Super rugby broadcast deal may refloat the lost ARC

[Swee_82]

Good news that ARC is back on the agenda...not so happy about not having Perth Spirit in the mix though...

A third tier comp without Perth/WA represented basically comdemns us to being a rugby backwater permanently. I don't expect that would actually bother anyone in Sydney though.

[beige]

Good news that ARC is back on the agenda...not so happy about not having Perth Spirit in the mix though...

Yeah, but was that John O'Neill or Wayne Smith?

[blueandblack]

I also read the same thing.

Why did the ARU pay the ABC to televise the ARC? Surely going with no TV and having to fork out to have it televised would have been better. Given the lack of advertising of the ARC, TV exposure wasn't going to be an issue. How much did they pay the ABC as well?

Good call about the introduction of the Digital sports channel, it has been raised before by a few people. Given that alot of their (One HD) sport is from Overseas, the US in particular you would think they would be chasing some sports that may appeal to Aussies more the AFL

SBS now have SBS2 which they will be using to show some sport and other stuff not on main channel (and will show main channel type stuff when main channel isnt available due to sport). Surely they can be used as well.

[shasta]

SBS now have SBS2 which they will be using to show some sport and other stuff not on main channel .

Perhaps they could squeeze a little Oz Rugby in between the Sepak Takraw, East European Handball Knock Out and the World Bog Snorkeling Championships.

[Working Class]

The possible resurrection of a ARC type competition is fanastic. But I am in agreement in regards to Perth. The must be part of any ARC format. They have a Super Team and it makes no sense not to include them. It must also include Melbourne and have avenues for new sides to enter such as Adelaide, Newcastle(Hunter) and Illawarra.

---------- Post added at 12:17 ---------- Previous post was at 12:16 ----------

And open the doors to foriegn players.

[beige]

Melbourne should only have a team if they get the 15th franchise - otherwise it will just be another Rebels-style financial blackhole.

[AndyS]

I would have thought you'd put a team anywhere there might be the possibility of a future Super team in some shiny Super 32 future. Melbourne, West Sydney, Gold Coast - they'd all get a jersey. And what the hell - roll out private equity involvement across the competition if that is such a ball-buster of an idea!

But it is typical that there had to be some comment about club tribalism. You naturally want to generate it around the new team, but by its nature you cannot use existing tribalism as it is inherently exclusionary. For instance, call it Randwick and you will immediately limit how many supporters the new team will have. What they need to do is engage the clubs in generating the team, such that all their supporters feel a connection...something like making it a "select" side from all the catchment clubs. However that would probably involve making them at least part owners, or at least beneficiaries of revenues...

[beige]

I would have thought you'd put a team anywhere there might be the possibility of a future Super team in some shiny Super 32 future. Melbourne, West Sydney, Gold Coast - they'd all get a jersey.

I u had a bottomless money pit, sure.

[AndyS]

They would certainly be in your starting 8 teams, and viability as a future Super entity would be the standard you'd apply. But that is certainly one of the reasons why, if there is to be private equity, it should be at ARC level. Left to the ARU and unions, it is doomed to be a crippled comp. You can see it even in this article, which reflects only media expectation - competition "run on the smell of an oily rag", no Perth to minimise travel costs, travel on the day of the match (until the first cancelled match due to fog delays, at least), just fingers crossed for televising the competition, etc, etc. The ARU and unions would constantly look to minimise, scrimp, contain and constrain. Get return on investment involved though, and at least there would be a motivation to promote and grow the competition. It would probably require the ARU to take a back seat in television deals and revenue generation though...

[James]

Instead of cutting Perth make us pay for our own flights. Each one of the other teams can afford one flight in and out of Perth and surely we'd get enough supporters at a place like Members Equity that we can afford to pay for our own flights.

[Sheikh]

My reading of the article was that it wasn't the flights which made costs sky-rocket (especially if Qantas were a sponsor) but the hotel rooms for teams for 2-3 nights. Even if every player and official doubles up, the number of hangers-on mean that that's a fair chunk of money.

[travelling_gerry]

I do remember one of the Qld teams over here and the players getting the hurry up after the game to catch the redeye back.

[AndyS]

I would have thought that, within Australia, flying the day before for an afternoon game and an evening flight would have been the way to go. The only regret would be that there would be no time for the players to socialise, which I would have thought was the sort of "community building" exercise that the competition should encourage.

[shasta]

I would have thought that, within Australia, flying the day before for an afternoon game and an evening flight would have been the way to go. .

The Bundy Red Cup manages and I'd bet London to a brick they are running on a very skinny shoestring. I doubt they'd get much, if anything at all from telecast rights.

[beige]

The ARC included a South Brisbane team playing on the Gold Coast, a Northern Sydney team playing in Gosford and a Melbourne team that had nothing to do with anything. It would be pretty unfair not to include Perth if the team draws from players that are actually based here.

We’ll see if it’s not just Wayne Smith lumping his opinion on to the end of an interview piece.