KevinO
Geoff Shaw (53)
Interesting article in the Australian, copied main parts cause of paywall
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...t/news-story/63b02683cfedef15f3443ae0347dce3f
Brisbane and Perth are set to battle it out for the last remaining British and Irish Lions Test on the 2025 tour of Australia – although it is possible both cities could emerge as winners.
In 2016, the then chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union, Bill Pulver, locked the organisation into a guaranteed Test in Sydney against the Lions in 2025 as part of a 15-year deal with the NSW Government of Mike Baird.
The following year, as the battle between the Melbourne Rebels and the Western Force to survive the cull from Super Rugby heated up, the Victorian Government came to the rescue with an eight-year $20m stadium deal which not only guaranteed the Rebels’ survival, but also locked in place a series of internationals.
The 2025 Test against the Lions in Melbourne is the last international in that eight-year series.
When the decision was made to jettison the Force in 2017, it had seemed rugby had turned its back entirely on Western Australia and become very much an east coast sport. In that event, it would have been a no-brainer to award the third Test of the 2025 Lions tour to Brisbane.
But the expectation in the west is that Rugby Australia has a debt to repay Western Australia – and what better way to say thanks than to allocate a Lions Test – and the significant financial benefits that flows with it, up to the tune of around $50m – to Perth?
That would trigger massive protests from Queensland, one of the two rugby heartland states. The Lions have staged major tours of Australia eight times since 1899 and on every occasion have played a Test in Brisbane. Besides, Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium has become the Wallabies’ fortress. They have won their past seven Tests there, including two wins over the All Blacks.
The Queensland Government’s 10-year stadium deal with Rugby Australia expires at the end of this year, with the 2025 Test very much the prize on offer when the two come together to negotiate a new contract. But that is likely to rouse the West Australians to redouble their efforts to hijack the Test.
RA chairman Hamish McLennan has done a masterly job of dangling the prospect of full stadiums in front of the Lions and South Africa in a bid to have the three-Test series relocated to these shores. The South Africans are resisting the Australian approach but with 1.5 million South Africans having tested positive out of a population of 58.5 million and a further 81 Covid deaths on Saturday, down from a daily peak of 839 a month ago – the pandemic still has the republic in its grip.
RA estimates the chances of the Lions and the Springboks ultimately opting to accept the Australian offer and coming Down Under at between 30 and 40 per cent. In the event the 2021 series was relocated to Australia, the logical decision would be to stage one Test in Perth, which has a significant community of South African and British expats. That would then free up RA to allocate the 2025 Test to Brisbane and Suncorp Stadium.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...t/news-story/63b02683cfedef15f3443ae0347dce3f
Brisbane and Perth are set to battle it out for the last remaining British and Irish Lions Test on the 2025 tour of Australia – although it is possible both cities could emerge as winners.
In 2016, the then chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union, Bill Pulver, locked the organisation into a guaranteed Test in Sydney against the Lions in 2025 as part of a 15-year deal with the NSW Government of Mike Baird.
The following year, as the battle between the Melbourne Rebels and the Western Force to survive the cull from Super Rugby heated up, the Victorian Government came to the rescue with an eight-year $20m stadium deal which not only guaranteed the Rebels’ survival, but also locked in place a series of internationals.
The 2025 Test against the Lions in Melbourne is the last international in that eight-year series.
When the decision was made to jettison the Force in 2017, it had seemed rugby had turned its back entirely on Western Australia and become very much an east coast sport. In that event, it would have been a no-brainer to award the third Test of the 2025 Lions tour to Brisbane.
But the expectation in the west is that Rugby Australia has a debt to repay Western Australia – and what better way to say thanks than to allocate a Lions Test – and the significant financial benefits that flows with it, up to the tune of around $50m – to Perth?
That would trigger massive protests from Queensland, one of the two rugby heartland states. The Lions have staged major tours of Australia eight times since 1899 and on every occasion have played a Test in Brisbane. Besides, Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium has become the Wallabies’ fortress. They have won their past seven Tests there, including two wins over the All Blacks.
The Queensland Government’s 10-year stadium deal with Rugby Australia expires at the end of this year, with the 2025 Test very much the prize on offer when the two come together to negotiate a new contract. But that is likely to rouse the West Australians to redouble their efforts to hijack the Test.
RA chairman Hamish McLennan has done a masterly job of dangling the prospect of full stadiums in front of the Lions and South Africa in a bid to have the three-Test series relocated to these shores. The South Africans are resisting the Australian approach but with 1.5 million South Africans having tested positive out of a population of 58.5 million and a further 81 Covid deaths on Saturday, down from a daily peak of 839 a month ago – the pandemic still has the republic in its grip.
RA estimates the chances of the Lions and the Springboks ultimately opting to accept the Australian offer and coming Down Under at between 30 and 40 per cent. In the event the 2021 series was relocated to Australia, the logical decision would be to stage one Test in Perth, which has a significant community of South African and British expats. That would then free up RA to allocate the 2025 Test to Brisbane and Suncorp Stadium.
