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It was hardly going to be a topic that quietly faded away into the night. So, should the Western Sydney Force happen?
“Outgoing NSW Waratahs chief executive Greg Harris says the ARU should consider removing the Western Force from the Super Rugby competition and adding a second Sydney team,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
In the wake of Harris’ comments, the founding scribe of this very site jumped on the ‘Western Force at Parramatta’ bandwagon on Monday.
As a western Sydney fella myself, I’d love to join Spiro, but this is a complicated picture and it’s not clear at all a move should be made.
If there’s a person in rugby who should be able to judge the fortunes of one Super Rugby team and the potential of another, it’s Greg Harris. The departing Tahs boss was chief of the Rugby Union Players Association, and CEO of the Western Force before that. He has been on both sides of the administrative fence, so his claims are worth examining. (Side note: this was the fifth article I have seen referencing a not-yet-released ARU strategic plan.)
Taking a closer look at the conundrum is like taking a peek through the crack in a theatre curtain and seeing the set replacement in action – it jolts you out of your suspended disbelief.
In 2015, the somewhat surprising success of the Wallabies and having two teams playing like real finals contenders in Super Rugby papered over some of the game’s cracks.
The situation at the Reds, as I recounted last week, was enough to bring everyone back to Earth. The notion of closing or moving a club even more so.
Despite rugby running as a professional sport for nigh on 20 years now, the Queensland situation and other coaching and administrative appointments in the game show there is still a clubby culture. Now the financial state of the game is laid bare after a CEO of two teams says one is so desperate it should shut down and move.
In Monday’s Australian Financial Review’s John Stensholt dropped a few data points that provide context to the comments from Harris. He mentioned that not a single Super Rugby team made a profit last year. That is worrying.
The Waratahs made the semi-final and the year before won a final but can’t break even. The Brumbies have had an extended run of success, but don’t break even. The Force haven’t been financially buoyant since the days of the damaging Firepower debacle. The Rebels have just been privatised and I hold out hope they can make it work.
On top of that news, Stensholt revealed the ARU sent suits from Accenture to examine the books of each Super Rugby team. Clearly they don’t think it’ll turn around tomorrow.
Yes, rugby will get some extra TV money soon, but I’d expect most of that to be burned up just trying to keep our players in a market where Kurtley Beale can command over $1 million, and others who reach 60 caps will look at moves overseas.
Moving a team to western Sydney might be a bold financial-boosting move, but bins years and years of work creating a beachhead in the Perth market. Ultimately, I don’t think the case can be made right now that rugby has a sufficient toehold in western Sydney to be any more successful in the long term.
The NSWRU and Waratahs have fairly roundly neglected the NRC and the west. Clubs in Sydney are as busy fighting one another and the ARU as they are building a solid presence in the suburbs from Parramatta and further west. An opening round Shute Shield game will be played at Camden, so some effort is there, but to call what rugby has in western Sydney a grassroots movement would be an overstatement.
Put simply, if Perth cannot yet organically support a professional rugby team, neither can western Sydney.
But there are some pros to moving the team.
Western Sydney is a much bigger, and growing, market than Perth. That might be more attractive to sponsors and television rights-holders. The Force versus Brumbies match in Perth last Friday night was out-rated by the 5:30pm Blues versus Hurricanes game – by almost 50 per cent. That is not a good look at all. It also says something about the Brumbies’ pulling power, a successful team but in the smaller Canberra market.
Parramatta Stadium is being rebuilt and would be a natural size and fit for a western Sydney Super Rugby team, with new corporate facilities built in. That’s a plus. So would the ability for more players to live in Sydney, or on the east coast, and play for another franchise besides the Waratahs, Reds and Brumbies. There would be a player retention advantage at a Parramatta-based team over the Force in Perth.
The Waratahs as an organisation have not worked hard on western Sydney over the years. A lot of rugby fans would be willing to at least partially switch allegiance for a team that is more conveniently located – the Tahs have pulled all games from Stadium Australia – and one that specifically tries to win them over. That is a significant superficial audience readily available to be won over.
And in the long term, western Sydney is basically an untapped market as far as rugby goes. The number of young footballers across the region who end up playing rugby league, that might have otherwise played rugby if their fathers had anything to do with it, must number in the thousands every year.
That is untapped. But it has been untapped for rugby for decades and no one has seemed serious about doing something about it. We aren’t even digging test wells, let alone seriously mining this area. Which is probably a plus to Perth, unless something changes; they’ve had years of putting in the work now.
On the flip side, Force fans would absolutely revolt if their team was taken from them after ten years. It would be a waste of the work already done.
The ARU just gave the Force $800,000 for IP rights – whatever accounting name rights column on the spreadsheet it falls under – pulling the plug is eating that investment now.
One of rugby’s unique selling points to fans, sponsors and investors is the sport’s national and international footprint. Pulling back from the western frontier subtracts from that argument, and while it is a peripheral consideration, it is more important than some people realise.
And as I explained above, western Sydney really is beyond the infrastructure of rugby right now. Perth deserves to keep their team until a network is established in western Sydney that at least matches, if not outstrips, theirs.
And at that point, after more years of work, wouldn’t it make sense just to expand rugby’s footprint, rather than shift it?
Let Perth keep their team.
Rugby should work in western Sydney for its own sake, not for the sake of a superficial commercial boost. Grow the game, don’t play accounting games.
Invest in western Sydney, make rugby known in public schools, and develop clear pathways through the neglected Shute Shield clubs. Make it worthwhile for players to stay and reward Penrith, Parramatta and West Harbour for developing them. Put down roots. And then when the time is right, expand.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.