wage bill (or coaching/support staff wage bill) for the clubs. Particularly not since they had dropped back by around $1.7m since the Force's re-introduction. Seems pretty likely there would have been a 2-3 million dollar shortfall for tahs and Brumbies. Rebels is harder to tell, but that match day operations part probably applies heavily to them.
 

Strewthcobber

David Codey (61)
Agree with all of that - what I'm saying is that won't get to a $30m shortfall, or even "largely" get there

From the PwC creditors report - The Rebels were spending around $7.2m on player's salaries, with RA revenue of $5m, so they were around $2m gap too
 

stoff

Trevor Allan (34)
The article says $5m cost for the Rebels. There was a $1m or so loan forgiven to the Brumbies. There were also those rumors of Waratah debt which no one can get visibility on due to the consolidation of NSWRU reporting in 2023, and then into RA reporting in 2024.
 
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