ARU will push into Melbourne

[Wallabies]

AUSTRALIAN Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill yesterday flagged the possibility of Super Rugby being played in Melbourne as early as 2010.

The possibility was raised after O'Neill revealed that SANZAR, the Super 14 governing body, had brought forward broadcast deal negotiations by 12 months.

O'Neill said negotiations would begin at the end of 2008, or early 2009 - rather than in 2010 - with a radical shake-up of the current format to follow.

O'Neill said SANZAR had agreed in principle to a new 22 to 26 week competition, with franchises in Melbourne, and possibly Japan to be included as early as 2010.

"Broadcast negotiations start towards the end of this year," O'Neill said.

"Expanding Super Rugby, from a 15-week competition, to a 22-26 week competition has been agreed to in principle. So that opens up some real opportunities for Melbourne.

"Melbourne features very definitively in our expansion plans.

"Now, we're into a full-blown strategic planning exercise with New Zealand and South Africa, with a view of going to the broadcasters towards the end of this year, early next year, with a whole new format of Super Rugby and for Tri-Nations.

"That's where Melbourne has an opportunity.

"The important thing is to have the community game really taking off.

"It's that old New Zealand saying of 'the bigger the base, the taller the pyramid'. The growth in numbers down here is important."

A partnership between the Victorian Rugby Union and the ACT Brumbies could also yield benefits.

Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher was in Melbourne on Wednesday night to take a host of local coaches through a coaching skills night.

Several Melbourne-raised players are currently playing for the Brumbies.

VRU president Gary Gray said Melbourne was ready for a franchise.

The VRU lost to WA Rugby when the ARU last awarded a license back in 2005.

"The fans want it, the rugby community in Victoria wants it, the VRU's ready, the Victorian Government's never been more ready with a new stadium - bring it on," Gray said.

"There's no reason not to. Everything's in place, so, let's go."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...1-11809,00.html

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

I suppose getting 40,000 fans to turn up for yesterday's game in a city which doesn't have a top level pro team is a sign that there's potential in Victoria.

I read this earlier the following quote earlier this morning:

The absence of a permanent team, a SuperRugby team in Melbourne is probably one of the, causes a bit of the stop start nature of the interest in rugby. There's nothing to watch week in, week out. One Test match a year probably isn't enough to keep the level of interest in rugby that we'd like. We are working on a number of things at the moment to expand SuperRugby. Clearly Melbourne is a location we will be look out for an additional team.

I think the answer for the southern states and for the Gold Coast and for Western Sydney and other places where we need to expand, because we are under attack from the AFL and rugby league, we need to do it with SuperRugby franchises and we need to open our eyes to the fact that some of the policies that have stood us in a good state for 12 or 13 years need to be changed. We might introduce foreign players, we may introduce a team in Japan into a bigger consumer market. So I think the southern states shouldn't feel as though rugby is neglecting them. We simply have to draw breath and find out which is the best way to attack this market.[/b]

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/sport/offsiders/cont...07/s2275030.htm

Along with Melbourne and Japan which O'Neill has courted for quite a while, Gold Coast and Western Sydney are on his hitlist.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

it's a tough one, there were lots of irish fans in the crowd and there's the possibility that most of the fans were made up of corporates and interstaters.

I would love to have a super 14 franchise in melbourne, however going by the average crowd of around 3000 that turned up to the rebels home games last year, it's going to be tough.

although i guess when the melbourne team is playing against teams like the crusaders, you'll get a few people turning up as there are a lot of ex pat kiwis over here

 

[Fushitsusha]

I hope Melbourne gets their own team... because I certainly don't want to share mine with them...

 

[BLR]

I love how in a media conference about this game and the future of Melbourne the SMH correspondent stood up and started talking about the Force and whether they should be moved to Melbourne, so much for my paranoia.

 

[scuubasteve]

The average crowd for the Rebels was better than that of any team except Perth wasn't it? It was bigger than the Canberra Vikings and the combined crowd of the East Coast Aces and Ballymore Tornadoes.

The Melbourne average also included one game that was played in whatever hurricane was going through at that time, where pretty much no one turned up.

