The Brumbies, Israel Folau, floods of players leaving Super Rugby after the 2015 World Cup and anxious fan mail are the big issues for rugby this week.
1. The ACT Brumbies are in financial trouble
A couple of days ago I received this abrupt and anxious email from a rugby fan: ‘Heya Spiro, As a Brumbies fan I’m worried they won’t be around in two years.’
And the cause of his worry? An informed article written by Chris Wilson published recently (17 December 2014) in The Canberra Times with the headline: ACT Brumbies board gets a big shake-up.
The details of what follows are taken from this article which explains why the shake-up is necessary.
The former chairman of the Brumbies, Sean Hammond, in the face of a ‘record financial loss,’ has been replaced with a new chairman Rob Kennedy. Kennedy, according to the article, has not served on the board before.
Three new board members were also appointed, along with new chairman, in a night of the long knives at the annual general meeting of the franchise.
Kennedy is an executive of the Canberra accountancy and consultancy firm Synergy. Lisa Thorburn, ACT director of Datacom, Peter Callaughan (a representative of the junior clubs) and Scott Fardy (the players’ representative replacing Stephen Moore) are the new board members.
The new board are inheriting a franchise in deep financial trouble.
The Brumbies go into 2015 without a major sponsor to replace the University of Canberra.
The franchise suffered a record A$1.07 million financial loss in 2014.
Last year the Brumbies sold their Griffith property for A$11.4 million. Sean Hammond, the former chairman, according to the Canberra Times ‘has previously admitted only about A$2 million remains’ from the proceeds of this sale.
The Griffith property sale was supposed, apparently, to provide an investment for the future viability of the franchise.
Grants from the ARU were A$6.4m last year, which includes an increase in the number of Brumbies in the Wallabies and their payments.
Match day revenue dropped 31 per cent to A$1.6m. Sponsorship receipts were ‘also on the slide,’ down to A$3.96. Membership income remained steady.
It is any wonder, when reading these figures, that Brumbies fans are worried about the future viability of the franchise?
Hopefully, the ARU and the new Brumbies board will come up with a plan to put the franchise back on track, financially. But what is worrying about all this is that the ARU does not appear to be proactive in any obvious way to what is happening.
How should crises like this be handled? With some decisive action from the ARU, I would argue.
Some years ago when the Queensland Reds were in financial strife, not unlike the Brumbies situation, John O’Neill, the chief executive of the ARU, instigated an intervention. This intervention involved the ARU laying down a program of reform at all levels of the Reds organisation. There was some initial resistance but the ARU forced through the necessary changes.
The project was so successful that the Reds now have a membership of around 40,000. They won their first Super Rugby title in 2011. They have gone from a failing franchise to the most viable Super Rugby franchise in Australia.
What is the ARU’s response to what is happening with the Brumbies? Where is the plan to get the franchise up to its glory days? Has the ARU attached conditions to its annual payment to the Brumbies?
Everyone knows that running sporting franchises in Australia is difficult, especially in the football codes where the competition for fans, players and eye-balls (at the game or on television) is more cut-throat here than anywhere else in the world.
But the answer for the ARU is to be pro-active, as it has been in the past, and in a way the New Zealand Rugby Union (who else?) were when faced with similar financial problems with its ITM provinces.
The New Zealand Rugby Union reshaped the ITM tournament. They forced cuts in administration and management. And required detailed, workable plans from the provinces on how they were going to become solvent, in the short and long term.
The ITM tournament has been turned around. Where are the plans for the Brumbies and the Melbourne Rebels, another Super Rugby franchise in deep financial trouble?
2. The exodus of players from Super Rugby to Europe will be a flood after Rugby World Cup 2015. Should it be stopped?
Simon Poidevin made the shrewd observation when he ended his wonderful rugby career after the Rugby World Cup 1991 triumph that players would use the Rugby World Cup four-year cycle as a marker for their retirements.
There is a slight adjustment to the Poidevin theory in that players in Australia and New Zealand aren’t ending their careers in this part of the world, making them unavailable (right now) for national selection, and playing out their twilight years in Europe and Japan.
Adam Ashley-Cooper and James Horwill are the big Australian names who are leaving Australia after the Rugby World Cup 2015. Ashley-Cooper is going to Bordeaux (someone has to do it, I guess) and Horwill is going to Harlequins for the next three years.
