Plan to expand Super season

[impassabull]

O'Neill will always throw crap ideas up in the air and see what happens. NZ and SA will never let super rugby dilute their inhouse competitions. If he is so worried about making money why doesn't he just sell our clubs to asian sponsors and be truthfull and admit that with him it is only the money that matters

[GIGS20]

Thanks for Registering impassabull, I think you're going to fit in right nicely around here!

[Swee_82]

Article in the West today about Cams thoughts on the extended season- worried there might be too much rugby in there for the international players.

[jargan83]

Gee, it sure sounds like we need maybe a 8-10 week 3rd tier comp to keep non-wallabies busy and match hardened and a step up/pathway for club rugby players.

Maybe 7 or 8 teams, base a couple in sydney, a couple in brisbane. Probably 1 in canberra, perth. Probably 1 in melbourne as well??


Oh wait...........................................

they did?

It got canned?

Awwwwwwwww

[BLR]

Ruck and Maul, apparently they want the new 3rd tier to be only the best Canberra, NSW and QLD clubs.....at least the old boys get thier way...

[KenyaQuin]

Players support expansion
Bret Harris | March 14, 2008 The Australian

THE Rugby Union Players Association has endorsed the ARU's ambitious plan to expand the Super 14 series, but New Zealand is yet to commit to a longer format.

ARU chief executive John O'Neill has said that "high-level discussions" had begun on a plan to expand the tournament from February to August, include a team based in Tokyo and featuring a six-team finals series.

There were concerns the players' association would oppose expansion because of fears of player burnout, but RUPA was in favour of the idea.

"We think SANZAR needs to explore these opportunities," RUPA chief executive Tony Dempsey said.

"Expansion of the Super 14 could be a good thing. The players are open to the idea of having a team from Japan. It is a large market and would enhance the TV deal.

"We don't think burnout would be an issue. It would not result in more games, just more high-level games and that's not a bad thing. Players are always looking for more high-level games.

"We are confident we could work with administrators and coaches to get the best outcome for individual players based on their needs. We would want to explore the consequences on other development programs such as Australia A and club rugby, but it (expansion) is something that has merit from a players' perspective."

The expanded tournament would be in a two-round format, with a full round-robin phase followed by a round featuring "local derbies" among the home teams of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The Tri-Nations series would be held straight after the Super tournament, with Tests involving northern hemisphere countries likely to be played midweek.

The increase in product would appease broadcasters when SANZAR renegotiates its broadcasting deal for beyond 2010, while the lucrative Japanese market would provide considerable financial muscle.

But NZRU chief executive Steve Tew said a decision on any change to the Super format was only in the preliminary stage at SANZAR level.

O'Neill had put forward a format that wouldn't necessarily get agreement from the two other nations which had domestic competitions to cater for.

The main stumbling blocks to Super expansion are the New Zealand and South African provincial competitions, the National Provincial Championship and the Currie Cup.

"John has floated one option that would clearly suit the Australian set of circumstances, probably better than ourselves or South Africa," Tew said.

"The NZRU has made a commitment inside the SANZAR organisation to have a very open mind as to what the next version of Super rugby might look like.

"There are any number of things we would need to consider, though, in terms of finding our position."

Tew agreed Japan harboured enormous commercial clout but the needs of Argentina, the Pacific islands and, ultimately, North America still needed consideration. "There needs to be a more strategic look at how Super rugby might unfold," Tew said. "We wouldn't dismiss John's thoughts out of hand."

[jono]

i dont think that any further expansion is going to work. due to the geographical issues of sa, aus and nz.
if we expanded the competition within the limits now. but borrowed players or something like that perhaps?
might shut up melbourne as they would be again in the running to get a team.

[MI5_Dog]

South Africa has added to the Super 14 expansion debate saying that John O’Neill's expansion ideas were his own and that the restructuring process will not be done at the expense of South Africa's rugby heritage and traditions.

SARugby issued their own statement which said, " SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd wants to make the point very clear that the views being expressed by Mr O’Neill are his own/those of the ARU and are not those of SANZAR, nor are they endorsed by South Africa.
"South Africa, (and its SANZAR partners), understands the need to refresh the competitions that it participates in, but this is an ongoing process."
"We have established internal competitions with a long and proud history and will not embark on any restructuring that does not recognize our own rugby heritage and traditions."

"The inclusion of Argentina, the Pacific Islands and Japan within Southern Hemisphere rugby structures remains an important focus within our deliberations; how this inclusion takes place, remains part of an ongoing and future debate."

The announcement means that both New Zealand and South Africa have rejected John O’Neill's expansion ideas and both have stated that his ideas will not suit them.
John O’Neill's expansion ideas might be fantastic for Australian rugby but it now seems unlikely that the Super 14 would be expanded as it would be at the expense of the Air New Zealand Cup and the Currie Cup when Australia has just cancelled their Australian Rugby Championship (ARC).
The ARC was cancelled after one season as it lost money. Instead of tweaking it to make it profitable, John O'Neill seems to be dedicating his efforts on expanding the Super 14 which could be at the expense of the Currie Cup and the Air New Zealand Cup because Australia now have an open window.
South Africa's Currie Cup is the world's oldest running rugby tournament. The Air New Zealand Cup (NPC) was first contested in 1976.
Super14.com

[jono]

hahaha at least the world knows what a tosser o'neil is

[beige]

He used to do this when he was involved with the FFA as well. When the A-League first started, I remember him saying that he wanted to set up an Asia-Pacific league for the top teams in the region each year - apparently completely oblivious to the fact that a certain little tournament known as the Asian Champions League already existed.

