SANZAR Meeting

[The InnFORCEr]

Any word on what the broadcasters want? I think they have the most say, at the end of the day, they are buying the product.

[Tazzmania]

If the decision is going to be performance based, how can anyone justify the Sunwolves remaining !!!

[WFDom]

http://www.sarugbymag.co.za/blog/det...uper-rugby-axe

A motion to cut three teams from the tournament was put forward at a Sanzaar meeting in London on Friday, and according to reports, New Zealand Rugby has given its backing to the Jaguares and Sunwolves and proposed that two South African teams and an Australian side get axed instead.

Any Super Rugby changes require a unanimous vote by all national unions. It is believed neither the Australian Rugby Union nor SA Rugby vetoed NZR’s proposal, and that a decision has been reached and will be announced in the coming days

[Tazzmania]

What a sad day it would be for world rugby if a team like the Cheetahs with such a rich rurgby heritage gets thrown to wolves (excuse the pun).

[GIGS20]

I think we will agree to cut one team Tiffany, I just don't think SA will cut two. The two expansion teams will stay under that proposal.

I really don't think fox will go for it either, because they WILL lose customers regardless of which aussie team is cut.

[shasta]

Foxtel has around 3 million subscribers and rising; Skysports NZ about 830,000 and lost 45,000 last year. Who's got the clout?

[GIGS20]

Foxtel has around 3 million subscribers and rising; Skysports NZ about 830,000 and lost 45,000 last year. Who's got the clout?

The south African one. A There's no way they'll agree to cutting two teams.

[shasta]

The south African one. A There's no way they'll agree to cutting two teams.

Right. But I was mainly thinking about NZ pushing for one of ours to be cut.

[GIGS20]

Yeah, I get that, my reaction was more about neither Australia nor NZ having any real stake in the commercial argument

[Tazzmania]

Irrespective of which way the penny drops, SANZAAR are effectively shooting themselves in the foot. This is not the time to be making changes, the begining of the season should be full of optimism and used to bring in the on the fence supporters into more matches and even as last ditch members, but here we are throwing doubt into not only teams exsitences but also trashing the quality of the product being sold.

The media are now running with it and making it a perfect storm to make rugby's survival even harder, as all and sundry have their two cents worth.

SANZAAR have let us down the clients of their products, their business partners, the players, associated people et al

[Tazzmania]

While griping here is another one, just about every article that talks about culling an Australian team irrespective of the content of the article has a picture of the Force, this subliminal messaging needs to stop.

Every article appears to weigh in to the cull as if it is just a number, forgetting the human factor, we have players, members, fans, suppliers, allied businesses involved, backroom staff, medical staff, all these peoples families, and what the journalist are forgetting they may have less content to write on with less teams and they may too face a cull.

[Kev]

Brumbies ... geographically nowhere, not exactly a tourist hub with a test stadium; rugby fans can travel to MEL or SYD easily enough and the Reds could really do with Bernie.

Then to be equitable, to cut three teams from the comp should be 1 each from the main nations; Brumbies, maybe Kings & a NZ franchise ... one each, that's fair.

[GIGS20]

Brumbies ... geographically nowhere, not exactly a tourist hub with a test stadium; rugby fans can travel to MEL or SYD easily enough and the Reds could really do with Bernie.

Then to be equitable, to cut three teams from the comp should be 1 each from the main nations; Brumbies, maybe Kings & a NZ franchise ... one each, that's fair.

Two things,

Bernie isn't coaching Super Rugby next year, it isn't his problem and NZ give up a team? I see less chance of that happening than South Africa giving up three.

[Tazzmania]

From some Twitter posts it appears that news is starting to be leaked via South Africa with Cheetahs boss claiming his team are safe as the comp will be reduced to 16 teams, as yesterday it looked like they may also be on the chopping block.

Reading into that it is going to be one SA and one AUS team, but surely 16 with 5 teams in two countries still remains unwiedely.

It also appears that ARU currently talking with our franchises today so decision may be imminenet.

[jono]

I think the decision has been made. We just need the announcement