There are so many Kiwi's in Melbourne now (I'll be one in about 18months) who miss Rugby so much that they often turn up to watch the Storm play Rugby League. Melbourne would have a great base to start a Super side, plus they also have more talented young players to develop than WA.

The question would be 'how would a Melbourne team damage the strengths of the other 4 Aussie teams'?

 

[BLR]

Melbourne would have a great base to start a Super side, plus they also have more talented young players to develop than WA.[/b]

Where do you get this from? The fact that Perth Gold was immense in the amateur National Shield before the Force came into being? They aren't even allowed to play in it anymore, because of the fear that we would drill everyone else. Melbourne have a bigger population then Perth but have the centre of AFL located there. AFL's number one aim is to crush other rival sports, they would strangle a Melbourne Super rugby club much like the WAFC are attempting to do my way.

Melbourne needs to be developed a bit more before you throw a Super team, they are not developed as much as Perth was as most people that go to tests are by and large tourists, where-in Perth has a huge expat Kiwi and Saffa population. The ARC crowds aren't much to go by, the NSW's and QLD teams were organised very shoddily and teams were grouped together with rival clubs and played outside of thier traditional bases etc. Plus the advertising of which was terrible, most Force fans either didn't know it was on or didn't know that there was actually a decent amount of Force players in the team....

 

[InsaneAsylum]

There are so many Kiwi's in Melbourne now (I'll be one in about 18months)[/b]

not another one haha

hey don't go telling everyone you go for the magpies, otherwise everyone will hate you for being a collingwood supporter... as everyone hates collingwood (well except collingwood supporters themselves)

 

[BLR]

hey don't go telling everyone you go for the magpies, otherwise everyone will hate you for being a collingwood supporter... as everyone hates collingwood (well except collingwood supporters themselves)
[/b]

My Dad has this white and black striped jacket he used to wear to all the All Blacks games and when we went to the Bledisloe last year the amount of **** he used to get because people thought he was a Collingwood supporter.

 

[Fushitsusha]

The question would be 'how would a Melbourne team damage the strengths of the other 4 Aussie teams'?
[/b]

I think the only way to have an expanded Super competition is to get a lot more money and allow imports into the teams.

Plus then we can have exciting professional Pacific Islander and Argentinian players in the competition who will be available for their test teams.

Otherwise I don't think Australia is quite ready for another team just yet.

Of course it all comes down to money.....

 

[redunderthebed]

I hope Melbourne gets their own team... because I certainly don't want to share mine with them... [/b]

Damn straight.

<div class='quotemain'>
Melbourne would have a great base to start a Super side, plus they also have more talented young players to develop than WA.[/b]

AFL's number one aim is to crush other rival sports, they would strangle a Melbourne Super rugby club much like the WAFC are attempting to do my way.
[/b][/quote]

They are much much much more fearful of football.....rugby union is a eastern states sport more or less whereas football has fans everywhere and is the only code that truly crosses regional boundaries.

To say that the AFL wants to crush all other codes is a bit hyperbole.........but if the ARU got there act together established a domestic league that is properly run and doesn't involve squishing club sides into one big side. (I think that there should be no links to clubs they should be franchises that will recruit from anywhere and runs like NRL,AFL and A-league sides) Then the AFL sharks would be circling trying to bring rugby down. (although ive found that when a code hits hard times they are almost always their own worse enemy and rival codes have little to do with it).

Australians love sport and all codes can co-exist its just that the ARU needs to get its act together to make rugby apart from s14 and test rugby successful.

<div class='quotemain'> There are so many Kiwi's in Melbourne now (I'll be one in about 18months)[/b]

not another one haha

hey don't go telling everyone you go for the magpies, otherwise everyone will hate you for being a collingwood supporter... as everyone hates collingwood (well except collingwood supporters themselves)
[/b][/quote]

Yes your right! collingwood supporters are considered scum i like most AFL fans hate collingwood.

