ARU have given Cox an offer to buy his club
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/ru...0d18b610928b9f
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ARU have given Cox an offer to buy his club
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/ru...0d18b610928b9f
can someone please post a copy of the text to this article please?
More in the UnAustralian
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...6d4049e8685eaf
Had a source in NSW confirm this just now
Freakin paywall can somebody post a link for us luddites
THE future of the Melbourne Rebels continues to hang in the balance amid reports the Australian Rugby Union has tabled an offer to buy out the embattled club.
Andrew Cox, head of Imperium Group which bought the Rebels’ licence from the ARU in 2015, said the club had not been made an offer.
The Herald Sun is aware the Victorian Government is on high alert over the prospect of the Rebels folding.
BRIGHT FUTURE: REBELS OWNER LOOKING FORWARD
WHAT NEXT: TEAM FUTURE STILL UP IN THE AIR
Cox said: “No comment. We have reserved all our rights with the ARU.”
It is understood the Rebels’ board met today to consider a range of legal options.
If the ARU offer materialises, and is accepted, the Rebels’ players will have to find new homes, ending the club’s chequered seven-year history.
Any ARU’s approach to effectively wind up the Rebels will devastate the sport’s relationship with the Victorian Government.
Melbourne Rebels players before their Round 10 match. Picture: Getty Images
If the Rebels fold, $14 million of contracts to stage major rugby events will be jeopardised.
There will also be contractual ramifications around the club’s contract with the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust.
The buyout reports come just weeks after Rebels management, on behalf of Cox, angrily insisted they would not slink quietly into the night in a strongly-worded statement aimed at the ARU.
Repeated legal threats have been levelled by Cox to the ARU, with the Rebels owner insisting the peak body had no legal right to “cut or chop” his club from the Super Rugby competition.
SANZAAR announced last month that three teams would be culled before next season — one being an Australian team — with the ARU revealing it was the Rebels and Force who were the two clubs in the gun.
Silvia Siliva in action for the Melbourne Rebels. Picture: Getty Images
On the field, the Rebels are enduring one of their worst seasons in the club’s history, having won just one of its nine games.
Tony McGahan’s side sits at the foot of the 18-team ladder.
McGahan conceded last Friday the ongoing speculation about the club’s future was placing great strain on his players and staff.
On Saturday it suffered a 47-10 home loss to the Lions from South Africa.
But Cox was aghast at ARU statements last month that indicated it “did not believe for many years in the five (Australian) team model and did not believe the model was financially viable”.
Unlike the calls to arms issued by Force players, coaches and administrators in Perth in recent times, the Rebels have remained relatively silent publicly on issues relating to its future.
The ARU owns the Force and is believed to have been made tempting offers by the WA Government to ensure the team survives.
The Australian 5:48PM May 8, 2017
WAYNE SMITH
The Melbourne Rebels owners are to sue the Australian Rugby Union for a multimillion-dollar amount as the Victorian and West Australian Governments battle to retain a Super Rugby team in their state.
Rebels owner Andrew Cox was asked by The Australian today to confirm that he intends to take legal action against the ARU but reaffirmed only that he is reserving all his rights.
It is understood that the ARU has counteracted by offering to buy back the Melbourne franchise, presumably to close it down, unless it wants to reactivate the proposal to move the Canberra-based Brumbies to the Victorian capital.
The ARU is embroiled in controversy as it attempts to reduce the number of Super Rugby teams from five to four. The Western Force have long been regarded as favourites for the axe but that has changed dramatically.
Further complicating the issue is that the West Australian Government is prepared to compensate the ARU for the $5 million the Victorian Government had pledged to the ARU to stage a Bledisloe Cup Test in Melbourne. Additionally, it is understood the WA Government is prepared to fund the Force for $2 million a year, which would surely resolve any questions about its financial sustainability.
But it is understood that the Victorian Government now is considering matching the WA offer to provide support for the Rebels. Certainly the Victorian Government is adamant that it wants to retain a Super Rugby presence in Melbourne. If the Rebels were to get that level of support, their financial crisis also would be over.
Just to be clear - the headlines are just CLICK BAIT. The Rebels have not issued any writs, they've just "reserved" their rights.
The ARU has offered buy to them. This will be it. All over. Cox was, just before all this blew up, ready to seek MORE financial support from the ARU and/or sell his license back as he's losing $2mil a year - that's with the ARU STILL subsidising his club after he bought it off them.
Talk has it, he's going to run out of dollars to support the Rebels. This is his best option.
