Melbourne Rebels urge ARU to consider just their bid for Super spot

By Russell Gould
August 05, 2009 The Melbourne Rebels will urge the Australian Rugby Union to choose only one of the Victorian groups vying for the Super 15 franchise to progress to the next stage of the process.
And they say it should be the Rebels.
Three Victorian groups last week lodged expression of interest documents with the ARU, which will meet each group Wednesday and Thursday.
The ARU will inform SANZAR, super rugby's governing body, which bid it endorses at the end of the week. The ARU has said it would not have an issue endorsing not only all three Victorian bids, but all six Australian bids if they were good enough.
There were seven, but the NSW Country Rugby Union withdrew.
The Rebels bid, coming from the Victorian Rugby Union, makes its sales pitch to the ARU on Wednesday.
Bid boss Gary Gray said he would make it clear that no one could put together the best possible bid if it had to compete for local support.
"And I believe all the local groups that have lodged bids share my opinion that the best possible outcome for Melbourne and its chances of winning the licence is one endorsed bid," Gray said.
"Whichever bids get to progress to the next stage have only five weeks to finalise financial and commercial arrangements. That would be extremely difficult in an atmosphere where any potential partners are being courted by three different suitors. In this situation, having localised competition isn't the best way to move forward."
The Victorian Government is also believed to be a supporter of just one local bid and has made that clear to the ARU.
A huge team has been working to put together the Rebels bid, even enlisting the help of several corporate giants, including KPMG, to put together the most professional and credible case possible.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...002381,00.html

They're determined to stick with that name :rolleyes: Hope the bid gets up though.

I see their point about competition signing up support, but asking the ARU to endorse only one bid is unrealistic. The ARU would be best served to flood the market with Australian bids ALL of which meet the set criteria and attract a crowd in Australia (since the team will play in the Australian conference)

Any negotiator worth his salt will tell a potential supporter who is backing a rival bid that only one bid will win the contract, so they can sign up for all three bids and ensure that they are supporting Victorian Rugby in the long run.

This is just a thinly (well not even thinly) disguised attempt to slip the knife into the other two bidders!

ive been doing a bit of research into the victorian bids, its quite interesting and just goes to show how fractured and disenchanted figures in the state are.

Many of the persons making up the board on the non-vru bids are former board members of the VRU itself.

Maybe ive fallen to much into the bullshit, but i know one of the private consortium bids has the financial backing already, they also have credible support from members of the rugby fraternity.

Right now, its a incredibly distinct possibility that the private consortium will be chosen ahead of the VRU, for many reasons including financial and administration.

If the 14th franchise had gone to a private WA consortium, I'd still be heading to game every chance I get. However - it's pretty pointless for broading the talent base unless the host state gets some kick back which they can use to further the game. Sonetiems tradition and history are just a matter if "It's the way we've always done things" - doesn't mean they are the right way to continue to do things...

Ideally the VRU bid would merge with the Belgravia bid. It would near impossible to knock back. The VRU bid isn't bad in itself. They have gained the backing of Billionaire Media Buyer Harold Mitchell. Could be very influential in the growth of Rugby in Victoria.