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By Darren Walton and Jim Morton
July 22, 2009 Mystery surrounds one of the seven ventures which on Wednesday formally lodged their expressions of interest at becoming the 15th Super rugby team in SANZAR's expanded tournament in 2011.
In addition to fielding EOI documents by the 5pm deadline from Western Sydney, NSW Country, three from Victoria and one from the Gold Coast, the Australian Rugby Union said it had also received a surprise lodgement from a second interested party in Queensland.
Confidentiality agreements prevented the ARU from announcing the mystery party.
The ARU will assess the respective EOIs over the next fortnight before seeking full applications from selected ventures on August 7.
The formal bids must be submitted to the ARU by September 18, with SANZAR offering the 15th licence by October 31.
Despite the Western Sydney Rams mounting a compelling case for inclusion, it is understood a team from Melbourne remains favoured to get the nod.
Exactly which one, though, is unknown.
In a rather messy situation, the ARU must consider expressions of interest from the Victorian Rugby Union, a breakaway group of former VRU board members and one from the A League-aligned Melbourne Victory venture.
VRU president Gary Gray said having three interested parties from Victoria muddied the waters and hoped just one Melbourne franchise made the next stage of bidding.
“We hope this would create clarity about the endorsed bidder from this territory, Victoria,'' Gray said.
“To do these bids properly is an expensive process and it costs a lot of money to people.''
Gray said having three bidders from Victoria also diluted the strength of each and made it more difficult to attract financial backing.
The cost of running a Super rugby franchise is estimated at $5 million a year.
“Melbourne has got to have the best opportunity but the government told us a month ago that it won't be helpful unless there's one bid out of Melbourne because it's obviously the best chance if we've got a united Victoria behind the bid,'' he said.
Rugby Gold Coast chief executive Tim Rowlands didn't sound overly confident on Wednesday about making a successful bid.
“At the end of the day, I don't know if anyone's got $5 million. We haven't got $5 million at the moment,'' Rowlands said.
“Has anyone got $5 million to invest in a rugby team? Especially in the current financial climate.
“The disappointing thing for us is there's absolutely no communication from the ARU as to whether we're in the mix or just in the bidding process.
“We're still pursuing the idea of having one here but we obviously want more detail from a financial point of view.
“It's all a bit frustrating from our point of view. We just don't know what's going on.''
Samoa backed down last week on making a stand-alone bid but have been talking to Australasian syndicates.
“They're still taking to us and part of that is sponsorship,'' Rowlands said.
“They have a backer in Ireland that we're talking to with Samoa who says that he'll put some money in if there is a Samoan presence in the team.
“We have another potential investor in Japan who wants Japanese players involved in Coast team.''
AAP
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...002381,00.html
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