Media alert: Australian rugby union to announce major decision on the future of rugby

[RedsHappy]

So there we have it. This presumably is the "Major announcement on the future of Rugby in Australia....."In terms of sporting initiatives it doesn't get any bigger. The NRL crowed about introducing its Under 20 competition and the AFL is spending half the national debt on trying to get Western Sydney interested in Kick-it-to-me, but we've trumped them. We are going to play our major Test match at White Elephant Stadium for the next ten years. Hooray!.....Rugby in this country is certainly in safe hands.

Bruce, you just get better mate! Seriously though, it cannot be so. That a deal that basically reflects the status quo merely as to a stadium choice in Sydney for BC games, just increases same to a greater annual regularity, is a 'major announcement on the future of rugby in Australia'? This must be April 1-dated material that has somehow been mis-processed by the ARU's computers.

As Cyclo has noted elsewhere, unless the ANZ is full to the brim, the atmosphere (for rugby) there is simply awful, I was reminded of that at last year's England Test (which was way less than a sell-out). And any strategy that by implication treats Brisbane as a second-class rugby crowd base to Sydney's seems commercially foolhardy in that Reds' 2011 home crowd numbers are starting to equal (and sometimes exceed) Tahs' home numbers.

Of course the far bigger, far more strategically important, issue that overhangs all this, and that I bet it will not be covered in this 'major announcement': how will Wallabies' (and the code's overall) performances improve in winning BCs and 3Ns such that all ANZ Bleds are genuine sell-outs (via fan base growth), year-in, year-out (as they used to be 8-10 years ago, but are no longer)? That is, what needs to be done to drive total Wallaby-related code income and gate numbers, irrespective of where Tests are played? I have a remarkably simple answer: (a) the Wallabies need to return to winning BCs and 3Ns, with reasonable consistency and (b) we consistently get at least 2 S15 teams into the S15 SFs or Fs and (c) this is broadly achieved via the teams involved playing a (generally) dynamic, entertaining, free-running mode of play that demonstrates the finest aspects of the game. (Apologies to Groucho and Daz, but I don't think that, just of late, being 'the IRB no 2 team' will achieve material Wallaby-related crowd number or $ income growth in Australia and, personally, no, I don't derive my rugby-pride from IRB rankings, though I respect that others might.)

 

[barbarian]

We are still playing a four-match Bledisloe though right? So the second test can go to Melbourne or Brisbane or Darwin.

I think it is a good move from the ARU. As the largest city and central rugby hub Sydney should get one Bledisloe each year. If the NSW government and ANZ Stadium want to throw buckets of cash at us to do it then all the better.

 

[Scotty]

Is the Sloe always a sell out in Sydney? Pretty sure it has come up short a few times. So that 5M figure is misleading, particularly when it averages at 160 per ticket, which is unlikely to the price of the cheapest tickets (the last sold ones), and is definately not the profit on each ticket. So Homebush probably only secures the ARU a guaranteed extra net of something like 120 x 20000 x 0.15 = 360,000. Quoting it as 5million revenue seems more impressive, but it isn't actually significant.

 

[Scotty]

We are still playing a four-match Bledisloe though right? So the second test can go to Melbourne or Brisbane or Darwin.

I think it is a good move from the ARU. As the largest city and central rugby hub Sydney should get one Bledisloe each year. If the NSW government and ANZ Stadium want to throw buckets of cash at us to do it then all the better.

Only ever second year would we have 2 sloes in Oz if we keep the one in Asia or London.

 

[barbarian]

Has there been any indication the overseas Bled will be kept though?

 

[RedsHappy]

Has there been any indication the overseas Bled will be kept though?

Barb, I could be in error, but I am sure I recall JON saying last year that Bled #4 offshore Aus & NZ was to be no longer, and the format would thus return to a 3 game comp. If so, and one in Aus is always to be in SYD-ANZ, then BNE, MEL would 'share' the second local game every second year when Aus held two local BC games, yes? So, this would mean these 'secondary' cities would see a BC game every 4 years, not more, purely so every second year the ARU could potentially sell say c.20,000 more seats than elsewhere. If we are absolutely trying to (a) build MEL as a rugby base and (b) rebuild BNE as a rugby cornerstone (vs the pre-2010 declines), then this change to always-in-Sydney for me makes no sense (either $ commercially or code-strategically), but that is nothing new.

 

[Rob42]

I don’t see what all the whinging is about. The ARU has likely taken a good offer to keep a game in Sydney that it wouldn’t have wanted to move anyway. We’d all like more money spent on grass-roots rugby, another tier of competition, and so on – where is that money going to come from? I’d love it if there was a 60-80000 seat stadium right in the middle of Sydney, with excellent public transport to and from, but there’s not.

Perhaps we could help build the game in western Sydney by staging a big match there – oh wait, that’s exactly what we’re doing.

And are we disappointed that a press release overstated the importance of the actual announcement? Have you read any PR work lately?