Both these players have had long and distinguished careers in Australia, in Super Rugby and for the Wallabies. They deserve to cash in towards the end of their playing careers. Horwill (29), though, has not ruled coming back to the Reds (and the Wallabies?) after his stint with Harlequins. He will be, after this experience, still six years younger than Brad Thorn, who is still playing strongly in the UK.
The other aspect of senior players leaving Australia is that it opens up room in Super Rugby and later for the Wallabies of young, talented players to get their chance to make a name for themselves.
At this stage I see no sense in allowing players who have gone overseas to be eligible for the Wallabies. They have to have some inducement to come back to Australia, as James O’Connor is going to do in order to be eligible for Rugby World Cup 2015.
The case of Israel Folau will be interesting. The ARU could offer him the inducement of Sevens Rugby at the Rio Olympics in 2016 to stay on after Rugby World Cup 2015, the deal the New Zealand Rugby Union has worked out with Sonny Bill Williams. But if Folau wants to leave Australian rugby, then so be it.
I do see some merit, though, in allowing players to be eligible for selection in the Wallabies (or the All Blacks, for that matter) if they are playing for a Super Rugby franchise which is not in their country of origin.
This sort of arrangement would not stop players of the stature of Dan Carter (Racing Metro) or Ma’a Nonu (Toulon) from capping off their careers in the ultra lucrative French market. But it would help players who
for some reason or another can’t get a start in their own franchise to make a name for themselves out of their own country.
Under this system, Steve Devine might have become a Wallaby rather than an All Black.
WoobliesFan
Guest
Why is a kiwi Ab, anti wallaby old timer talking about the brumbies viability? Theres zero integrity there...how about we get rathbone or mortlock or Larkham or an ex coach...anyone but snipering Spiro.
WoobliesFan
Guest
Lol @ gubberment bail out.....how true......if you need to be bailed out, you don't have a right to exist......if you can't profit you die in free market capitalism.....well, that's the way it use to be. Last place I want my tax dollars to go is bailing out useless sports administrations.
Squirrel
Guest
No one in other words.
Squirrel
Guest
Name a subbie that has lifted a World Cup trophy. I think you'd find they are all Shute shield or Brissy premier comp or brumbies but keep dreaming about the progression from school to nrc
Train Without A Station
Guest
Tai McIssac former Wallabies and Western Force hooker came from my old subbies club, Bond Pirates, on the Gold Coast. Scott Higginbotham also played for Colleges on the Gold Coast. A close friend plays for Easts in the Shute Shield. As he grew up in Melbourne he didn't just materialise from Easts. Much like all the Yamba bred players at the club. You do realize they played rugby before they got to Easts right? All but 7 Rebels players were part of schoolboy rugby, then state and Aus Schoolboys and Under 20s before being signed. Are you going to claim that the Shute Shield and equivalent is responsible for these 28 players? Siliva Siliva never played a senior game in Melbourne before signing for the Brumbies? I guess Premier Grade gets the credit too. Your comments and ridiculous and covered in bias preventing you from making an objective observations. Considering I have been involved in Premier Grade and Suburban Rugby, I'm in a pretty good position to make objective observations. Just that I am willing to comment on what's best for rugby, not what's best for my club or my competition, you don't like it.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Canberra teams have traditionally struggled to get major corporate backing, it certainly makes it tough for them, but not insurmountable. The Brumbies have had two consecutive years of million dollar losses, the exact value of a major sponsorship, indicating that many other things are going right for the Brumbies and that all is not lost. I also wanted to remind people that the Brumbies have $2 million in cash reserves AFTER having invested $7 million in a new training base and retiring debt (followiong the sale of their Griffith property). That is actually a good news story.
Magic Sponge
Guest
Sounds like they never played the game, but go on...
Magic Sponge
Guest
How many wallabies come from a subbies club. Name one TWAs, they come from the shute shield and Brissy equivalent. The colts is the pathway from school to grade to s15 to wallabies, not school straight to the nrc.
Justin Mahon
Guest
Excellent. I agree Sheek. The problem for football was that given all its amazing advantages of scale/scope etc. it was still sooooooooo poor in all other dimensions. For rugby it is a different equation in my view. Forget 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th relative to other sports etc. as you say. The ARU should be aiming for (1) financially stable again (2) stable participation with some 'green shoots' (3) best possible and sustainable development pathways (4) improving Wallabies. Everything after that is a bonus!
