their top up international wages would come from the IRB and Argentine rugby.
the amount that the super rugby team would actually be paying them would be minimal. probably an average of $80k per player per year.
I am sure with argies in the tri nations plus argi participation in super 15 the increase in television rights (from increased demand for super 15 rugby in argentina) would more than offset the costs of paying the argentines their base super 15 salary - on these assumptions totalling $2.4M a year
without a team in argentina, whatever dollar amount you can sell the super 15 rights to argentina for just gets divided up between the SANZAR unions.
As long as you cap the quota at a reasonable amount, I fail to see how including a more global base of players is an issue? Wales and France are both in the semis and their domestic leagues allow significantly more foreign players to play per team than australian rugby.
If australian teams were allowed to go out and get two argentine players each, they could pick up the ten best argentine players. this makes them more competitive as a result of replacing third tier australian players with top tier argentine players. as a result, they perform better in the super 15. better results means people pay more attention and are willing to pay to see them more often. this means increased gate receipts and increased television revenue.
If you think the inclusion of TWO foreigners per team will be the death knell for the game, have a look at Wales, Ireland, France and England - the game is massively more popular in all of those countries and probably all are in better financial shape than australia. expand the global audience for super 15 and expand the $$$ you get.
no, it just doesnt work like that...
Firstly, why would the IRB top up the wages of a player in the Super Rugby competition, they have no need or requirement to do so, the IRB will help Argenitina gain acceptance into the Tri-Nations by providing funding to off-set the reduction in broadcast agreements the other countries face, they will enforce a international window on the NH clubs so that all Argentinan players will be released, but paying a Argentinans wages so he can represent a club in Aus/NZ/RSA is not going to happen.
In addition to that, even if the Argentinan Rugby Union does get a greater influx of cash from been added to the competition, at best they will pay there players around $10'000/match(maybe 15'000) which equates to $60'000/year. Add this onto the proposed Super Rugby wage of $80'000 and your proposing that a Argentinan test player will be happy to get paid $140'000 a year when most of them are on at least tripple that in the NH.
France and Wales are in different market places, France has economies of scale, which means they have enough professional rugby clubs in the country with development pathways that they can afford to allow foreigners in their teams. Wales again is a differrent market, welsh clubs are actually predominantly welsh, there are a number of forieigners in each but there squads are also significantly larger then Australian squads.
Dont get me wrong, im not against foreign players in Australian club sides, i just think its a naive to believe that it could work so seamlessly, Argenitinan players already get paid massive wages in Europe, it would be extremely exspensive to try and convince them to move to another part of the world for less wages, when ultimately there is little to gain. They can represent Argentina in the 4-nations whether they play in France/Australia or England.
The thought of Argentinan players flooding Super Rugby is a fantasy, the only time this will happen is if Argentina has there own team included in the exsisiting Super Rugby competition.
