And the winner is...

[Spook]

Melbourne :yay

SANZAR has announced Melbourne as the 15th Super Rugby Team to join the competition when expansion occurs in 2011.



An Expert Determination Panel was asked by the SANZAR Executive Committee to decide on the location of the 15th Super Rugby team. The Experts were former Rugby World Cup-winning captain David Kirk and retired New Zealand High Court Judge, the Hon Barry Paterson QC (Quade Cooper).



The key reasons for the Experts selecting Melbourne over the other applicant, the Southern Kings from South Africa, were:



· The Experts commented that both applicants were able to point to excellent infrastructure support, and both provided sound business plans and financial forecasts, with the support of their National Unions, guaranteeing financial viability.



· The Southern Kings proposal was more advanced with regard to business and financial planning and organization structure and governance. The Southern Kings were also able to point to a strong rugby tradition, a large playing base and presented a stronger case than Melbourne as to their rugby readiness.



· These strengths of the Southern King’s Application did not, however, offset the benefits in geographical location and commercial value to SANZAR (both of which criteria the Experts were asked to place considerable weight on) that the Melbourne Application was able to deliver.



· The 15th Super Rugby team will play in the Australian Conference under the new Super Rugby competition format from 2011. This means they will play both home and away against the other four Australian Conference teams. As a result the Southern Kings would be required to make two crossings of the Indian Ocean in a season. The local derby aspect of matches in Australia, an important issue for generating attendances and broadcasting value, would also have been diluted and it would not have been possible to schedule at least two matches in each country each weekend. In addition having the team resident in South Africa introduces additional costs to SANZAR of around NZ$720,000 per annum.



· The Melbourne Application provided considerably greater commercial benefit to SANZAR than the Southern Kings Application. Evidence was provided that revenue from the sale of broadcasting rights to Australasian broadcasters would be reduced by US$15-20m over the course of a five year agreement should the 15th team be resident in South Africa, with little or no commensurate rise in the value of South African broadcasting revenue.

 

[waratahjesus]

common sense!

good to see, will be a great trip with alot of good drinking and gambling!

 

[chief]

It was a joke if it wasn't awarded.

 

[Blue]

We should start a poll. Which current Aus franchise will lose the most players to Melbourne?

Anyhoo common sense prevailed, even though the comp didn't need another bloody team.

 

[mark_s]

· These strengths of the Southern King’s Application did not, however, offset the benefits in geographical location and commercial value to SANZAR (both of which criteria the Experts were asked to place considerable weight on) that the Melbourne Application was able to deliver.

The bold bit guaranteed the choice of Melbourne. I presume it was Sanzar who instructed the experts to place considerable weight on these two specific criteria.

 

[cheezel]

Outstanding, this is great news for Melbourne.

 

[Gagger]

This must surely toll the death nell for AFL in Victoria

 

[Ash]

We should start a poll. Which current Aus franchise will lose the most players to Melbourne?

Anyhoo common sense prevailed, even though the comp didn't need another bloody team.

Do you even need to ask?

Here's to another 5 years of Reds rebuilding...

 

[Blue]

This must surely toll the death nell for AFL in Victoria

Now we know why they are moving into Western Sydney.

 

[Biffo]

We should start a poll. Which current Aus franchise will lose the most players to Melbourne?

Anyhoo common sense prevailed, even though the comp didn't need another bloody team.

Do you even need to ask?

Here's to another 5 years of Reds rebuilding...

Do you have any players that Melbourne might want?

 

[James Buchanan]

This must surely toll the death nell for AFL in Victoria

Hardly, AFL is probably the strongest comp in Australia at the moment.

Which as a Melbournite, I am glad for; as I enjoy both games.

It offers a very different experience anyway. AFL essentially goes head to head with soccer where its an athletic 'skills'-based game whereas the rugbies have a very distinct physical element to them. Which isn't of course to say that the rugbies don't have skills, quite the contrary, but I am discussing general perceptions.

I've always thought that if Union is to grow in Australia, the game it has to fight with directly will be League.

 

[Biffo]

Expect some :angryfire: from PB today.

 

[Blue]

Expect some :angryfire: from PB today.

Surely not even Paarl can argue with those numbers. Hmm, then again :fishing :lmao:

I look forward to my first trip to Melbourne for rugby.

