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Where should rugby be in 10 years time?

Roar Guru
7th December, 2014
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ARU CEO Bull Pulver. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)
Roar Guru
7th December, 2014
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1048 Reads

As I understand, the current structure of rugby is, social park player, district park player attached to a district club, a district club, district rep teams, private schools, Shute Shield teams, NRC teams, Super Rugby teams and national teams.

I believe registered players are numbered somewhere between 75,000 and 85,000. So where will rugby be in 10 years?

Broadcasts are in place in NSW, ACT and Queensland. There was a weekly Shute Shield match broadcast on the ABC, the NRC has 10 games broadcast on Fox Sports, Super Rugby has 40 games in Australia and roughly the same in New Zealand broadcast, so with South Africa matches there are about 112 games broadcast by Fox.

Then there’s a delayed Super Rugby broadcast by Channel Ten, and national games broadcast by Fox Sports with some of them also broadcast on Channel Ten.

ABC will no longer broadcast the Shute matches, and rumours have been swirling around Fox and the NRC. Super Rugby matches will be reduced and games played in Australia will be somewhere between 30 and 35 matches, however Japanese and Argentinian teams will enter the competition.

Given the age of the ARU board my guess is most will be there over the next five years at least and some possibly 10 years.

Bill Pulver heads up a management team directed by the ARU board and he is young enough to be there over the next five to 10 years.

The revenue for the ARU is falling and is made up of the following – television rights of Super Rugby, Rugby Championship and other national matches sold to Fox Sports and Ten, income from ticket sales, sponsorships, district park players and merchandise sale of shirts etc.

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Underlying assets, all of the above, plus the spirit and tradition in rugby. Additionally, the skill and planning in the management team. The stock exchange prices for most companies listed are well above their net asset value. The share price is largely determined by how investors view the direction the company is heading and how much growth can be achieved by the current management team.

Measuring sticks are always difficult, however the other football codes are in the same market place, meaning we should measure the ARU board and management team against other codes in Australia or against other national unions or maybe both.

Goal setting, creating KPIs to measure and compare performance is also important in the overall scheme of things.

If I may be so rude as to start the process of where I would expect the current board and management team to be in say 10 years. I will do this briefly and hopefully simply. My headings are exceed goals, achieve goals, fail goals and sackable performance.

In terms of registered players, an exceed goals score would mean 125,000 participants, while 100,000 would draw an achieve goals score. Under 90,000 would be a fail, while less than our current level would be a sackable performance.

I will stop here because I am unsure on what exactly I want SANZAR to look like in 10 years, and where, if at all, the NRC will be in 10 years.

If the NRC falls over should the ARU management team at least resign?

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I also don’t understand the structure of development, and the relationship between private schools and district park teams, however to move that forward it should be a top priory.

What are your thoughts on the journey over the next 10 years, what are reasonable expectations of the ARU and what directions should Australian rugby take?

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