0
Franchises fear shrinking seasons
[COLOR=var(--emphasis-color)]APRIL 02, 2019[/COLOR]
The four Australian Super Rugby chief executives have been workshopping ideas with Rugby Australia, desperately attempting to find ways of bolstering their match schedules once SANZAAR reverts to a 13-game regular season in 2021.
One of the main drivers of the move to dump the Sunwolves of Japan was to restore some integrity to the competition by ensuring that each franchise will now play every other team. But while it means that the dreaded conference system will be abandoned, it also means that Super Rugby will shrink from the current regular season of 16 games (eight home, eight away) to just 13 fixtures. If the franchises are struggling to stay afloat with eight home matches, there is real fear when their allocation will be cut to just six games every second year.
“I know the Super Rugby provinces are a little bit nervous around the new broadcasting agreement and the competition that’s coming into play,” QRU chairman Jeff Miller told [COLOR=var(--emphasis-color)]The Australian[/COLOR]. “With each of the Super Rugby provinces having to look at a seven and six-game alternate season, there is a fair bit of nervousness around that. We’re all trying to boost crowds but that doesn’t seem to be happening and if we lose another game, it just makes it much harder for us.”
The issue is expected to be the hot topic of debate at the Rugby Australia annual general meeting next Monday, especially if Friday brings the bad news that many in the rugby world are anticipating — that the northern hemisphere nations have vetoed the Nations Championship. The anticipated money that the proposed Nations Championship is expected to generate would more than compensate each franchise for the cutback from 16 regular season games to just 13. But the most regularly asked question in Australian rugby at present is: “What will happen when we are cut to just six home games a season every second year if the Nations Championship does fall over?”
The answer that Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle has been giving the franchises is that the broadcasters will be prepared to increase their deal in exchange for a more legitimate competition.
Certainly the fact that the broadcasters played a role in having Super Rugby trimmed from an almost-unworkable 15 teams to 14 sides from 2021 suggests this might be a realistic expectation. Still, the flip-side of that argument is why the broadcasters would pay more for less content.
Asked what would happen if the northern hemisphere does sink the Nations Championship when the deadline for a decision is reached on Friday, Miller replied: “Well, I would think we would all get together with Rugby Australia and we would be looking for alternatives. SANZAAR comes into play as well. It’s a bit hard for us because we’re one removed from negotiations.”
Miller said the franchise chief executives had already workshopped a range of money-generating ideas in the event of the Nations Championship happening and not happening.
“There was even something being floated that, if the Nations Championship gets up and some of the international sides are coming over here and they’re playing a single Test, maybe there is an opportunity to extend their squad and then they play a midweek game against the provinces, like we used to do. You’re without your Wallabies at the time but it might add an extra game to the overall schedule.”
No idea is too wild or exotic to have been rejected out of hand. One suggestion was that one or maybe the two leading Australian teams might stage a mid-year tournament with the leading NZ sides and the leading club teams in Europe in Dubai. The plan would be that any proceeds coming to Australia would be still be split four ways, although it was thought a slightly larger share should go to the sides that qualify for the tournament.
Castle has proposed that the franchises also look at exploiting the likely later start to Super Rugby and organise a pre-season competition. But experience has been that pre-season matches, while they attract rugby-starved diehards, have limited mass appeal. Besides, with the Wallabies only returning to training at the start of January following their end-of-season spring tour, there is little likelihood of star players taking part. Of course, that too is the case for a post-season tournament, with the Wallabies being taken away for July Tests against the three incoming northern hemisphere teams.
“It is a concern for us,” said Miller. “My big push is that we really need to look at the game and where we are going to be in three to five years’ time. Particularly from a provincial perspective, we have to look at getting financial stability and sustainability. That’s the bigger issue … how do we actually guarantee that’s going to occur?”
Wayne Smith The Australian