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Anyone else have the feeling this years comp will be a *flop*
Lets be honest, how many viewers from Melbourne will be watching their Melbourne Force team play knowing that all their talent came from the West. I reckon their viewing numbers will be down considerably on last year due to their dilluted team which is basically just the Force side based over East. I wont be watching thats for sure, their franchise makes me sick!
They have also alientated all their WA fanbase and half of us cancelled Foxtel in protest. Huge loss to viewership, the games are on YouTube the next day anyway so who needs fox anyway.
NSW crowds and viewing figures have been in total decline for the last few years, even a state bigger than the population of NZL can't seem to sustain a decent dedicated crowd and viewer base- and I reckon this will get worse with Daryl Gibson steering the ship.
QLD have lost Hunt potentially due to his drug abuse, and cooper has been fisted. I cant see their viewership or crowds increasing due to the major drawcards being sacked and axed.. we all know that fate awaits Hunt. QLD viewership will most definitely be down siginicantly.
ACT, well they most definitely wont have a resurgence, they got less people to their quarter final last year than the Force got to half their games, that ACT side has been in significant decline with viewership and crowds for years and I predict the pattern continuing!
And then we have the Force, axed! For being not only the 3rd most supported side (second per head of population in Australia out of 5!) but the best side in the conference equal on wins (with home grown talent)- half their fans are done with super rugby and wont be watching any of it in 2018!
This will be Australian Super rugbys worst ever year I reckon and a competition we had all grown to love in the West will be left to grow in the East when they seem to resent this competition more than any other comp on the East Coast! Eg. A- League, NRL, AFL, even Netball
Well done Clyne and Pulver, you fucked Rugby Union in Australia for a generation.
The next broadcast deal will be set in peanuts, not US dollar.
Fuck you Clyne, fuck you! You could have taken the $50,000,000 you absolute clown. Hope the bus hits you on the way out of RugbyAU's headquarters, and then I hope the driver accidently reverses by accident!
Last edited by SPaRTAN; 04-01-18 at 15:45.
Anyone else have the feeling this years comp will be a *flop*
I hope it is, as that will hasten the demise of the comp after 2020.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Agree. Altho i loved super rugby and loved what the Force provided to the comp during the superXV days. In some way I will be sad to see it die, but I am a passionate IPRC believer right now and even if superrugby does die ill be jumping on Twiggys Bus! -the same bus I am hoping runs down Clyne!
The first SR match in Australia for 2018 will be played on 23 February, just over 7 weeks from today.
It would be very interesting to see the 2018 membership numbers and membership renewal numbers for each of the 4 surviving Australian SR franchises, and for the Melbourne Rebels in particular.
And the individual crowd and viewership ratings compared to last year. Even tho all Australian sports have had declines in both viewership and crowds we are the only sport that has gone gangbusters and axed the only team where crowds and grassroots were genuinely increasing. Hyperbole anyone, Go Clyne you fucktard!
I think it might be the opposite. When the Force were first created they were made up of discards has beens and unknowns but the crowds turned up. Melbourne's crowds have dwindled but they too had their honeymoon period. I think many Melbourne fans will be reinvigorated and if they get early wins then it might be a bit of a short term boom
We will never get to find out the figures Spartan as they will either be unavailable or overinflated to make more palatable reading.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Regardless, it'll take 20 years for rugby in this country to recover from the money pit that is the rebels.
20 years assuming that 2018 us the beginning of a golden age of spending only what they have and attracting crowds and sponsors.
More like 30 years if they miss one of those targets
C'mon the![]()
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From an (Eastern) Australian perspective, I think what was needed was some early wins in the Season against NZ teams. As it stands no EA team gets that opportunity till round 7 so I think without that, interest in the Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies will be lukewarm. Waratahs early away games in South Africa and Argentina are must wins if they are to generate further interest later in the season. Given the their draw I think they will have absolute crap crowds when they do play at home.
Looking at the Melbourne Force, their first 5 games are all very winnable against the Reds, Sunwolves, Brumbies, Waratahs and Sharks, with no excessive travel so if that goes well for them, they could be riding high when they get their first opportunity against a kiwi team in round 7 at home.
My prediction - given the draw, I can't see there being any major improvement in viewership for the Brumbies, Red and Tahs. Given the 'cut price' membership, and their draw, I can see viewership for the Rebels increasing, which of course, will justify the whole fiasco from the REA perspective.
Part of the problem with that is that they might have been inflating the numbers this year, too. Someone (Lou?) mentioned that last year they were getting crowds of ~3000 at AAMI, but the official attendance was more like 8000. The Rebels only have attendance figures for 3 of their 8 home games. In a poor season, Rebels crowds (those we could see on TV) were often looking like less than 10%, considering AAMI's capacity if 30,000.
This site: http://www.austadiums.com/sport/comp.php?sid=5 shows that attendances have almost halved for Super Rugby in Australian since 2012 (21,230 to 11,434) although the number of matches reporting attendances has also dropped (from 33 of 40 matches in 2012 to 18 of 37 in 2017). (Note that this site: https://www.shrugbyblog.com/2017/02/...ia-conference/ gives attendances for 33 games this year, but using their figures gives an even worse average: 11,177!)
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board