Pity the Lions' tour down under couldn't be a shared tournament with both NZ and Aus tests, and maybe to cap off, a barbarians style game against a combined NZ/Aus side.
Lions tours occupy pretty much all of the window available for NH players. Big money spinner for the host nation (as we know from 2013). It's a winning formula on and off the field and change would be unwise IMO.
As the ARU have know about this predicament since 2012 (see article in post #15), I'd like to think that they have some contingency in place.
As far as I can see the possibilities are:
Italy - unlikely to draw much in the way of crowds and have gone backwards of late
Georgia - unlikely to draw a crowd and of similar standard to Italy
US or Canada - unlikely to draw a crowd and similar to Italy and Georgia
Japan - maybe a bigger crowd than the above and maybe money from TV in Japan
Pacific Islands - would draw the biggest crowds of the available opponents. As a suggestion Wallabies could play one test against each and then a test against a combined PI team.
Whatever happens, 2017 won't be a year where the inbound tours will generate much, if anything, in the way of profit. Might be useful in the longterm promotion of the game if done right though.