Needless to say, it didn't work out for him...

[jargan83]

I just read this on FOX SPORTS | Sports news Australia | Australian sports found it interesting

Super 14 can't afford parochialism

Comment by Wayne Smith

March 15, 2008 IT is fair to say that among the rugby faithful of New Zealand and South Africa, John O'Neill's plans for expanding Super 14 have not gone down especially well.

"I say f*** 'em" was one response on a South African website to the Australian initiative that Super 14 should be enlarged to include a round of local derbies in each of the three SANZAR countries and a six-team finals series.

And the scary thing was that this was one of the more enlightened contributions.

But all conformed to two basic themes: one, Australian rugby needs New Zealand and South Africa a lot more than they need Australia, so O'Neill is kidding himself if he thinks he will be the one driving change when the next broadcast agreement is negotiated in 2010; and, two, O'Neill is only looking after Australia.

Well, to continue in the engaging spirit of the SA bloggers, I should bloody well hope he is looking after Australia. That's his job, after all. But in this instance, looking after Australia's interests and looking after SANZAR's are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Rugby in Australia might be sailing close to the wind financially, but it is only going to take a modest shift in the breeze for New Zealand and South Africa to start luffing themselves. Indeed, if the Kiwis don't quickly take heed of that shuddering in their rigging, they could soon find themselves becalmed.

For all the smug talk in New Zealand about how O'Neill was forced to shut down the Australian Rugby Championship because it threatened to bankrupt the ARU, the reality is the Kiwis' own NPC, or as it is now known, the Air New Zealand Cup, is threatening to do the same thing to the NZRU and its constituent unions.

In recent months, Otago has posted a $NZ1.5 million ($1.3m) deficit, Bay of Plenty $NZ759,000, Northland $NZ350,000.

Even Canterbury, which boasts arguably the best provincial side in the world, dropped $NZ428,000 in 2007. And so it goes across the board, this despite the fact that the NZRU pumped an estimated $NZ15 million into the 14 premier unions, which may explain why the national body itself is looking down the barrel.

Up until the old SANZAR deal, negotiated in US dollars, expired in 2005, the NZRU had to convert its cut of the pie at a rate of US42c to the Kiwi, irrespective of the real exchange rate. Since then, it has done its sums on the Kiwi buying US65c. On Friday it was buying US81c. That's a lot less bang for the buck and already it's hitting the NZRU's core business.

If you are wondering why the NZ Maori has replaced the Junior All Blacks as one of Australia A's opponents in this year's Pacific Nations Cup, for instance, the explanation comes in two parts.

The first is that the NZRU saves by not having to send the Maori off to far-flung destinations as Santa Clara and Edmonton (the 2006 match sites) and Northampton, Exeter and London (the 2007 venues). The second is that it no longer has to pay each of the 26 Junior All Blacks $NZ3500 each a week during the month-long Pacific Nations tournament.

And the worst may be yet to come, because unless a miracle arises in the next couple of years, the NZRU stands to lose $30 million or so from hosting the 2011 World Cup. Now is it a little clearer why the Kiwis wanted the number of competing teams reduced from 20 to 16?

Meanwhile, the South Africans should not be tittering so smugly. The worst that can be said about the Australian and New Zealand unions is that they both are struggling with the harsh financial realities.

But over in the republic, the money problems run much deeper. The SARU is awash with allegations of financial mismanagement, including the charge that one official used SARU money to pay his mortgage.

Embattled SARU president Regan Hoskins, whose own position is under siege from Mike Stofile, has been forced to call in auditors before the presidential election at the end of the month after the SARU's former financial manager, Vanessa Bell, compiled a report listing various financial irregularities before quitting the organisation in disgust.

As in the case of New Zealand, the real crisis for South Africa might be lurking just around the corner. If the SA Government keeps pressing for rugby to fall into line on the transformation issue and start selecting black players en masse in the Springboks, the financial underpinning of the game there could collapse.

So when O'Neill puts forth a few ideas that might significantly boost the coffers of SANZAR and its three member nations, the Kiwis and South Africans might do well to put their boorish parochialism on hold long enough to listen.

That's not to say they have to rubber stamp his every suggestion, but they had better believe it that when he says it might be a good idea to expand Super 14 in some way "if the broadcasters have an appetite for it", he already has had that conversation with the broadcasters.

There is no escaping the reality that the Australian sporting marketplace is the most competitive of the three SANZAR countries. Indeed, it's hard to think of any sporting marketplace anywhere in the world where the competition for the spectator dollar is more ferocious.

AFL is expanding, targeting the Gold Coast and western Sydney; the NRL, having bedded down the Titans, is now looking at pushing into Wellington and the NSW central coast as well, while football's A-League is just a year away from bringing in new teams. Rugby cannot be seen to have a stagnant product.

O'Neill has any number of flaws but he is, without question, the sharpest of ideas men. That's why Australian rugby paid top dollar to bring him back. New Zealand and South Africa are getting him for free. That's a bargain at any exchange rate.

[GIGS20]

Yet another reason why I don't like Wayne Smith!