The Awful Truth About The ARU's Financial Position

[gel]

Fair points, particularly the timeslot issue (I personally like the later match but can see how many wouldn't).

Are the local ratings related to the distribution of the money? I.e. If the global ratings are higher for non reds matches and therefore more money is generated, then would the ARU care if the local ratings suffered?

 

[TOCC]

SANZAR Europe used to be a seperate company equally owned by the 3 SANZAR partners created and designed to sell the broadcast rights within Europe, in which case rights sold in Europe would be equally distributed amongst the 3 unions.. however, I believe the method of distributing broadcast rights changed last negotiations and this company no longer exsists.

The reality is the value of Super Rugby to European broadcasters is in matches held in South Africa, this is due to the time zone diffference.. South African based matches are broadcast primetime(or close to) into Europe, I imagine little value is placed on Australian and New Zealand home game due to the time of the games.

I assume a major push for Japan's inclusion into Super Rugby would have come from the ARU/NZRU with the end state been that it boosts the value of Super a Rugby broadcast rights into Japan, maybe not for this broadcast agreement, but the longer term.

 

[gel]

If the longer term is use Japan to boost the value, then the force's timezone becomes more valuable I imagine.

 

[Tip]

Shorter term there are a few initiatives I'd like to see taken by the Soup Franchises to shore up and expand their supporter base.

1) Dedicated zones at each end of the ground for Family and Students/current players.

a) Club Rugby players (12 & Under) go free to games with an adult.

b) The other end of the field is the "Student section" For Uni students and current footy players. Give them $15 dollar tickets at 5$ beers (they're mid strength, at best, so there's a limit to madness) and tell them to go nuts.

We've got to make these Super Rugby games an event, more-so considering we've made the game inaccessible for 70% of Australians . We should be engaging our current supporter base and facilitating participation.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Could not agree more strongly with 1a.

Attract some fans in. Make money off that dragging their parents along. GA for an adult makes it work out to pretty good value for entertainment so the fans/parents win too.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Shorter term there are a few initiatives I'd like to see taken by the Soup Franchises to shore up and expand their supporter base.

1) Dedicated zones at each end of the ground for Family and Students/current players.

a) Club Rugby players (12 & Under) go free to games with an adult.

b) The other end of the field is the "Student section" For Uni students and current footy players. Give them $15 dollar tickets at 5$ beers (they're mid strength, at best, so there's a limit to madness) and tell them to go nuts.

We've got to make these Super Rugby games an event, more-so considering we've made the game inaccessible for 70% of Australians . We should be engaging our current supporter base and facilitating participation.

The usual excuse is that the stadium contracts don't allow promotions like these.

Wonder how true that is?

 

[I like to watch]

They can give out as many free tickets as they like.
A third party runs the concessions.
So handing out party dollars has the same effect as handing out cash.

 

[Strewthcobber]

They can give out as many free tickets as they like.
A third party runs the concessions.
So handing out party dollars has the same effect as handing out cash.

Would the state owned stadium concession holders even be allowed to offer drink deals if the teams paid for it?

RSA etc?.

 

[half]

I don't have or can offer no solution to this and we have spoken about it before. The AFL has I read the other day 220 season games if you include finals, League 216 I think, and Soccer 140 games plus their Cup games and ACL games. Also there is a lot of talk about growing to 12 teams thus over 200 A-League matches still with Cup games and ACL games.

Why mention it again, I was looking at Wookie's site last night ..

The crowd numbers over a year must have a big effect.

Last year

AFL over 198 season just round matches, 6,348,161

NRL over 192 season just round matches. 2,951, 973

Soccer this year over 25 round matches, 386, 709

Rugby last year over 33 games, 472, 654

Soccer will finish the season with close to two million, and next year with 12 teams say 2.5 million.

Consider at say $ 20.00 per ticket

AFL 6.2 * 20-- 122 million
NRL 3 * 20 --- 60 million
Soccer 2 * 20 -- 40 million [next season say 50 million]
Rugby 0.5 * 20 -- 10 million

Leaving aside the extra things the media have to talk about locally, there is a financial difference because of crowds.

No idea how to fix, however does not make it any less of a issue.

 

[RugbyReg]

They can give out as many free tickets as they like.
A third party runs the concessions.
So handing out party dollars has the same effect as handing out cash.

not entirely. The tenant / hirer usually gets a cut of the bar and canteen too. So the more sold, the more earned.

In saying that, bigger crowds mean bigger event expenses. for instance at Suncorp Stadium an expected crowd of 20,000 or under means that they don't need to open up the middle or top level, meaning no ushers, police, security, cleaners, bar staff etc.

Once you click over that mark and move to 25,000 or so, then they have to start opening up those areas and paying staff etc.

 

[Tip]

The idea is that, for Suncorp in particular, the top tiers of each end are dedicated and restricted to each particular group.

You open the top tier at either ends but not along the side. You have a limit of maybe 4k of both types of tickets. First come first served basis.

