ARU's National Rugby Championship opener to split Bledisloe Cup Tests
The Australian Rugby Union is shrugging off criticism of the National Rugby Championship and is planning an opening-round match between the Sydney Stars and Brisbane City at Ballymore on the Thursday night before the second Bledisloe Cup Test.
With just seven weeks to go until the first game is broadcast live on Fox Sports on August 21, the ARU is also on the verge of locking in a $350,000 per year naming rights sponsorship deal with Sydney construction company Buildcorp.
Buildcorp, founded by husband-and-wife team Tony and Josephine Sukkar, is club premiers Sydney University's major sponsor.
Securing the privately owned firm's support for what is believed to be a three-year deal fulfils a crucial ARU requirement that the competition "wash its own face", along with a $2 million broadcasting deal and strict self-funding conditions on the nine participating teams.
The exciting stuff is still to come, including rule changes and the announcement of the draw which, The Breakdown understands, will give each team exposure in the coveted live spot on Fox Sports within the first five rounds.
But in the midst of sustained criticism by Eastwood president Brett Papworth, and persistent murmurs the competition is being pushed too far too soon, a firm sponsorship arrangement for the competition is a welcome development.
As is news that the four teams involved in the Greater Sydney Rams – West Harbour, Parramatta, Penrith and Southern Districts – have signed a memorandum of understanding and secured a consortium of up to six investors prepared to put up the $300,000 needed to run the team.
It means the nine teams involved in the long-awaited professional third tier are locked and loaded and ready for kick off.
The Breakdown has also learned the weekly broadcast game will start at 7.30pm on Fox Sports 2, running out of an ITM Cup game out of New Zealand and into the broadcaster's rugby panel show Rugby HQ, which will move to a 9.30pm live slot.
The first match, between the Stars and Brisbane City, will be sandwiched between the two biggest Test matches of the international season, five days after the first Bledisloe Cup clash in Sydney and three days before the second, potentially deciding Test in Auckland.
Papworth, a long-time critic of the NRC, said he was "astounded" other Sydney clubs had jumped on board the competition when there was "not one thing" in it for them except for financial stress.
NSW Rugby Union chairman Nick Farr-Jones acknowledged the concerns of Eastwood, who are supplying players and first-grade coach John Manenti to the Rams but who have withdrawn from any formal participation in the consortium.
"There's an argument to say it is being rushed, there's an argument to say that it's putting pressure on clubs to find the finances, but I fully support [ARU chief] Bill Pulver's need to go to the SANZAR negotiating table on broadcasting rights with something less than black twos," Farr-Jones said, referring to a weak poker hand.
"That's a huge reason to support the strategy and I do for that reason."
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/un...#ixzz36PcJKHV3
