Even if you are as rich as Croesus you cannot buy the soul of a person, or a game.
Yes, if he is prepared to put a lot of money in, of course he would expect to have his opinion taken seriously. But total control is a different ball of wax, my friend.
If I lived a bit closer, and was a lot younger, and a lot healthier (I have spinal stenosis, progressive and degenerative neuropathic damage which is affecting my mobility) we would go to some games.
As it is, my wife and I are members of our club, Eastwood. We used to be Reds members, until they appointed Richard Graham coach.
The current custodians of our great game, Rugby Australia, have done everything possible to rip out the soul of Rugby in Australia. More importantly, despite numerous consultant reports, they've done very little to promote and grow the game. Super Rugby has become an embarrassment. The effects have flowed into the appalling performance of our national team.
The professional game needs a professional organisation to be in control. Andrew Forrest is a facilitator - he has no interest in controlling what will grow through World Series Rugby. However, he's in a very good position to facilitate its growth in collaboration with World Rugby and other international bodies such as Asia Rugby.
Andrew Forrest has no desire to "control" the game of rugby. He has been totally consistent in every one of his mutterings to that extent.
His initial offering was to assist Rugby Australia with the grass roots funding which they themselves had said was required.
His offer was rejected. (Despite verbally agreeing to his proposal only days before) Of course he expected the administration which had destroyed the pathway for players in WA to move on. For the sake of the game the current Rugby Australia board has to move on. ASIC is likely to assist in helping to make this happen.
FTA coverage and streaming is all part of promoting the game and making rugby accessible to as many people as possible.
The naysayers are still doubting Andrew Forrest's bona fides and still saying "tell Twiggy that he's dreamin!"
The reality is that a lot has been achieved in <4 months since Matt Hodgson got the go ahead to rebuild a new playing squad for the Western Force on 11 January 2018. The team did very well considering that they had been under Tim Sampson and Van Humphries for only 5 weeks and had played no trial matches. A few have played a couple of games of Club Rugby in Perth during April.
2018 is only a transition year. To get the Western Force prepared for the NRC (and the Mauritius 10s in June). The support of World Rugby is evident by the teams coming to play in Perth. There's a lot more to come from World Series Rugby. It will unfold as a global initiative.....
PS Totally agree with your sentiment about Richard Graham who was a disaster for both the Western Force and the Reds.