That cuts the associated servicing costs to a third. Hopefully these fans will pay for themselves.

These promotions encourage large scale family & group-of-friends fan engagement not offered elsewhere bar the Big Bash.

Empty seats means empty tills.

 

[Waterboyrugby]

Shorter term there are a few initiatives I'd like to see taken by the Soup Franchises to shore up and expand their supporter base.

1) Dedicated zones at each end of the ground for Family and Students/current players.

a) Club Rugby players (12 & Under) go free to games with an adult.

b) The other end of the field is the "Student section" For Uni students and current footy players. Give them $15 dollar tickets at 5$ beers (they're mid strength, at best, so there's a limit to madness) and tell them to go nuts.

We've got to make these Super Rugby games an event, more-so considering we've made the game inaccessible for 70% of Australians . We should be engaging our current supporter base and facilitating participation.

Some great ideas there. I'd say first and foremost the product on the field has to improve to be an entertaining spectacle. The Tahs vs Chiefs was one of the best games to watch with attacking broken play rugby this year, but was not seen enough.

Now I'm not saying I want a try fest with no defence, just more positive intention to use the ball and play. The Reds were the worst offenders, addicted to milking scrum penalty after scrum penalty with absolutely no intention of using the ball. Periods up to 5-6 minutes of resets with nothing happening kills the game.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

Shorter term there are a few initiatives I'd like to see taken by the Soup Franchises to shore up and expand their supporter base.

1) Dedicated zones at each end of the ground for Family and Students/current players.

a) Club Rugby players (12 & Under) go free to games with an adult.

b) The other end of the field is the "Student section" For Uni students and current footy players. Give them $15 dollar tickets at 5$ beers (they're mid strength, at best, so there's a limit to madness) and tell them to go nuts.
.

This is what the Brumbies do, all junior registered players get a free general admission membership (not finals), they also had an area for UC students and $10/$15 tickets for them at the southern or northern end, no idea on drinks and the UC thing may have ended with the change in sponsorship

 

[Omar Comin']

Not sure if anyone else has said this as I haven't read the entire thread, but if the Force are successful in raising $5 million with their fan ownership drive, what could the ARU raise by giving supporters the opportunity to own Australian rugby? $100 million? more? Is there any reason this isn't feasible?

Could potentially raise a considerable amount of money to put into a future fund that would shore up the financial position of the game indefinitely.

 

[TOCC]

You have to be wary of consumer fatigue, organisations and sporting teams are aware that there is only so much money that they can extract from their fans. It may be an arbitrary figure fluctuating between each person, but once you buy a jersey and 2 Wallabies tickets, you have already spent close to $400 that calendar year. Improving variety in what consumer can purchase may increase revenue but it will also reach a saturation point where the purchase on one item detracts from the sale of another.

Force are selling an ownership stake in the Force, what would the ARU sell? An ownership stake in the ARU? Wallabies are a professional sporting team but also a national representative team, I don't think you can sell a stake in the Wallabies. What happens when 70% of the owners come from the Easter Suburbs or North Shore of Sydney, does this influence coaching appointment and subsequent team selections?

 

[Scrubber2050]

It seems to now TOCC

 

[Omar Comin']

Force are selling an ownership stake in the Force, what would the ARU sell? An ownership stake in the ARU? Wallabies are a professional sporting team but also a national representative team, I don't think you can sell a stake in the Wallabies. What happens when 70% of the owners come from the Easter Suburbs or North Shore of Sydney, does this influence coaching appointment and subsequent team selections?

Yeah essentially an ownership stake in the ARU. By extension that covers the Wallabies, as well as everything else.

I don't see how that'd change anything. It's not like the power base of Australian rugby isn't already dominated by private school old boys from the Eastern Suburbs and North Shore of Sydney. Maybe a fan ownership model would give people from other backgrounds more influence.

And I guess there's lots of options around what a share of ownership would actually give you, but I would think it should involve the right to vote for independent directors or commissioners. Maybe a few other things. You could also offer more for various amounts of shares - a bit like a kickstarter campaign, without giving any individual any significant power.

But I think the main appeal of ownership would be symbolic. It'd be a one off payment that gives you a stake in a sport you love for life and helps set it up for sustainable success.

 

[p.Tah]

Not sure about the concept of ownership but they do have membership. I don't think it's a great deal

http://www.aru.com.au/wallabies/Memberships/MembershipPackages.aspx

 

[Omar Comin']

Yeah I don't think it could be totally symbolic. It would need to provide some kind of collective influence in how the game is run, and some prestige beyond priority access to tickets. Certain decisions would have to go to a vote of owners.

Anyway, just a thought. Worth seeing how it goes for the Force.

 

[Strewthcobber]

If they ever went down that route, and there is some level of influence attached, I would hope they would have a semi regular release of shares too, so that it's not just those in a position to buy now that get the influence.