Changes loom to loss-making ARC

[Jehna]

Changes loom to loss-making ARC

By Adrian Warren
October 04, 2007

THE Australian Rugby Union is looking to retain the Australian Rugby Championship, but changes appear certain after incurring a seven-figure loss in its inaugural season.

Deputy chief executive officer Matt Carroll said today the ARU expected to complete a review of the new professional competition and the eight teams before the end of the month.

He said the tournament, which enters its finals phase this weekend, was always expected to run up a seven-figure deficit.

"You can't continue to sustain those sorts of losses," Carroll said. "Other competitions have clubs which lose money, rugby is not alone in that, but they have substantial incomes from broadcast and gate which ARC doesn't have and won't have for quite some time.

"No one is suggesting there won't be an ARC next year, what we're doing now is ensuring that all the best attributes that came through this year are retained, but on a sound financial base, that's affordable.

Carroll said the standard of rugby had been excellent and entertaining and it had rated well on television.

Brian Melrose, coach of ARC minor premier Western Sydney Rams, hailed the new competition as "one of the best innovations that the ARU have done." "There was a lot of scepticism, in reality that scepticism should have been blown away," Melrose said.

"With the introduction of the new rules, the players have been able to step up that were somewhat unknown, I think it's a great thing for the country's rugby.

"There's many players who have been able to step up, and it should have a few of the contracted players nervous and under pressure, because it's not only young guys, there's been some 'middle' aged players step up and have shown they really are deserving of a chance.

While Queensland ARC teams filled the bottom two places on the ladder, new Reds Super 14 coach Phil Mooney said the tournament had been fantastic in giving young players like halves Will Genia and Quade Cooper more professional football experience.

"They've basically come straight out of colts and school footy, so it's allowed them to play a good level of rugby, that they wouldn't have previously got," Mooney said.

AAP

[KenyaQuin]

They need to pull their heads in and focus on making the ARC a future financial success rather than trying to water it down.

[frontrow]

They really need to provide some blanket advertising toward the end of the super14 season to inspire the supporters of the Aussie teams to jump onboard the new ARC teams, a chance to make a new team a favourite as well...This season was basically upon us before the advertising began, so it was a case of word of mouth or computer websites like ours promoting it...That way patronage improves, profits through gate takings and merchandise also rise and we have a viable competition on our hands...
As for the game itself, the ELVs have proven popular with both players and spectators so that is a bonus, with lots of points scored and carnival atmosphere at matches...Gotta be a lot of positives to take out of the innaugral season...

[Jehna]

Yeah they def need to work on the advertising. I didn't know anything about it until I got an email from ticketmaster asking if I wanted to buy tickets. I didn't even know what the comp was but was like heck its rugby and its pretty cheap so why not... It wasn't until later that I found out what it actually was!

[AndyS]

A slightly fuller account of what he said:
-----------------------------------------------------------
"You can't continue to sustain those sorts of losses," Carroll said.

"Other competitions have clubs which lose money, rugby is not alone in that, but they have substantial incomes from broadcast and gate which ARC doesn't have and won't have for quite some time.

"No one is suggesting there won't be an ARC next year, what we're doing now is ensuring that all the best attributes that came through this year are retained, but on a sound financial base, that's affordable.

"We didn't expect it to break even, we didn't expect it to turn a dollar, it's not that sort of competition.

"Having said that, all the teams, their revenues have fallen short of their budgets, which is not surprising, any sort of start up competition undergoes the same.

"However it is costing a substantial amount of money and the ARU is providing loans to the Unions and the teams to fund them, so we will be reviewing the affordability question, and therefore that may go to the structure." (I don't like the sound of that, especially in conjunction with travel costs)

Carroll said that among costs under review were travel, ground hire and the amount spent by clubs on coaching staff.

He suggested it could be cheaper to upgrade the surface and equipment at club grounds rather than pay expensive rental fees for large venues. (And "Hello" say the Sydney clubs, "This is where we get ours")

[frontrow]

From the jist of that that would imply playing at a venue like Perry Lakes or Palmyra, or the like over here, but the sydney and Qld clubs would get the most out of it....

[travelling_gerry]

Bet Perth Spirit are the ones who are closest to break even???

[GIGS20]

Four words. Network rights bidding war!

All problems solved!once Fox see it's a brand which will be supported, they will pay through then nose to keep it from channel nine.

[shasta]

Four words. Network rights bidding war!

All problems solved!once Fox see it's a brand which will be supported, they will pay through then nose to keep it from channel nine.

Can I borrow those rose coloured glasses GGST.

I'll reserve judgement 'till after the finals, but it seems people on the east coast are not supporting ARC as yet. I can't see any mad scramble for telecast rights anytime soon. I hope the ARU will give it another year at least in it's present form though. Maybe it'll do better when it's not on at the same time as the RWC but it's always going to clash with the NRL & AFL finals series for the ticketing dollar. and TV ratings.

[James]

I'm pretty sure the plan next year is to have it later so it clashes less.

[JediKnight]

Wasn't there a 3-year plan that the ARC would be profitable by the end of the cycle? It surely can't come as any surprise to the ARU that it incurred a loss in year 1.

[Skiza]

Carroll said the standard of rugby had been excellent and entertaining and it had rated well on television.

THEN WHY IS THE SPIRIT GAME NOT ON....I may be biased but to me the Spirit have had one of the largest fans support throughout the ARC

I agree that advertising needed to start earlier, most of the people i know who are Force fans, had or still have absolutely no idea who the Spirit are and just how much of the team are in the Force.

[Jehna]

THEN WHY IS THE SPIRIT GAME NOT ON....I may be biased but to me the Spirit have had one of the largest fans support throughout the ARC

That's not bias babe its true! You only have to look at crowd figures for that one

[zimeric]

not that it makes any difference to revenua but anyone confirm if crowd numbers include kids or do they just count tickets punched?