Where to for Super Rugby?

[wamberal]

Have NOT done well for a decade?

 

[kiap]

Dyslexia is a terrible thing.

Put on your coloured glasses and read it again, old bean.

 

[gel]

But regardless, the buyer only bids up to a price;.

Thats the key.

The product is not worth much and that's why the networks don't offer much.

If it were something of value, the networks would offer more and it would be on fta now.

How can a fta broadcaster use it? What's the regular timeslot they can use? There isn't a guaranteed game on at any particular time so how do they deal with that?

Furthermore it is not a popular game atm at all. I'm not sure showing super rugby on Australian fta is good for the game atm anyway - watching obviously fit athletes bumble their way towards yet another embarrassing loss while foreigners rest their best players against us. Sounds like a great promotion for the game here.

I don't like AFL, but I can't deny it's a good product. I am ambivalent about league, but it's just so well suited to TV it's just not even a question why it rates pretty well.

Super rugby needs to pull its head of its arse and deliver a product that people want to watch and then the broadcasters will pay for it.

 

[kiap]

Thats the key.

The product is not worth much

Yes and no. Even in its current death spiral, Super Rugby still rates higher IIRC (for now) than A-League per Pay TV game in watchable timeslots

A lot fewer games to flog in those slots, though, obviously. So its local worth is lower.

and that's why the networks don't offer much.

If it were something of value, the networks would offer more and it would be on fta now.

How can a fta broadcaster use it? What's the regular timeslot they can use? There isn't a guaranteed game on at any particular time so how do they deal with that?

Yeah, it's not up to them, mate.

I wonder who else decides when games are played?

… Hmmm. It's a hard one.

Furthermore it is not a popular game atm at all. I'm not sure showing super rugby on Australian fta is good for the game atm anyway - watching obviously fit athletes bumble their way towards yet another embarrassing loss while foreigners rest their best players against us. Sounds like a great promotion for the game here.

I don't like AFL, but I can't deny it's a good product. I am ambivalent about league, but it's just so well suited to TV it's just not even a question why it rates pretty well.

It should be a question for rugby union.

Super rugby needs to pull its head of its arse and deliver a product that people want to watch and then the broadcasters will pay for it.

Unfortunately, the odds of that aren't great.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Friday's Women's big bash did 150k-200k on 7mate and 80k on Foxtel. That's twice what the aleague are getting at the moment and probably at the very top end of what we could hope for these days.

I don't think we are exploding any tv execs heads with the discovery that Australians like cricket

 

[wamberal]

We don't like the Sheffield Shield much, though, do we?

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

We don't like the Sheffield Shield much, though, do we?

Super Rugby and Sheffield Shield aren't adequate comparisons.

 

[wamberal]

No, of course not. Do you believe a domestic rugby competition is an adequate comparison to Sheffield Shield?

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Super Rugby and Sheffield Shield aren't adequate comparisons.

No. We should be looking at the BBL more than Sheffield Shield.

 

[Set piece magic]

This whole FTA principle is true, but it needs to have the caveat

- Yes, the product must be worth watching
- SBS is not really a good comparison or productive - its market share is just so low that it is not really legitimate free to air television. It sits somewhere around 3% on the ratings, you'd be better off leaving your product on fox.
- Television ratings have been decaying for some time now

So transferring that into Rugby --
The only product with FTA potential was big Aussie games, which no longer exist because our teams suck
Giving the rights to these games would have a very detrimental effect on the value of the rights to fox
The A League only hands over mid-tier games because of this - but doesn't get the exposure it wants with ratings poor.

Points on Big bash - I hate the way society has gone and made a product as meaningless and plastic as the big bash popular but sadly seems to be the only way to go.
The thing we can learn from BB is how to get a product that's on Fox and make it attractive enough to put on FTA - and that's to have a shorter season, big games, bring in the wank off dinner party crowd and make everyone have fun no matter what.
It's also to have a sport as popular and ubiquitous as cricket, which we do not have.

In other words, there may be opportunities in the future to get a changed up comp on FTA, but right now we have no way of doing that with super rugby, it's just broken, we are broke and FTA is no magic bullet rather a money -> exposure trade off

 

[Rebels3]

Id be open to the idea of pushing the professional game into summer to build some market penetration, either that or try and convince the North they are better off playing their season in summer (but this wouldn't happen). Identically aligning the seasons could make things like a world club competition etc. possible. Grab some RL and AFL viewers looking for a contact sport during their off season.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Id be open to the idea of pushing the professional game into summer to build some market penetration, either that or try and convince the North they are better off playing their season in summer (but this wouldn't happen). Identically aligning the seasons could make things like a world club competition etc. possible. Grab some RL and AFL viewers looking for a contact sport during their off season.