 

[barbarian]

The Bledisloe isn't the be all and end all of developing rugby. We play plenty of other top-quality tests against good nations. But we shouldn't neglect the base, and I think a permanent game in Sydney is justified. I do clarify that I said this thinking it was a four game series, so there would be a second game to take elsewhere. If it were a three game series then I see a case for every second 'one-off' Bled to be taken to Brisbane.

As for Melbourne, I am all for developing the game but you need to play your biggest and most important game in front of your most ardent fan base. That is either Sydney or Brisbane. You don't see the AFL final being played on the Gold Coast, although I am sure it would greatly assisst in 'growing the game' up there.

 

[Rob42]

Yes, I don’t think developing the game in western Sydney was high on the list of reasons the ARU took this deal…or even entered anyone’s head. But, whilst we’ll never know the specifics of the deal offered by the NSW government/ANZ stadium, compared to what Brisbane or Melbourne might have offered, I reckon this was an easy decision for the ARU.

Though I'm not sure Sydney counts as rugby's most ardent fan base at the moment....

 

[RedsHappy]

Just as an fyi, from rugbyweek.com 15 September 2010:

The Wallabies and the All Blacks have played each other in Hong Kong and Tokyo over the last two years to generate income and try to develop rugby in Asia. Earlier this month, O'Neill said that Hong Kong would mark the last time the two teams played four Bledisloe Cup Tests in the one year and that they were not looking to take any future Tests offshore.

 

[Jets]

So was anything announced???

I was hoping that they would all swap jobs so that Rocky would run the ARU, JON would coach the Wallabies and Deans would captain the Wallabies allowing Beale to move to the wing to cover the loss of Drew.

 

[FiveStarStu]

Just as an fyi, from rugbyweek.com 15 September 2010:

Thank God. We went to three tests for a reason, so we didn't have this winner-carries-over thing we had when there was 2 played.

If they want to sell the Sloe OS, then play 5 tests. But not 4.

 

[Groucho]

They look like rash shirts. Change the Kooga logo to billabong or rip curl and you've got your perfect patriotic rashie. I prefer the older type of jerseys. I wish they'd at least make ones for the fans. Bring back heavyweight cotton and collars!

And ties. A rugby jersey is just far too casual without a nice tie.

 

[waratahjesus]

I don’t see what all the whinging is about. The ARU has likely taken a good offer to keep a game in Sydney that it wouldn’t have wanted to move anyway. We’d all like more money spent on grass-roots rugby, another tier of competition, and so on – where is that money going to come from? I’d love it if there was a 60-80000 seat stadium right in the middle of Sydney, with excellent public transport to and from, but there’s not.

Perhaps we could help build the game in western Sydney by staging a big match there – oh wait, that’s exactly what we’re doing.

And are we disappointed that a press release overstated the importance of the actual announcement? Have you read any PR work lately?

i prefer the sfs to homebush, but honestly, homebush is next to the actual centre of sydney, has a train statio 50 metres from the door, on game day they run extra buses trains etc etc right there and back from all over the place. the only thing wrong with it is you cant wonder drunkenly into the city afterwoulds, its a good place.

 

[Slim 293]

Maybe 9 is going to move its 'extra time' show to a watchable time slot, or even maybe broadcasting a game or two a week on FTA? No that would be too much to ask, I'm obviously drunk.

Back to this for a moment...

Are Channel 9 still running their brilliant 1am highlights reel?

I can't wait for those 2am Bledisloe broadcasts...

 

[Zeno]

? I’d love it if there was a 60-80000 seat stadium right in the middle of Sydney,

You mean Parramatta?

 

[DPK]

You mean Parramatta?

Try 21,487 capacity.

 

[cyclopath]

As I have already stated, I dislike the stadium at Homebush. I don't have a problem with the fact it is there, as WJ says it is pretty well linked into transport. Geographic centre of Sydney and all that, no problem at all with that. My biggest gripe is that the stadium is poorly designed for rugby - most seats are just too far away from the action. Pricing (another gripe) is all wrong, when you buy a "Gold" ticket and are sitting up in the nosebleed seats a million miles away from anything, you feel far from warm and fuzzy. Nowhere near value for money, and people will not keep going there until they improve the product. League fans might go more as the ticket prices are probably keener. And it speaks volumes that you can be in the midst of 40-50,000 people and feels like you're on the moon, it is so devoid of atmosphere. If the SFS was at Homebush / Homebush Bay / Sydney Olympic Park / JON's Folly / BoondockTown, call it what you will, they would fill it for Tests, and people would be a damn sight happier.

 

[waratahjesus]

http://www.austadiums.com/news/news.php?id=417

anz stadium needs this to happen.

 

[kiap]

http://www.austadiums.com/news/news.php?id=417

anz stadium needs this to happen.

Even with a roof that stadium is still shit. Unless they demolish one side and rebuild it so that the stands are closer it will always be shit for sports using a rectangular field.

The money would be better spent upgrading the SFS. Get it up to 55,000+ (or a bit more) and it would be a very decent stadium - not too big, not too small.