Even if you survive its your fault by Daily Telegraph. So stop fighting!

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/...21707395ba7465

Australian rugby facing oblivion as Force, Rebels continue to play hardball in Super Rugby culling saga
Jamie Pandaram, The Daily Telegraph


AUSTRALIAN rugby is heading off a financial cliff and faces collapse as the culling of a Super Rugby side becomes more complex.

A decision of the arbitration case between the ARU and WA Rugby will be handed down next week, but even if the Force lose they will continue to fight for survival in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the Melbourne Rebels’ private owner Andrew Cox has sold his license to Victorian Rugby Union for $1 in a quiet deal that was only confirmed through ASIC documents showing the change of hands late Friday.

Bill Pulver has plenty to ponder as the Force and Rebels dig in.
The ARU, who must cut one of the two teams to save $18 million over the next three years – a figure that would send them broke if they had to pay it – are still trying to make contact with Rebels officials to query how the deal was done.

It’s the ARU’s belief that any change of ownership needs their oversight, but the Rebels clearly have been given legal advice that the ownership change could be done without any sign-off by the ARU due to a put agreement in their contract.

WA Rugby chairman Tony Howarth described this situation as “embarrassing for the ARU”.

“We remain confident that the arbitration decision will go our way, but if it doesn’t we’ve said, and Andrew Forrest has said, we’re not going to stop there,” Howarth said.

“We won’t be done in by a group of people sitting in Sydney who think they understand the running of the game when they’ve been so fundamentally bad that people don’t want to go to Test matches any more.

“They can’t start blaming others for that. There comes a point when they have to take the blame.”

If the ARU cannot axe a team, chief executive Bill Pulver and chairman Cameron Clyne would have to resign.

But the financial problems would remain; how to save $6 million a year that would go to the fifth franchise.

In their understandable bid to save themselves, the Force and Rebels could sink the ship.

Australian rugby has never faced such a serious crisis.

Originally published as Aussie rugby facing oblivion over Super standoff

Mmmmm whatever mate! A few less board members salaries would be a good cost saving start!!

"In their understandable bid to save themselves, the Force and Rebels could sink the ship." What a dick! When will ARU & their shills Panto Payton take ownership of their blunders!

If that's the price to pay to force the ARU to act as an impartial custodian free of influence and bias; then so be it. Rugby in Australia won't die. But growth has been stymied by politiking and nepotism. Stop the rot.

Australian Rugby Union ≠ Australian Rugby

vive la révolution!

....and A fish rots from the head down!

Ergo et demonstratum

Sooooo....Cut off the tail? Because the tail wags the dog! And if you lie with dogs you get fleas (don't let them near you crotch, especially if you have short arms). You just need to be a flea against injustice, enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog (not our Benny though) uncomfortable...even bring down a nation! And a nation is like a house, built from the foundations up. A house divided against itself cannot stand, this Union cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. Do not expect the Union to be dissolved — do not expect the house to fall — instead expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — East as well as West. Yet east is east and west is west, never the twain shall meet. So FUBARU!

I've got an alternative funding model which Will save the money required to maintain a 5 exam structure and simultaneously improve the quality of super rugby and the wallabies immediately.

Tear up all wallabies top up contracts (yes, even Danes) and transition immediately to an incentive based match payment system. Cheika can then select players based upon form and not salary, if they don't perform, they don't get Paid and the tahs Players will be made available for the other franchises (why anybody would want most of them is a mysteryl

This could be Pushed through rupa as the plan to field 5 teams, they will then have to get on board.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Emu

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/...21707395ba7465

Australian rugby facing oblivion as Force, Rebels continue to play hardball in Super Rugby culling saga
Jamie Pandaram, The Daily Telegraph


AUSTRALIAN rugby is heading off a financial cliff and faces collapse as the culling of a Super Rugby side becomes more complex.

A decision of the arbitration case between the ARU and WA Rugby will be handed down next week, but even if the Force lose they will continue to fight for survival in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the Melbourne Rebels’ private owner Andrew Cox has sold his license to Victorian Rugby Union for $1 in a quiet deal that was only confirmed through ASIC documents showing the change of hands late Friday.

Bill Pulver has plenty to ponder as the Force and Rebels dig in.
The ARU, who must cut one of the two teams to save $18 million over the next three years – a figure that would send them broke if they had to pay it – are still trying to make contact with Rebels officials to query how the deal was done.

It’s the ARU’s belief that any change of ownership needs their oversight, but the Rebels clearly have been given legal advice that the ownership change could be done without any sign-off by the ARU due to a put agreement in their contract.

WA Rugby chairman Tony Howarth described this situation as “embarrassing for the ARU”.

“We remain confident that the arbitration decision will go our way, but if it doesn’t we’ve said, and Andrew Forrest has said, we’re not going to stop there,” Howarth said.