The interesting thing on that is one of the arguments I've always seen from both Australian and Sth Africans is that the summer months are just too hot. Yet, now there are two SA franchises in the Pro 14 who have to play during those months. I myself am not against the idea either. Aligning the seasons may will require someone to budge and there's no way it's going to be the NH. They have all the money. Plus, moving would open up opportunities to align the RC with the 6N's etc.

We need some clear air relative to NRL and AFL. We could set up games in the evening for the most par

 

[sunnyboys]

move to summer and watch the last remaining fans shift to AFL or League. Union need to increase its content and presence during the "footy season" not reduce it.

Summer night games scheduled against the BBL juggernaut? good luck with that!

 

[wamberal]

It is worth tossing a few ideas around. From where I sit we are in deep doo-doo as an elite sport in Australia. We need something really creative to get us out of the hole we are in.

 

[hoggy]

It is worth tossing a few ideas around. From where I sit we are in deep doo-doo as an elite sport in Australia. We need something really creative to get us out of the hole we are in.

Agree, we are in deep s__t, but is it because we are always looking for the magic bullet, a quick fix. Is that not the reason we are in the big hole, we've had 20 years of short term money grabs.

I'll come back to the lack of leadership or drive in growing a domestic competition which will give us long term genuine growth.

 

[Strewthcobber]

The interesting thing on that is one of the arguments I've always seen from both Australian and Sth Africans is that the summer months are just too hot. Yet, now there are two SA franchises in the Pro 14 who have to play during those months. I myself am not against the idea either. Aligning the seasons may will require someone to budge and there's no way it's going to be the NH. They have all the money. Plus, moving would open up opportunities to align the RC with the 6N's etc.

We need some clear air relative to NRL and AFL. We could set up games in the evening for the most par

Average crowd for the Cheetahs is less than 4k and king's is less than 3k. Both teams got way less than that in their games last week.

Supporters there don't seem much interested in summer rugby

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Average crowd for the Cheetahs is less than 4k and king's is less than 3k. Both teams got way less than that in their games last week.

Supporters there don't seem much interested in summer rugby

Supporters don't seem much interested in either one of those teams. The dire crowds aren't new since they made the jump from Super Rugby to Pro14.

 

[dru]

The Kings have been an interesting experiment from day 1. Adelaide and Port Elizabeth have a similar population. There is a much broader population in Eastern Cape but on the whole Adelaide economy would dwarf PE and the Cape. They should have an ability to build a player pipeline but can crowds dont seem likely to ever be good.

I had hoped for better from the Cheetahs who also have a home altitude advantage.

I also understand that Pro14 teams rely on gate takings for financial strength. RSA in the north has been I teresti g but it isn’t all rosey.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Average crowd for the Cheetahs is less than 4k and king's is less than 3k. Both teams got way less than that in their games last week.

Supporters there don't seem much interested in summer rugby

And it doesn't necessarily need to be Super Rugby off the bat. We could test the waters with the NRC. Promote the damn thing better and see if we get an uptick. If we do then we can build off that structure. If we don't we just go back to the current schedule.

 

[half]

Agree, we are in deep s__t, but is it because we are always looking for the magic bullet, a quick fix. Is that not the reason we are in the big hole, we've had 20 years of short term money grabs.

I'll come back to the lack of leadership or drive in growing a domestic competition which will give us long term genuine growth.

AR no longer has the capital, expertise, nor intellect, to solve the issues they are facing. Super Rugby is a millstone, dragging rugby down with the aid of spreadsheets, salaries to highly paid executives who have a “conflict of interest “ to take rugby forward. We need a new set of managers to take over.

Decades of mismanagement, self-interest, state bias, poor decision making, poor forward planning, and as hoggy says always looking for the magic bullet / quick fix, has only added to our issues. The lack of a bottom up strategic plan is hurting us bad an we are in a world of pain.

I have always argued for a National Domestic Competition [NDC], but prefaced this with the need to have a four to five-year implementation process whereby all tribes in the rugby family got on board as a united group. I believe all voices need to be heard and included, to ensure all the stakeholders get behind the process. IMO this will take about four to five-years.

I no longer believe we have this time available, as we don’t have the assets needed to sustain us over this time.

For me as I have argued many times in the past now, to survive in a professional capacity at a decent level, we need a NDC . But to fund the short falls and provide the necessary marketing and management skills we need IMO to essentially outsource the professional game to willing investors like Twiggy and charge licence fees in a franchise set up.


Merry Christmas, to all, and congrats to the thread over 650 pages and over 13k posts in less than two years amazing, shows at least many care.