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US-style revamp plan for Super 14
5:00AM Monday May 05, 2008
By Wynne Gray Rugby: US-style revamp plan for Super 14 - 05 May 2008 - NZ Herald: Rugby news and coverage from New Zealand and around the World
An expanded US conference-style Super rugby series is being touted by the New Zealand Rugby Union as a way of reviving the flagging tournament for the 2010 season.
NZRU officials have begun a nationwide tour of all the franchises and provinces to divulge their concepts, which then need to be accepted by Sanzar partners Australia and South Africa before they are tendered to sponsors and broadcasters.
Much of this big picture idea seems to be a rehash of concepts aired recently by Australian Rugby Union boss John O'Neill. It is also a reworked version of the global vision of the game which was produced by the Accenture Report and an accumulation of ideas heard at the recent forum into the game in New Zealand.
"They are working very hard to get some sort of sea-change going, they realise that something major is needed to revamp the Super 14 much likehappened when rugby went professional in 1995," a source said.
Sanzar's broadcasting deal for the Super 14 series with News Corp ends in 2010 but officials are trying to offer them a new package which can begin that season.
The only change since Super rugby started in 1995 was to add two teams in 2006 and extra tests.
Significant anecdotal, crowd and television audience feedback has indicated the series is becoming stale.
Australia has long agitated for an expanded competition, which New Zealand has rejected.
But this year, chief executive Steve Tew has acknowledged that discussions have to be held about including the Pacific Islands, Argentina, Japan, USA and Canada _ especially in the internationals which bring in 60 per cent of income during the Tri-Nations schedule.
In the Super series scheme now being canvassed, the NZRU is promoting the conference system.
That could have five franchises and a Pacific Islands side based in New Zealand, five sides and a Japanese side involved with Australia and five teams and an Argentine squad based in South Africa.
Squad numbers would have to be expanded because of the elongated season, and if the series continued while the Sanzar nations hosted their obligatory June internationals like next month's visits from Ireland and England.
Once the Super series ended in late August, the Sanzar test programme would start, followed by Northern Hemisphere tours.
It is understood club and provincial competitions would be semi-professional and be played at the same time as the Super rugby programmes.
Once the NZRU consultation has been completed, the results will be taken to the board for approval and then be thrashed out with Australia and South Africa. A large chunk of that discussion has no doubt already been completed as Sanzar officials were at IRB meetings last week in Dublin.
All Black coach Graham Henry has said the Super competition could be played later and go longer.
"There needs to be a major motivation of the organisation [Sanzar] to try and achieve that. It may mean that some players play offshore that are playing in that competition.
"Hopefully that competition will be the best in the world."
CONFERENCE RUGBY
* Super rugby could involve 18 teams.
* The series would start in March, running through to August.
* New Zealand, Australia and South Africa would each have six teams.
* Teams would play all the sides in their own US-style conference home and away, then every other side in the other conferences before an extended finals series.
All this talk of revamping the competition is making me salivate....bloody awesome...and it seems that the ideas are getting meated out every week, this week being the idea that the foreign teams are based in particular home countries...although I am not sure waht this would do to grow the game in thier respective countries....
US-style revamp plan for Super 14
We should get Cheerleaders then![]()
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Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Sounds like they may have not a lot of choice. The extended format is attractive to me anyway. I'm rethinking my belief that only players eligible for Wallaby selection should be able to play Super Rugby for Australian teams or whether Wallabies can be selected from other than Australian Super Rugby teams. But I'm not rethinking whether Wallabies can be selected from competitions outside SANZAR "super" tournaments.
I think the best thing to work with the PI, Argentine and Japanese sides is to perhaps make a deal with airlines or meat out the funding a bit more. It is imperative for the game that they are based in thier home countries, despite the travel involved.
I mean, Japan would most likely pack out 60,000 + stadiums every week and because of Japanese rugbies ties to large businesses they could easily get a large sponsorship deal which would pay for travel around the world.
The PI's I don't think have the stadium size or the money to do much travelling so will have to be based in NZ no matter what, and I don't think it will cause the PI's to support thier team any less, their devotion to the game is not in question.
The Argentines however are an unknown quantity, could they pack out some of thier large stadiums to capacity? The travel could be a problem, maybe have two bye weeks, one before playing in Japan and another before playing in Argentina. But I think the benefit of Argentina playing in Argentina will definetely be the different (and intimidating) flavour the fans and ground play when teams travel there. Plus if they get thier own team it will hopefully spurn their union to go pro and I think out of the three suggested locations Argentina would be the most potential to yield even more quality teams into Super rugby down the track....
I think by based they mean they will be in the same conference not play out of the other country....maybe I'm wrong though.
If it is that they play here then I don't see the point. If they were going to do that, wouldn't the better idea be to just give Australia a 5th team and then open all five teams to having Japanese players?
I don't see the point of, for example, having a team full of Japanese players, playing out of Melbourne.
1) would they get many fans?
2) the players could make more money by just playing for a Japanese or European team. So what would the drawcard be to attract the Japanese players to the team?
3) there would still only be games in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. How does this increase the potential fan base, and thus money to be made in advertising?
4) are fans in Japan, Argentina, Fiji etc...who aren't watching Super Rugby now going to watch it just because some players from their country are playing in the comp? Ask yourself this, do you watch Heineken Cup, Guiness etc...because there are Aussie players, or because you are a rugby fan?
To sum it up, I don't see that having a team of Japanese players play out of Australia will significantly increase the audience over what it is now.
I'd love expansion of the Super 14, i guess the big wigs at SANZAR will make the final decisison on what expansion will take place. But more Rugby and more chances to see the Force in action can't be a bad thing.
Just re-read the section and it seems the Argies will be based in SA while the PI's will be based in NZ. You're right as it has different terminology for Japan saying they will 'involved' with Australia...but still the same argument holds up for the Argies, basing thier team in SA is not the best idea for the growth of the game...
And the article claims we are getting 5 teams anyway, so another Australian team plus the Japanese...
Who would be the most well off Kiwi and SA team? Maybe a way around the ineffectiveness that basing the team out of thier countries could be to play a few fixtures a year in Argentina and the PI's. The PI game would lose alot of money but will be a good excercise on the same level as basing games in Queenstown or Invercagill and the like...
At least the Reds will be able to get some win against the Japanese though.![]()