Quick Hands
David Wilson (68)
If you hadn't noticed we already have wet feet, could be drowning
If you hadn't noticed we already have wet feet, could be drowning
Not opposed to this in concept, but QH does make a good point re the Qld and NSW sides. To have some tribalism they need to have some geographic identity - so Qld city would be the Brisbane Reds, and the other team needs to be Sunshine Coast, or Darling Downs or whatever is deemed most appropriate. Similarly NSW city would be the Sydney Waratahs and the other team Western Sydney, Newcastle, Central Coast or whatever. However, I do think all the country zones should be affiliated with these second teams.
I don't see how an Australia only comp will ever be viable - unless the NRL goes bust or some billionaire decides to throw a shitload of cash at founding a comp that would be very high risk at best.
Depends what you mean by 'viable'. If you mean that wages will be paid at the current level then nothing is viable. At best broadcast rights will be between 25-50% of the current level even if the current Super Rugby concept continues. That hammer is going to fall on the middle level no matter what form it takes.
Shrinking to 3 Super Rugby teams - which is the NZ preference for TT just continues to shrink the pie. RA needs Twiggy's money, but NZ don't want the Force in TT as it is 4 time zones behind. This is one of the reasons the ARU chopped the Force as it suited NZ.
Once we go back to NSW, QLD and ACT, what then? How is that financially viable when NZ have already said that pooling broadcast money and dividing equally is off the table. If they provide more teams and more games and their broadcast deal is worth more (which it undoubtedly will be), we still won't get enough to pay these guys anything close to what they've been getting.
Sounds like quite a few assumptions are being made.
NZ don't want the Force in TT as it is 4 time zones behind.
*snip
This siteThe Internet is built on baseless assumptions, wild conspiracy theories and circular arguments. This thread is ground zero for all three. Why stop now?
What else is the site for?
Can't see NZ ever going for that.Sadly I think we are heading to rebels or brumbies getting dumped - force as self funded entity guarantees their place but agree can’t sustain 5 teams against 5 kiwi teams - there is an answers - could have open borders policy to encourage more top kiwis to play for oz sides but NZRU will never allow.
I think this is what RA want, get rid of the liability.Which is why the comp should be privately owned. Fuck whatever RA and NZRU want.
Yes! And i just amazes me the degree to which many posters here are still mock-designing new Aust prop comp structures with lots of imagined Aust teams when the really key issue is:
...the actual playing quality (and, to a material degree, player quality) of our 4 Super teams has been declining markedly for over a decade. Look at the Super 15 comp table pre COVID, only the Brumbies were attaining a respectable table position!
Do we think this is not a substantial and highly financially important issue for any future Super comp redesign here? FFS, it's THE issue! Filling any comp with a team-numbers driven model as the first priority will only perpetuate the very problem we have today - teams size expansion before team rugby quality improvement - that is driving fans and viewership interest away, slowly but surely. The issue of '2am SA games' is a total side-show issue.
The core of _any_ financially viable new Aust rugby pro comp has to answer this question before anything else: (a) how do we credibly get the average playing and player calibre of Aust pro teams going quickly upwards and (b) how is that going to be resourced (esp wrt coaching quality and adequacy of specialist coaches, etc) and financed and whom realistically will do and provide that resourcing and financing?
If that question is not - yet again - credibly answered and up front all we will do is _at best_ slow down the suicidal path we are on now.
Adding say Fiji and NZ teams in a new pro comp structure - I agree, yes, highly desirable - will not in any way fix our core quality problems, we must fix these ourselves and quickly.
Which is why the comp should be privately owned. Fuck whatever RA and NZRU want.
What else is the site for?