 

[Lee Grant]

I've always thought that if Union is to grow in Australia, the game it has to fight with directly will be League.

The enemy of union in recent years has not been league but the AFL.

We have lived with league and their poaching of our players for over 100 years - even in our professional era because there are so many professional league teams for a boy who plays both sports, to go to. We even lose boys who haven't played any league before they left school, or not much.

But the AFL is cashed up and is taking a long view. For them 20 years is short term.

I don't fear league but Aussie Rules scares me and I'm not talking about players: I'm talking about losing share of things like sponsorship dollars, TV revenues, spectator interest .... yarda, yarda.

 

[Lee Grant]

Let's hope the Melbourne coaches are selected ASAP so that players in Oz now can be approached and they don't take a bird in the hand offshore for 20010/11. They need to protect themselves with an early decision and have to be stitched up early.

There will be a few valuable players overseas who also need early information that they are required for the 2011 Super15 as their clubs plans for the next NH season will be well in place.

I hope we get the news soon of key acquisitions such as Freier as captain, Matt To'omua, Beau Robinson etc. Sure I will whinge if the Tahs lose good players but it is an exciting event for all rugby fans. Reds fans will be fearing another butcher's bill, but somehow I think that having somebody of McKenzie's stature there will prevent a real haemorrhage.

I could be wrong but I hope I am not.

I wonder how many worthwhile people will come back from offshore for the first year? Probably not as many as we think because of the higher salaries they get there and anyway, they may be still under contract for the 2010/11 season. But as I have said many times: the significant effect will not be of so many players coming back, but of a few years of accumulated decisions not to go offshore in the first place.

That will make it difficult for Melbourne and add in the fact that many domestic Oz players are already locked in for 2011. Remember the duds that Mitchell had to give 1 year Force deals to in their first year. Then Melbourne will find that they will be worse off than the Force was in its initial seasons because the laws of diminishing returns from a fixed amount of players will rear it's malign head more than it did out west.

But after they get through the tough part and players move around we should, with the advent of home and away Oz conference matches, be able to enjoy a de facto domestic competition.

Let's be honest. For people like me who wanted the 5th team, it wasn't about winning the Super15.

 

[Moses]

Melbourne

Poll added: which Aussie team will lose the most players to Melbourne?

Let's be honest. For people like me who wanted the 5th team, it wasn't about winning the Super15.

Great point

 

[PaarlBok]

Expect some :angryfire: from PB today.

Surely not even Paarl can argue with those numbers. Hmm, then again :fishing :lmao:

I look forward to my first trip to Melbourne for rugby.

Vokken sure I hate the dicision, I hate this new propose S15 but then its a done deal and have to live with it.

My biggest worry is the way the S15 and the Kings one is going to infleunse our rugby. Thats the one. Kings will enter , the politicians wont get to rest before this happen and at the moment I think its going be the Lions that will bite the dust. Its going to lift our current S14 teams 200% in 2010 not being relegated.

The S15 will bite our rugby structures and player base. Two CC teams will go down to the first division at the very least and I am just praying our youth competition dont get down graded or scrapped.

All of this just to help Aussie & Kiwi vokken rugby . The Kiwis cant even get 2000 to their own CC finals. Vokket.

 

[James Buchanan]

Re: Melbourne

Poll added: which Aussie team will lose the most players to Melbourne?

I voted Reds, mostly for irony's sake. But immediately after I gave it some more consideration and I am leaning towards ACT now, given how they've tended to draw aspiring players from Victoria in the past.

 

[PaarlBok]

Hope they all kak! :angryfire:

 

[cheezel]

There's surprisingly been a lot of talk about Melbourne getting the team today here in the media. I didn't here so much as a sparrows fart when the tender process began, but then again that was in AFL season.

The enemy of union in recent years has not been league but the AFL.

I really don't think that Rugby is going to be able to compete with the AFL unfortunately. I've been down here for a couple of years, and am still amazed at the AFL supporters. They absolutely love it, and i think it's more to do with that it's a predominately Victorian based sport than anything else. Also, the amount of women that are members is mind blowing.

AFL will continue to grow, but only at a national level and Union will be the the way to get some brand awareness overseas. League essentially a National sport as well. Soccer is the only one that will contest Union for the bigger Australian companies trying to get some overseas attention.