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I know its old, but a good read to recap things
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/easte...dan-fitzgerald and is dated 6 April 2017, so just before the hooha began (according to my diary)
and an interesting link to Wayne Smiths article dated 1 April 2016
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...878ea7af458305
that refers to all the pertinent details of the deal of the century which he obviously got from reading the actual terms of the deal - he knows too much detail to have made that stuff up, so no problems for Pulver to share with the press in 2016. Please note Pulvers actual comments re Cox, which are such rubbish.
In brief it says:
"The Australian Rugby Union has given the Melbourne Rebels’ private owner Andrew Cox financial support worth more than $6 million for five years to stop the bleeding from a club that has cost the game between $15 million and $20m since its inception.
Because the deal is front-end loaded, it is understood the Rebels are being paid $2.6m for 2016, the initial year of the deal, but that payments are reduced considerably in value over the remaining four years.
The other four Australian Super Rugby clubs — the Waratahs, Brumbies, Queensland Reds and Western Force — are allocated $1.7m a year for the five-year term of December’s $285m broadcast agreement with Fox and Ten, rising by $50,000 a year. This is over and above the $3.9m that all five clubs, Melbourne included, were allocated last year under the previous broadcast deal to run their club and fund their players.
The Rebels also receive any additional money the ARU periodically gives the clubs, such as the $50,000 they each received to help with marketing.
While the Rebels might receive an additional $900,000 from the ARU in the initial year of the arrangement, the deal peters out so dramatically that in year five, the Melbourne club will receive only $100,000. The benefit for the ARU is that it is now not faced with propping up a club that, on average, was losing $3.5m a season.
Cox is understood to have been granted three more unfunded extensions, each of five years, before the club passes into perpetuity.
Although Cox and the ARU have signed a confidentiality agreement, they agreed to speak out about their arrangement in response to a letter in circulation condemning the arrangement, particularly at a time when the ARU is under fire for not funding club rugby and is battling to keep afloat the other “expansion team”, the Western Force.
The letter also casts doubt on how the deal was arranged: former Melbourne Rebels CEO Rob Clarke, now the ARU’s chief operating officer, introduced Cox to ARU boss Bill Pulver.
Cox has insisted the deal with the ARU was entirely proper and transparent.
Pulver yesterday said it was in the ARU’s interest for Cox to succeed and prove that private ownership worked in Australia. The ARU is of the view that giving Cox assistance now is the best way for the private owner to establish the business in the hope it will be cost-efficient in the future.
“The funding arrangement expires after five years and Cox will get what every other Super Rugby club gets,” said Pulver. “But we chose to go with him because he has a proven record of turning distressed businesses around. We desperately want him to be a success. He can become a role model for other entrepreneurs.”
truth triumphs
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but seriously? "Securing" test matches?? The matches are going to be played somewhere, somebody is "paying" for them, it makes almost no difference to the ARU finances where or who.
And Woopedy do, they improved a pitch at ONE school. Is that now what "grassroots" means? New grass?? FFS
The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor
So, who can do maths? 1 game in Perth for $5m or 8 games in Melbourne for $14m? I think Bill was the only one who negotiated this deal.
The extra Bledisloe in Melbourne is also at the expense of a game in Brisbane. Fortress Suncorp will be denied a game in the year we host two Bledisloe's.
Wonder how much revenue the QRU will miss out on? This will really piss off the Queenslanders.
I think it is 6 Melbourne Tests for about $14 m . they are being a bit sneeky saying that it is heavily revised down from about $20 m to closer to $14 m when they have clearly agreed to fund the Rebels in a separate deal, circa $4.5 m over three years (4.5 + 14 = 18.5) and that is where the MRRU is getting its working capital from at the moment. And what of the $14 m? seems to be lacking in transparency (unsual for the ARU) and obviously due to commercial inconfidence they cant reveal those details. Ho hum
truth triumphs
OK, 6 into 14 is still only $2.33m versus $5m from WA. I am sure IF it was a tender process each of those tests would be worth much more that what the Vic Govt has paid.
No use us talking about it. Mainstream east coast media has to pick up on this.
I agree , it should be a transparent tender process, not a behind the scenes cloak and dagger fu$kup
truth triumphs
I wonder what the obsession with Melbourne actually is? The AFL did fine without NSW for decades until they grew bigger and bad enough to take Rugby on in its own state. Yet in Rugbys professional infancy they are not only giving out money like it grows on Trees to the insolvent Melbourne Rebels franchise but they are now gifting that state a rolls royce selection of future test matches with absolutely no tender process or transparency, and for a hell of alot less financially. Where is WA's selection of future tests? Tge favouritism knows no bounds. The ARU are a fucking embarassment to everything good and honest about sport. I can't believe the level of incompetance its just on a level never seen before. Sack the board now before they ruin the sport completely ( if that hasn't been done already).
Mate 2019 Twiggy comp expanding to 8 or 10 teams and so on after that. I would hazard to guess that come 2020 Melbourne will likely be NRC status. Unless they can stump some serious coin or part ways with their shifty cohorts they be going nowhere. I'm pretty certain any state govt involved around then might start to pull the funding as well.
We can't under-estimate the influence of FoxSports in 'helping' the EARU in its decision making.
It already has a big audience in Melbourne via AFL.
Of course they're interesting in growing a Rugby audience in Melbourne.
You only have to watch Kick & Chase or watch one of their telecasts to see the level of co-operation (or should that be collusion) between FoxSports and the EARU.
It's always a case of following the $$s......
If they really think they will ever make any inroads in Victoria/ Melbourne they are dreaming. The NRL team are champions and no one cares despite League being one of the nations biggest sports. They have thrown away a genuine rugby state so they can squeeze the dysfunctional corrupt and insolvent Rebel franchise in amongst 8 AFL teams, the current NRL champions, 2 BBL teams, 2 soccer teams, a netball team and all the other minor sports that they play Victoria wide. Victoria has that many AFL teams that it has made them beleive they are the sporting capital of not only Australia, but the world. It is not normal to have 8 pro teams, it is an anomaly, and from memory states as huge as California only have 4 NFL pro teams and they have a population bigger than Australia, which goes to show that 8 pro teams for 1 sport is not normal, especially with populations like we have in Victoria/ Melbourne, so trying to cram another pro sports team in the already ridiculously large sporting scene in Melbourne is quite frankly insane.
yep spot on - a very good point
The truth may set you free, but only evidence convicts
Time to have some fun with this incomplete article. http://www.theroar.com.au/2017/10/27...llabies-tests/
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board