I have to take issue with this RH.
Indeed daz, you can take issue with it, but I believe it is factually based and correct. Aside from the Reds' - a make-over phoenix arisen from the ashes of a virtual RU collapse - which established RU in Australia has measurably been able to properly grow its business and crowd base over the last 5 years? Aside from the very recent (only 2 years) Reds' crowd increments, which local franchise is not experiencing serious, material crowd numbers declines? And, like it or not, patronise them or otherwise, it's the rugby fans that directly (via gate) and indirectly (via sponsors that want to get to gate and TV eyeballs) that pay the overheads, wages, etc in this business and determine its core viability. Declining fan base = (over time) declining RU income base. Declining income base = cutbacks and vicious circles of lowered investment and player/playing quality that will heighten rugby's already declining competitiveness vs other codes, and its very commercial viability, etc. Just look at where we are heading now with coming 'salary caps', 30 only S15 squads (a reckless and dangerous policy IMO), etc, this is all driven at core by income shortages and an obvious lack of true long-term rugby code income growth (unlike, for example, that experienced by the well-led AFL).
Now, granted, many rugby fanatics and passionates absolutely don't like to hear of the above. They'd quite understandably preference a more player-centric, immediate discussion like: who should be in the squad next week, etc, and there's a huge place for that, of course. But I have found that the passionates tend to believe that Aus rugby, like a loveable and cuddly evergreen aunt that has always warmed the home fire, will simply always be there for them, it is just going to go on forever and ever and (for me and others here) to question that implicit comfort is annoying and threatening. And that's fine, I just don't think that happy assumption correlates with the hard facts of rugby's actual situation in Australia today. In fact, I think it breeds a dangerous complacency (tied to gradually lowered expectations of excellence of outcomes) in not demanding essential improvements in the way the game is led and managed.
The implication is that the ARU and state unions are being willfully negligent in running each team as a business.
At NO point have I ever, ever said these business were
wilfully negligent. I have said that in many, many (though not all) cases, leadership and management of multiple Aus rugby franchises is second rate and is not achieving good-enough results for their fans, sponsors and other stakeholders. And, to be fair, this particular discussion came about as you and DPK sought comfort that it was merely a down-shift in stadia sizes that largely explained the Force's major sequential crowd declines over recent years, and I believe that analysis is incorrect and misleading.
I agree that there is a stuffed shirt brigade that abhors change, but to continually bang on about how fucked up the code is in this country is a bit much.
Then don't tune in to my (tiny) radio station. What I find really encouraging is that today, unlike 2010, there are many good and thoughtful posts coming through here (and elsewhere, see The Roar, Wayne Smith, etc) debating how code management could be really improved in this country amidst the recognition that many managements are clearly letting down their fans and jeopardising their support and the code more generally.
I have 2 cases in opposition to your assertion.......Are there issues in the ARU? Sure. But let's acknowledge other codes have issues as well. ....Last questions: How many Oz rugby franchises have folded since professionalism? How many teams in other codes in the same period? It's not all bad, my friend....
Sorry, but I honestly fail to see how taking some kind of satisfaction that other (btw more financially solid and successful, in code market share terms) codes have their problems and issues should make us sit back and say 'hey, rugby's not alone in having problems' and get some encouragement from that. What's that do for rugby except maybe drug us up to more complacency? And that no rugby codes 'have folded' since professionalism (though a few years back the NSWRU nearly did, and in 2009 the QRU effectively did fold), is like saying the Australian economy must be in good hands as there hasn't been many huge bankruptcies in the last few years; the lack of complete disasters doesn't in any sense underpin an assessment that there are no serious problems worth bothering about.
The big irony is that the 2011 team you (like me) are so happy about is a case of a major positive rescue plan from the jaws of sheer leadership incompetence recklessly left unaltered through complacency over many years. Were it not for that rescue and the totally new management brought in, unarguably Australian rugby would be in far worse position than it is today.