C'mon the power. :cheers:

 

[sanzar]

I think that there should be no links to clubs they should be franchises that will recruit from anywhere and runs like NRL,AFL and A-league sides[/b]

Very much agree with this one. The merging of all those clubs and the stupid names they came up with was just ridiculous... They should probably keep a similar structure to the previous comp, but make it so there are only 2 teams each in Syndey and Brisbane, then bring back the central coast side and put other teams in all the major cities. Cutting the ties with clubs is a definite must though.

 

[redunderthebed]

<div class='quotemain'>
I think that there should be no links to clubs they should be franchises that will recruit from anywhere and runs like NRL,AFL and A-league sides[/b]

Very much agree with this one. The merging of all those clubs and the stupid names they came up with was just ridiculous... They should probably keep a similar structure to the previous comp, but make it so there are only 2 teams each in Syndey and Brisbane, then bring back the central coast side and put other teams in all the major cities. Cutting the ties with clubs is a definite must though.
[/b][/quote]

What they should do for teams is...

Sydney
West Sydney
Central Coast
Brisbane
Gold Coast
Townsville (call it North Queensland)
Canberra
Adelaide
Perth
Melbourne

An even 10 team competition with a top 4 finals system.They have neglected South Australia for too long as a rugby fan it sucks that my state doesnt have a team above amateur level.

 

[BLR]

An even 10 team competition with a top 4 finals system.They have neglected South Australia for too long as a rugby fan it sucks that my state doesnt have a team above amateur level.[/b]

They got the Sevens tournament for gods sake, despite the fact thier Australian Rugby field team is shite....

As for your break up, I think NSW should be split in four and QLD in two like the ARC, to make up for the differences in the talent pool.

 

[Fushitsusha]

<div class='quotemain'>
An even 10 team competition with a top 4 finals system.They have neglected South Australia for too long as a rugby fan it sucks that my state doesnt have a team above amateur level.[/b]

They got the Sevens tournament for gods sake, despite the fact thier Australian Rugby field team is shite....
[/b][/quote]

That's more than what the ARU has given Canberra despite the fact that we've got the most successful Super franchise in Australia.

They're never going to give us a test match, and continue to neglect us in the PNC... God forbid Canberra could pull a crowd bigger than what they got on the weekend...

 

[scuubasteve]

<div class='quotemain'>
Melbourne would have a great base to start a Super side, plus they also have more talented young players to develop than WA.[/b]

Where do you get this from? The fact that Perth Gold was immense in the amateur National Shield before the Force came into being? They aren't even allowed to play in it anymore, because of the fear that we would drill everyone else.
[/b][/quote]

This was based purely on expat numbers in Melbourne and the larger amount of Melbourne bred players in the Super14 than from Perth.

I believe that JON sees Super rugby as the best platform to grow the pro game in Australia. He will see the slow introduction of new franchises every 4-5 years with Melbourne in 2011 and probably West Sydney in 2016. This is financially safer than a new comp of any sort.

 

[BLR]

This was based purely on expat numbers in Melbourne and the larger amount of Melbourne bred players in the Super14 than from Perth.[/b]

Much larger amount of both Kiwi and Saffa expats in Perth, watch the Saffa v Wallabies game, we set the record for Subi last time, I assume much would be the same this time.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

regardless, perth is a **** hole compared to melbourne

 

[BLR]

regardless, perth is a **** hole compared to melbourne [/b]

I take it you've never been to Perth, or you're one of those snobby pretty boy 'wankers' I see everytime I go there. Quick quiz, do you pay $10 for a medium glass of shite beer in a snobby pub while you wear your $1,000 suit and laugh with your mates about how 'Jenkins' $1,000 suit is 'last seasons fashion'?<---and yes, this is from experience.

I'll like Perth just the way it is, with a minimal douchebag population.

 

[Fushitsusha]

regardless, perth is a **** hole compared to melbourne
[/b]

BLR, this is fairly true.

Plus Melbourne has the best record stores in the country. And that's important for me.

However, they need to rename Fitzroy "Little Canberra".

I swear to christ than 75% of the people there are from Canberra. Last time I was there I was running into ex-Canberrans on every street corner. Unfortunately these people make up most of the pretentious f***s hanging around Brunswick Street.