Originally Posted by
Alison
At least! In 2015 - when they gave the Rebels to Cox FOR ZERO PAYMENT! - they wrote off a cool $13million in loans owed to the ARU by the Rebels. Let that sink in for a bit - $13million written off just like that. Plus they gave the Rebels a "special payment" of $2.6million in addition to their standard Super Rugby grant funding of $5.7milion for the first year of Cox's ownership (2016).
If you include the loan write off, the ARU has handed a total of $33,501,000 to the Melbourne Rebels since 2014 alone. That compares to a total of $11,695,000 given to us in the same period. And that $11million to us INCLUDES the $3.7million they paid us for selling them our IP and licence.
And the ARU has the temerity to show US the door because Super Rugby is too costly for them to run. There is something very, very rotten about the ARU in all of this.
I'll post my figures tomorrow. If any journos are reading this post, this would make a bloody good story in the press next week before the SANZAAR meeting. Nick Taylor - are you interested?