If they go with Japan I think they have to reconsider making it three conferences of 6 and putting Australia with Japan and Argentina with NZ. Seems by far the most logical to me.
Obviously this bid must have wealthy backers behind it but like anything, it will be some sort of corporate entity and there's no way the backers would give personal guarantees.
There's no way you can stop them cutting their losses and walking away if they decide to after a few years.
If they go with Japan I think they have to reconsider making it three conferences of 6 and putting Australia with Japan and Argentina with NZ. Seems by far the most logical to me.
The consortium is very powerful, google "Singapore Sports Hub Consortium", it looks pretty obvious to me that the Singapore Government is behind this, and they have very deep pockets, and a lot of patience.
I doubt that they would ever walk away, if they won the bid (which I hope they don't, by the way).
Its another tourism vehicle and way to boost exposure of Singapore to other international markets, its a pretty smart investment if they can get it for the right cost. No doubt the government would be supporting it through the Sports body but Singapore government entities aren't known for frivolous expenditure so i question whether the $millions required in financial support will still be forthcoming in 2 or 3 years time if the team hasn't generated the returns they hoped for.
Money will not be an object, if national prestige is at stake. And, given that this is a world-class climate-controlled stadium, and it has obviously been built for a reason, it looks to me as though national prestige will indeed overrule all other factors.
Aus/NZ just need to get out of the way and support the 3 x 6 model. While it gives the SA teams a travel advantage, the current model damages the credibility of the whole competitions with its unwieldiness.
Plus, I'm keen to go to Japan and the Force game there would be a great excuse to do it.
Steve Tew not impressed with the Japanese & Singaporean S18 bids:
"The NZRU has labelled the initial proposals from the two future Super Rugby teams as less than satisfactory.
"Japan and Singapore have tabled their bids to SANZAR to be included in the 18 team competition from 2016.
"NZRU CEO Steve Tew says they will be doing site visits over the coming weeks to ask tough questions.
"He says they're in no position to say yes to either of them and work needs to be done."
SINGAPORE has emerged as the favourite to secure the 18th Super Rugby franchise when the southern hemisphere competition expands into Asia in 2016.
It is understood New Zealand and South Africa are supporting Singapore’s bid, with Australia favouring Japan.
Japan was always seen as the logical location for Super Rugby expansion into Asia. The leading rugby nation in the region, Japan has a professional competition and will host the 2019 World Cup.
But New Zealand and South Africa are believed to have been won over by Singapore’s geographic position, the bid’s strong financial backing and a brand new 55,000-seat stadium in the city-state.
There are also concerns over how much support Japan’s bid will receive from the country’s powerful clubs, which are owned by corporations.
Initially, Australia was believed to be supporting Japan’s bid, but the ARU says it is yet to make a decision.
“The ARU hasn’t made a decision on which bid they are supporting,” said ARU official Andrew Fagan, who was part of a SANZAR delegation which has just completed a fact-finding mission to Japan and Singapore.
“Both Singapore and Japan were asked to submit full tenders. We received those tenders a couple of weeks ago.
“This visit was to interrogate those tenders more thoroughly. My job with my SANZAR colleagues is to report back to the SANZAR board and report back to the ARU board.”
Fagan said there were similarities and differences between the two Asian bids, but they were both compelling.
“It was an important fact-finding mission,” Fagan said.
“The purpose was to interrogate those bids and assess their rugby readiness, their commercial viability and what they might add to SANZAR as a whole.
“They both can be ready for 2016. Both with a bit of work to do, but that was the purpose of the visit to assess how far they can progress in the next 18 months or so in order to be ready for the 2016 season.
“And to work through as number of logistic issues as well, travel and how they would work their way into the conferences etc. Inspect the facilities, hotels, training facilities, venues and all that.”
Fagan said SANZAR could not go wrong with either Singapore or Japan.
“The bids are quite different from one another, but both are interesting and both would add tremendous value to SANZAR,” Fagan said.
“Both have their strengths. Some of those strengths are common to both of them and some of them have their points of difference when compared to the other, but I don’t think we can make a bad decision.
“Both present quite compelling arguments. It’s about making the right decision for the Super Rugby competition.”
SANZAR is expected to make a decision on the successful bid next month.