Agreed, Reg, but when you look at how the AFL operates we are miles off the pace.
the AFL would be using a much larger budget though wouldnt they bruce?
"The ARU is claiming credit for Melbourne's entry to Super Rugby but in fact Flowers, after awarding the Super 14 expansion licence to Perth in 2005, wrote to the Victorian Rugby Union promising that Melbourne would be given the next licence. So in effect, O'Neill was only honouring that organisational promise, although perhaps the less said about the ARU's role in how the Rebels came to be, the better"
this i find funny, as there is more corporate support that could be won over by having a team in melbourne due to television ratings etc than there was in perth but flowers decided to go with perth on people power closing major revenue lines for the ARU for 4 years, but hey, flowers promised melbourne would be next.............
the article is just funny, he grabs at half truths, fact is without the arc the aru wouldnt be in as bad a shape, if they had waited and got the revenue streams right then perhaps we would actually have a sustainable model today. i think it was more to do with ego of flowers wanting it out there and being responsable for it and oniel wanting to wash of flowers when he came back.