“We won’t be done in by a group of people sitting in Sydney who think they understand the running of the game when they’ve been so fundamentally bad that people don’t want to go to Test matches any more.

“They can’t start blaming others for that. There comes a point when they have to take the blame.”

If the ARU cannot axe a team, chief executive Bill Pulver and chairman Cameron Clyne would have to resign.

But the financial problems would remain; how to save $6 million a year that would go to the fifth franchise.

In their understandable bid to save themselves, the Force and Rebels could sink the ship.

Australian rugby has never faced such a serious crisis.

Originally published as Aussie rugby facing oblivion over Super standoff

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Geez, i dont know?

Maybe cut the purse strings to the Rebels as they are privately owned and should be privately funded but are not.

Restructure administrative operations to centralise and streamline services.

Let us set up OTF with Andrew Forrests backing so we become the most financially sound club in Australia.

Scrap this ridiculous situation around the concentration of Wallaby topups, give the franchises the savings in salary cap space and allow the franchises to compete on a level playing field to drive crowd interest and sponsorship interests.

Do what other businesses do and reduce the ridiculous salaries some ARU employees are allegedly receiving.

Work more with your state unions to form a plan for the future instead of this adversarial dictatorship bullcrap we currently get.

Fix the petty squabbling between the Shute Shield clubs and the ARU to setup the NRC as a development competition.

Explain why after receiving such a bumped up tv deal Australian rugby is now broke.

Take an interest in how the super clubs are traveling financially and intervene earlier and more decisively then writing blank cheques, instead of trying to manufacture a state vs state war to destroy ourselves.

Treat rugby as a national interest, you know, make rugby a game for all.

Stop using lawyers and newspapers as your go betweens when dealing with the states.

Stop using grassroots as a bargaining chip, they should have been accommodated in a national plan for growth years if not decades ago.

Stop being pushovers at SANZAAR level. People wont stand up for you if you dont stand up for them.

Stop trying to manufacture success without infrastructure. The 2 expansion franchises are struggling because of neglected infrastructure. The Wallaroos are 40 points off being competitive at the World Cup because of insufficient infrastructure to grow womens rugby. The Women's Sevens are being overtaken by their competitors because of insufficient infrastructure to support them. Cant have one without the other.

Hire Sports Administrators who specialize in running professional sporting organizations. Being an ex Wallaby should not be a prerequisite for an ARU board position, nor should getting elected because of which states interest you represent. Bring in professionals who know how to run things properly.

VOTE 1 - Kalahard

Great post Kala!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kalahard

Stop being pushovers at SANZAAR level. People wont stand up for you if you dont stand up for them.

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Indeed.

How dare people In both WA and Victoria care enough about the game to fight to the last man to protect not only the game but the pathway to elite level that has been crafted over 11 years here in Perth.

I guess because we don't live in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney we don't deserve Rugby? I said it many months ago, if the Force go down I hope they torch the ARU on the way out.

Scorched earth.

P.S. Go f**k yourself Pandaram.

+1 Kalahard

What Pandaram and the others in the ARU don't realise is that we and the rebels are reasonable people. If they could prove with real numbers that the loss of a team is required to save Rugby in Australia then I'm sure we would accept it, I know I would.

But as we all know we have only had an attempted hatchet job from the ARU with biased data, misinformation and no guarantee that the money save would actually contribute to Australian rugby, not just the ARU's bottom line.

If the ARU actually had a plan for the lost team then it might be accepted. This whole saga definitely has the feel of a slash and burn banker.

I will reply to the first statement: re the continued funding for the Rebels once sold to Cox - why the ARU did this is beyond anyones understanding. A sale is a sale - and the thing is, the ARU had another offer to buy the Rebels that would cauterise their funding, but turned it down - rejected it, and then Clarke and Gray and Ling lined up Cox and Sidwell and sold it to Imperium for $1 with the promise to continue paying about $6 m over the next few years, balloon payments at the start, most of which is now paid (does that shock you) and now that Cox and co have taken the pot of gold and would have to actually start spending his own money, he gave it back. The problem was, he expected to make a lot of money out of the franchise, but he lost his major sponsors, he lost a lot of members ( his numbers include about 30% freebies) and then his team kept losing, so he faced a big black hole with no light at the end of the tunnel. Then the ARU got into the sticky situation whereby they needed to cull a team and the Force turned out not to be such good sports about it, so they thought if they cut the funding to Cox, it could go into administration and they would cut that team - instead, he handed it back to the VRU.

Rank amateurs. Keystone Cops. ARU Inc.

Pick your description for the CEO, Chair and senior executives past and present of the Australian Rugby Union.

What a total disgrace to the game and our nation.