So stupid by the ARU. Cox now will likely get to hold the ARU over a barrel and squeeze a stupid $ amount from them because of the mess they've made. Whereas had they actually done their jobs, not created this diabolical mess, they would have figured the Rebels were teetering and would have come begging if they'd just waited.
Sack them all.
the long and the short and and the tall
What next a government bidding war maybe the ARU should have told all 5 teams they were on the chopping block so all goverments could prop the teams up... That would secure the ARU bottom line
WA gov is reporting to offer 2mil a year (through agency sponsorships & grants) to the Force if they are either owned by the current Own the Force community model or RWA.
I would be shocked if the Vic gov offer to throw in cash for a private sporting franchise. It would be an Australian first.
Wayne Smith has updated the earlier article.
Melbourne Rebels owners to sue Australian Rugby Union
The Australian: 10:56PM May 8, 2017
Wayne Smith
The Melbourne Rebels are set to launch a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Australian Rugby Union as the national body tries to forestall the Rebels’ owners by trying to buy back the Super Rugby licence from them.
It is understood that the Rebels board met today to consider the dramatic developments.
SANZAAR’s plan to reduce Australia’s Super Rugby presence from five teams to four suddenly got very real — or unreal — as Andrew Cox and the Imperium Group, which owns the Rebels, prepared to launch a legal raid to recoup the damages caused by the ARU’s bid to axe them from the competition.
The ARU, at the only press conference it has given on the Super Rugby battle a month ago, absolved the Canberra-based Brumbies from the list of clubs being considered for culling but specifically named the Force and the Rebels.
Both clubs have threatened legal action. The Force have taken out an injunction. Both believe they have an airtight case for remaining in the competition.
Complicating matters is the involvement of the two state governments. The West Australian government, which has already negotiated to stage a 2019 Bledisloe Cup match at its new stadium in Perth, has indicated to the ARU that if the Victorian government retaliated against any move to cull the Rebels by withdrawing the $5 million it had offered to stage an Australia-New Zealand Test, it would be prepared to host an additional Bledisloe Test in Perth plus a Test against the British and Irish Lions.
But it is now understood that the Victorian government, while it has pledged $14m to rugby projects, has entered the fray by assuring the ARU that if the WA government reacts harshly to any culling of the Force, it would consider compensating the ARU for any losses.
“The Victorian government doesn’t want us to go anywhere,” a Rebels source told The Australian. “We understand they are prepared to provide the same level of support as the WA government is supplying the Force. If we were to get that support, then it would be happy days.”
The Force have been the ARU’s prime candidate for the axe since this whole venture first moved into a war footing with the ARU’s board meeting in February, at which its directors mapped out the ARU strategy. Until last week the Perth club remained the only target but such a vigorous defence have they mounted of their Super Rugby team that the Rebels, by comparison, looked to be an easier mark.
That’s all a bit confusing given that the Rebels never genuinely felt that they were threatened and so felt no need to stage any public demonstrations in support of their team. But there is no question that the uncertainty has more severely affected the Rebels’ performances on the field.
While the Force have actually lifted their displays and beaten the Queensland Reds and the Southern Kings, the Rebels have won only the one match, against the Brumbies and drew with the Sharks.
Cox refused to comment on his impending lawsuit but it is understood the Rebels intend to sue the ARU for double-digit millions. Their brand has suffered through all the uncertainty and their crowd attendance for the Lions match last weekend was their lowest in their history, under 6000.
The ARU does not have the capacity to wage a lawsuit of such magnitude and appears to be following the only course open to it, trying to persuade Cox to sell back his Super Rugby licence.
Cox has indicated previously that he was not prepared to sell the Rebels to the ARU if the intention was to close the franchise but this has become a game of high stakes poker in which the rules changes constantly.
The Victorian government gives no direct aid to the Rebels and it may well be that its willingness or otherwise to assist the Rebels could force Cox’s hand.
The ARU tonight was unable to provide a comment.
Chief executive Bill Pulver has left for the World Cup draw in Kyoto tomorrow, followed by the SANZAAR meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
At that meeting, Australia will be expected to give details of how it is progressing in shedding one team, especially since the South Africans are expected to follow suit in culling two teams to reduce the competition from 18 teams to 15 next season.
Until the possibility of the Rebels being for sale became even a remote option, the ARU would have had nothing useful to report to SANZAAR.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...6d4049e8685eaf
The actual difference had been in the losses.... the Force played with passion, commitment, cameraderie, intent. The Rebels were a rabbleQuote:
While the Force have actually lifted their displays and beaten the Queensland Reds and the Southern Kings, the Rebels have won only the one match, against the Brumbies and drew with the Sharks