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Well it could be like when Coca Cola changed their formula due to blind taste test research, only to piss off their loyal customers so much they were getting thousands of complaints every day and their sales tanked. So they backflipped, reintroduced their 'classic' coke and boosted sales above...

SANZAAR can't do anything without the ARU going along with it so if new information changes the ARU's preference then SANZAAR would have to find a new solution, right? Is the Force raising $8 million or more (presuming they do) and Cox not willing to sell, and both franchises having strong...

Why would the SARU have to renege on dropping teams? If it becomes clear that cutting a team will cost more than it's worth for the ARU, or if new information makes it apparent their projections around financial stability were too pessimistic, then they still have the ability to veto cutting a...

I think it's something that would sound decent in a boardroom presentation, and looks good to neutrals, but ultimately probably wouldn't work as it just ends up alienating two sets of fans. Hopefully with this added support behind the Force and with Cox holding his ground the ARU have no...

Depends on the objective of such a competition. Is it to continue to keep the top Australian players based domestically so that the Wallabies selection policy can remain the same? Or would it be better to let the Wallabies be picked from anywhere and focus on building a domestic competition...

It doesn't close until July, so if they're already somewhere near $5 million in the next couple of weeks you'd think they'll push a fair bit over 5 by the time it closes. But I basically agree they need to get closer to 10 to really make a sustainable difference. That would hopefully allow them...

If you take AFC Wimbledon as a continuation of Wimbledon FC, which for the fans it was, then it did pivot under the pressure of ceasing to exist. I guess you could say it's like a hybrid of an old club and a new one. But the age of the club after a certain point is to me a little pedantic...

I think you're being a little pedantic amirite. You might not get an example that is exactly the same as the Force, but there are many on that list of teams that were struggling financially who have been saved by the fan ownership model. AFC Wimbledon for one is an example of an even tougher...

It's great to see the OwnTheForce campaign getting traction. Couple of questions on it. Are individual companies supporting this or being urged to support it as well? I'm thinking if the companies who forked out $50,000 for individual jersey sponsorships a couple of years ago all bought 50...

The question is, why is that? I would argue it's at least in part due to a lack of reach. In places where rugby has a decent professional presence it holds its own with other codes. Rugby is just as popular in Canberra as rugby league, it's generally just as popular in the north shore and...

The biggest long term question marks are on Super Rugby continuing to exist as a multi-continental sporting league. The Force have existed for 12 years and needed propping up one time. Other teams when in trouble have been given additional handouts for nothing, while the Force had to sell...

Super Rugby is already a loss making venture for the ARU (and I believe all the unions). But what if it's a separate stand alone conference within Super Rugby? Where say 2 of the teams in our 6 team conference make the playoffs with the top 6 from the NZ + SA + Jaguares conference?

There are clubs who've started their existence with the fan ownership model. There's even a lower league Japanese football club that started in 2014 that's funded by online subscribers! But if you read through that wiki article you'll see there's teams using this model (or similar) of all kinds...

There are many, many other successful examples on a smaller scale than Barcelona and Green Bay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fan-owned_sports_teams Agreed the Cameron Clyne interview was appalling, but it's definitely worth listening to Jones's interview with the President of...

Hi Poidevinfan, good first post though I disagree with you on some things. Just wanted to respond to this part as while I agree with your underlying point I would say it's not necessarily the national team, but top end sport in general that inspires kids to play. National team success may be...

The President of WA Rugby Hans Sauer spoke to Alan Jones yesterday as well. It's very insightful: http://www.2gb.com/podcast/hans-sauer/ He seems confident of raising around $7 million in the OwnTheForce campaign. If this is true, maybe the better solution to cutting a team would have been to...

For me the anger over this is still very high and I'm hoping the legal ramifications leave the ARU no choice but to backflip on their decision. To me it comes down to this: Australian rugby is going to shrink, and basically give up on a large region of this country - including thousands of...

I don't find it hard to believe that the ball in play time is higher in the NRC than Super Rugby, just that it increased 40% on the NRC in 2015, which was played under pretty much the same laws.

Wow, jumping from 35 to 50 minutes ball in play is insane! How did that happen? Seems a little unbelievable to be honest.

I posted in the NRC section yesterday about potentially turning the NRC into an all season competition held over 20+ weeks both during and after Super Rugby. Then you could keep the cut team in at least a reasonable competition and work on building the NRC into something decent. With only 4...