Where to for Super Rugby?

[WorkingClassRugger]

Straight knockout comps played cross-border are a dumb idea.

All that player contracting and overseas travel expense, then 50% of the competition turns to smoke in 80 minutes.

Waste of time and money.


Whack in a few pool games or some such first, before you begin booting out the losers.

Yeah. Makes little sense on a number of fronts. You need to provide enough games to ensure there's value to broadcasters and crowds in order to make it worthwhile. I quite like the system of progressive divisions used in 7s. This way each team would play 4 extra games and broadcasters would get an extra 32 games.

 

[TheHaydog]

Adding to my point the other day that NZ and AUS can look to their own fan bases and players to build highly competitive popular domestic tournaments is the advice they need to take.

1). Have cheap tickets for days. $5 tickets all round entire stadium watch it sell out much faster. Increases watch ability
2). Build and bring back rivalries in NZ or in AUS's case build them from statewide/inner-city concepts.
3). Find appropriate times to play the fixtures. Sunday afternoon for example good for families and fun.
4). The winner of each domestic tournament plays each other in a Trans-Tasman final.
5). TT final winner plays the best team from either SA,JPN or ARG then crowned Super Rugby winner.

 

[Dan54]

It always pretty easy to find ways to have a cross pool comp, say you got 6 teams each (I just putting in imaginary Aus, NZ comps) at the end you just play 1st, 3rd, 5th from one comp against 2nd, 4th, 6th in other comp, extra couple of games for each team and finals if you want. It's not hard to do, though WCR's, idea of top pool and bottom pool is pretty good , play for the cup or the plate whatever.

 

[Brainstrust]

if they want to get bums on seats and crowds back regularly to games they can start with dropping the cost of memberships.. if the season memberships are cheap they will get way more take up. I haven't had a Tahs membership for a few years now but they were pretty costly for not too much pleasure TBH. If the members ticketing is cheapish they have a lot more flexibility to get creative on promotional offerings to the public.

 

[Number 7]

Yeah. Makes little sense on a number of fronts. You need to provide enough games to ensure there's value to broadcasters and crowds in order to make it worthwhile. I quite like the system of progressive divisions used in 7s. This way each team would play 4 extra games and broadcasters would get an extra 32 games.

Similar to the Heineken Cup in Europe which by all accounts works well.

 

[sendit]

if they want to get bums on seats and crowds back regularly to games they can start with dropping the cost of memberships.. if the season memberships are cheap they will get way more take up. I haven't had a Tahs membership for a few years now but they were pretty costly for not too much pleasure TBH. If the members ticketing is cheapish they have a lot more flexibility to get creative on promotional offerings to the public.

I worked at memberships at the NRL for a year, always felt like a scam. Memberships never seem to be good value for money, unless you're wanting to actively donate money to the club. The cost of running a membership program and the inflexibility of the programs themselves tend to not make it worthwhile

The AFL are very lucky they've been able to embed membership into the culture of the sport

 

[Quick Hands]

The AFL are very lucky they've been able to embed membership into the culture of the sport

Mainly because AFL club memberships bring with them real buy-in to the club. Members get to vote in elections and thus have a say in the direction of the club.

Members in the rugby and NRL context are really just season ticket holders rather than members.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Mainly because AFL club memberships bring with them real buy-in to the club. Members get to vote in elections and thus have a say in the direction of the club.

Members in the rugby and NRL context are really just season ticket holders rather than members.

If the Tahs introduced a membership scheme that offered similar to that of AFL clubs I'd be more than willing to part with my hard earned on an annual basis. I suspect many others would be as well. Beyond that of their current ticket membership system.

 

[KOB1987]

Mainly because AFL club memberships bring with them real buy-in to the club. Members get to vote in elections and thus have a say in the direction of the club.

Members in the rugby and NRL context are really just season ticket holders rather than members.

If they Tahs introduced a membership scheme that offered similar to that of AFL clubs I'd be more than willing to part with my hard earned on an annual basis. I suspect many others would be as well. Beyond that of their current ticket membership system.

Yes, and I might be wrong but if you were a member of the old NSWRU you had that privilege, as well as a season pass and an allocated seat at the SFS. That was amateur era of course though. The Waratahs are a business franchise so it’s a different model, they don’t sell voting rights. I think they did try the allocated seat thing in the early days, or tried to tie it in with the previous NSWRU membership base.

If private equity gets involved then it’s highly likely we will be able to buy in, and by virtue of that get a vote.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

An article out of NZ is suggesting out current arrangement may remain in place next season if the Covid situation doesn't resolve. Citing the current outbreak in Victoria. Which is interesting. Because things have been relatively quiet of late around the future of a TT or domestic competition. Something like a week after the two sides met.

There's two ways this article could be read.

1)Pragmatically. They don't know when the current Covid outbreaks here will subside and are just planning ahead if things don't improve. Which I imagine they'd have to be looking at it very pessimistically as surely we'll overcome the current outbreak by then. Or,

2)Discussions last week didn't go as they had hoped and we're no closer to a TT competition. Which is hard to garner as we've heard very little about how those discussions actually progressed.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ it's mostly 1).

