I reckon the RA's preference was to get rid of the Rebels back in 2017 following years of bleeding money and propping them up with loans they were never going to recoup, as well as the lack of the team's on field success, but unfortunately it would be the Force that went following some last minute legal maneuvering by the Rebels.
I'm not a supporter of the shrinking to greatness mantra, and as a Melbourne based rugby supporter not too happy we don't have a team down here now, but in hindsight it probably would've been the best for both the Rebels and Australian rugby if this had happened a lot sooner.
Here's some grim reading from back then:
Within hours of the SANZAAR announcement that SuperRugby would have one less Australian team from 2018, the Chairman of the ARU (Cameron Clyne) fronted the media. He said the ARU had been under “extreme financial pressure” almost from the moment the 5th SuperRugby licence was awarded in 2010 and...
greenandgoldrugby.com
Before the Rebels had even kicked a ball, the ARU agreed to extend them a ten-year, interest-bearing loan of $2.6million. The facility was available for draw down at $1.3million per year for 2011 and 2012.
In 2013, the ARU extended a new loan facility to the Rebels of $3million for the next 12 months.
In 2014, the ARU extended another new loan facility to the Rebels of “up to” $2.5million.
As at 31 December 2014, the ARU financial statements showed some $8.75million in outstanding loans owed to it by the Rebels.
In 2015, the ARU extended yet another loan facility to the Rebels for use in 2015. This time the amount was $4,268,000.
But it isn’t until we get to mid-2015 that things get really jaw-dropping.
On 1 July 2015, a new private investor took ownership of the Rebels. Note 23ii to the ARU’s accounts for 2015 states,
“The [ARU’s] control over Melbourne Rebels Rugby Union Ltd (“MRRU”)was relinquished on 30th June 2015 pursuant to a sale and purchase agreement….. No consideration was paid to [the ARU] as part of this agreement. As part of the sale and purchase agreement, [the ARU] forgave its loans to the MRRU as set out in Note 18 [and cleared them from the balance sheet].”
The loans set out in “Note 18” consisted of the $8.75million shown in the ARU’s 2014 accounts,
PLUS the $4,268,000 the Rebels had received in 2015.
So, when the Rebels went back into private ownership on 1 July 2015, the ARU kissed goodbye to $13,018,000 as part of the deal. Not only that, it threw in another $2.6million in “special funding” for 2016.
That meant that even without the cost to the ARU of having to run the Rebels for the two years they were between owners, the ARU has so far shelled out $15.6million in (presumably) unbudgeted expenditure as a consequence of awarding the 5th SuperRugby licence.