Justin Mahon
Guest
Yes, I was speaking in overall terms, but as you say the demographics are more nuanced and need to be considered. I do also enjoy the FMF guys work to :-)
Jacko
Guest
Every country except Aussie & Kiwi pick club players, banning does not stop players leaving nor weakens our Super comp just weakens Aust side. Ti would also help us financially and allow other players to be developed.. How come no other intelligent ROarers see this easy solution!,,,
Ken
Guest
Canberra has traditionally been the only market in Australia where rugby was the preferred code. Similarly, it enjoyed much greater support from the 'working class' than has ever been the case in QLD or NSW. Admittedly things have shifted over the last decade, but if the Brumbies fold then Australia loses one of its only traditional bases. How much poorer would the Wallabies have been without Gregan, Larkham, Roff, Kafer, Gits etc?
sheek
Roar Guru
No, I won't bother with the NRC. :-)
hog
Guest
And this argument highlights the futility of Australian rugby. Yes Canberra could once support a Super team, back in the early 2000 when the competition was in its honeymoon and the Brumbies were a successful team. But we have had 10 years of slow decline of support for rugby and the chickens are coming home to roost. Choosing between Melbourne and Canberra is like deciding which lifeboat to get in. It doesn’t change the fact that the ship is sinking. Melbourne may have the population, But the ARU better be in for the long haul as they will be bankrolling them for a long time. I’m not being anti-Rebels, I have been a member since the day one, but 90% of the support for the club is expatriate based. But you have to convince a tribal non-rugby city to follow a team in a competition that is 70% overseas based, is stuck on Pay TV, has little or no connection to Melbourne, plays in ridiculous time zones, and stops for a month before finishing only half way through winter. Melbourne could support a rugby team, but it has little or no interest in Super rugby. The 2016 broadcast deal may help prop these teams up, but it doesn’t do the one thing the ARU need it to do. And that is to get more people to watch a competition they are slowly losing interest in
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Do you realise you say?: "Canberra has proven it can support a super rugby team in the past" Then say: "The lack of major corporate based presence on Canberra affects all Canberra based teams" You say they can support a team and then contradict yourself and say exactly why they can't. I'm not at all anti brumbies. They have the same population to draw as Leceister Tigers who are quite successful. I just want to point out the view the the brumbies need to be protected and Melbourne should be disregarded, if it comes to that, is very flawed.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Yeah but understanding what their claims mean isn't a pre-requisite to comment here. I wouldn't be surprised if this person's next great solution was to inplement a transfer fee to solve the issue of out of contract players leaving clubs.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
You mean the clubs that were so well supported they were going broke being half amateur?
sheek
Roar Guru
Thanks Justin & Hog. Middie, It's less about where a code sits in relation to other sports, & more about being the best they can be. A hockey fan can answer this better than me, but perhaps hockey acknowledges it has progressed the game as well as it can in the Australian market. Perhaps they're content, perhaps not. I don't know, perhaps a hockey fan can let us know. It wouldn't bother me if rugby was still fourth (of four) after doing everything it could to be the best it can be. At the moment you can't help thinking that rugby just isn't trying hard enough, or more precisely, smart enough to be better.
Bakkies
Guest
Cork City were relegated recently and had financial problems. I am not sure if it's a NewCo though. A lot have clubs have done well to survive the crash. The clubs have loyal support due to Soccer snobbery I can't see it growing again. Whereas even in the early years of the Heineken Cup crowds were very small at the provinces. More would go to a Shannon v Garryowen match. More due goes to club in small towns where the populations are low like Drogheda, Sligo, Athlone competing for sponsorship with other sports and support in tough times. I wasn't around when they changed the season. Sligo has a Rugby team in Division 2A or B they are having a good season. Athlone has Buccaneers where Robbie Henshaw is from. Ireland under 20s play their home matches there. Leinster have played pre season matches in Tallaght home of Shamrock Rovers. Tallaght is the Dublin equivalent of Campbelltown. They have got decent crowds for those games.
tinfoil hat
Guest
NZ, Oz and England... generally making up three of the top four rugby nations with SA having only recently switched. Maybe they are doing something right.