NZ Gov won't consider a travel bubble until Aus goes 28 days without community transmission, something epidemiologists on both sides of the ditch say is unlikely to happen this year. Assuming a tentative start date of late-Jan or early Feb, that just doesn't leave time to make the necessary arrangements.

ATM I'd say the most likely outcome is SRAu & SRAo v2 with some Champions League-type fixtures between those & the International season.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

^ it's mostly 1).

NZ Gov won't consider a travel bubble until Aus goes 28 days without community transmission, something epidemiologists on both sides of the ditch say is unlikely to happen this year. Assuming a tentative start date of late-Jan or early Feb, that just doesn't leave time to make the necessary arrangements.

ATM I'd say the most likely outcome is SRAu & SRAo v2 with some Champions League-type fixtures between those & the International season.

Yep focus on broadcast negotiations for super rugby au with champions league matches against nz and Japan - latter should help the coffers for all parties

 

[kiap]

An article out of NZ is suggesting out current arrangement may remain in place next season.

Is this the article?

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/spo...rns-in-2021-more-breaks-needed-aching-players

<snip> ...... another competition like Super Rugby Aotearoa could be on the cards for 2021.

New Zealand Rugby has already stated Super Rugby Aotearoa as it is currently won't be an option next year as it isn't "sustainable" in the long run. However discussions around a revamped competition have also stalled with Rugby Australia wanting more spots in New Zealand's proposed new-look format.

It leaves plenty to ponder for the 2021 competition but if it looks anything like this year's derby-heavy tournament, Crusaders and All Blacks first-five Richie Mo'unga has one suggestion.

"Maybe another bye?" ....... <snip>

 

[Dan54]

Is this the article?

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/spo...rns-in-2021-more-breaks-needed-aching-players

<snip> .. another competition like Super Rugby Aotearoa could be on the cards for 2021.

New Zealand Rugby has already stated Super Rugby Aotearoa as it is currently won't be an option next year as it isn't "sustainable" in the long run. However discussions around a revamped competition have also stalled with Rugby Australia wanting more spots in New Zealand's proposed new-look format.

It leaves plenty to ponder for the 2021 competition but if it looks anything like this year's derby-heavy tournament, Crusaders and All Blacks first-five Richie Mo'unga has one suggestion.

"Maybe another bye?" ... <snip>

Yep Sam Whitelock suggested something similar at beginning of year. Don't think there maybe any way there can be a TT or anything next year unless there is a huge change in Covid cases in Aus, there is no way NZ will open borders to Aus with what is going on at moment.

 

[hoggy]

The quicker they make a decision the better, postponing things could very well lead to the same situation as this year, cobbling together something at the last minute.

If we went domestic would not 6 teams be the best option. Maybe with some help from Twiggy a 2nd NSW team (pacific influence) could be brought together.

Start planning now and promoting, get some anticipation happening.

If we spend the next 6 months will it, won't it happen, even if the borders open next year (theirs every chance of a flare up)

 

[Jimmy_Crouch]

Just put Super Rugby on hold for 2021. Play NRC (H&A) and NZ play Mitre 10.

 

[Omar Comin']

Whatever happens next year will be based around our 5 current Super Rugby AU teams. Easiest thing to do would probably be a 6 team competition including the Drua/Latui or 1 new Sydney based team. 3 games per week on Friday and Saturday nights plus Sunday afternoon would be great.

You could have either a double round robin and a final, followed by a short (and separate) Trans Tasman series, or if that doesn't seem possible by a certain date you could extend the domestic comp to a triple round robin. The triple round robin probably wouldn't work for more than 1 season but it wouldn't have to. In 2022 you'll either have the TT/Asia-Pacific series after the domestic comp, or you can add a couple more teams.

 

[KOB1987]

I don't mind the idea of an NRC as a one season solution, spread the talent around and see how it goes. The only caveat would be that NSW Country and Qld Country need to have a fixed base, not move around the regions. I'm not sure how it would work from a contracting perspective with players relocating, but surely some would facilitate a short term move closer to their origins and a bit of paperwork for a 'loan'. Considering the circumstances.

 

[hoggy]

Whatever happens next year will be based around our 5 current Super Rugby AU teams. Easiest thing to do would probably be a 6 team competition including the Drua/Latui or 1 new Sydney based team. 3 games per week on Friday and Saturday nights plus Sunday afternoon would be great.

You could have either a double round robin and a final, followed by a short (and separate) Trans Tasman series, or if that doesn't seem possible by a certain date you could extend the domestic comp to a triple round robin. The triple round robin probably wouldn't work for more than 1 season but it wouldn't have to. In 2022 you'll either have the TT/Asia-Pacific series after the domestic comp, or you can add a couple more teams.

The thing is if NZ can add a 6th team then in conjunction with Aus running domestic competitions each, then you can broadcast 2 games every Friday/Saturday/Sunday surely that would be an attractive package for a broadcaster.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

The thing is if NZ can add a 6th team then in conjunction with Aus running domestic competitions each, then you can broadcast 2 games every Friday/Saturday/Sunday surely that would be an attractive package for a broadcaster.

Could you imagine even how more attractive that would be with a champions league competition to follow between oz, japan and nz leagues - I feel we need that to be financially viable and avoid mass exodus overseas.