ARU steps up to ensure Western Force will remain in Perth

And now you are confusing what Rugby WA were doing/could do, with what the ARU think they are going to do. It remains to be seen whether actually supporting the local rugby forms any part of the new equation, particularly given the ARU track record on that front. Giving WA a SR team has always seemed to be their version of teaching a man to fish, and now they've taken away the fishing licence. I could understand a good deal of scepticism about the future from the supporter base.

How does it have any less tribalism or meaning than any other sporting competition? Do you think an entire existence of mediocrity may have been a factor?

If there was profits, of the expectation of profits in the very near future they wouldn't have the need for ARU assistance...

Keeping the Force in Perth is preferable as long as they can find a financially sustainable model to support them/. This should not only be a priority for Perth, but for rugby in general. They need to find ways to tap into the community and build greater connections. This will require some new and innovative ideas. Unfortunately we are not hearing anything about plans to achieve this.

Nah the Reds are on track to post a $1M profit this year despite their falling membership and crowds. Last year's loss also coincided with a concerning increase in expenditure too. I believe that is something they have addressed to be on track for a profit this year. I doubt despite their success the Waratahs will post anything similar for 2016. But plenty of money has been thrown down that black hole at Ballymore over the years, that's for sure. If hope nobody there is getting on their high horse about the Force considering our own poor financial past.

With regards to throwing money down a black hole, the Force's $800k bail-out earlier this year paid off their debts accrued over the last 3 years, which, I think, has been the time when they didn't have a major shirt sponsor. Their accounts show them running at losses of ~$300k-$400k a year. The reports of the troubles at the Reds recently said they were running at losses of $1.4 million a year, while the Brumbies regularly post similar losses.

An odd non sequitur. It is irrelevant what the ARU thought they were doing with the Rebels, your point was that because the Rebels only ever lost money then that is all the Force will ever do too. Given that that is the diametric opposite of what the ARU have said they aim to do with the Force, one can only conclude that you either think they are delusional or that they are lying through their teeth about their plans for the team. Again, neither would seem to offer much motivation for the locals to get too invested.

Yes, and then they realized that Super rugby is a plastic made up Pay TV competition that has little tribalism or meaning. Once that cat was out of the bag ????

They subsidised the Rebels short term as an investment in the Victorian market. They have now found a buyer to limit the period they need/needed to do this.

Squirrel I reckon you're the last person in the world who should comment on listening to reason.

The WA team also captured a different TV market in a different time zone which offers value to the primary revenue stream. Other sports are somewhat irrelevant. We're the Swans barely hanging on at any point recently? No. Further to this, that was a case of putting a new team in the biggest market, having filled all other markets. A team in Western Sydney at the expense of Perth would congest an already congested market further, and leave a city of over 1M people and only 2 competing franchises. We're the Waratahs? Absolutely. Even now they aren't commercially performing well. Estimates suggest the Reds will post a bigger profit this year and have similar crowds despite very different results on the field.

So you are saying that the ARU has already failed then; that there is simply no way for them to achieve their stated objective or consider how that would then work? If that's the case, comes to the same thing in the end - it's a dead loss, so supporters would be best off just keeping their hands in their pockets and let the ARU pay for things for a change.

That was the argument they used to justify putting a team in WA.... we know how that ill-conceived venture has gone. It was always destined to fail, and I strongly argued that at the time of its inception. So WSW and SFC could not survive together? GWS and Swans? There are plenty of successful football teams in Western Sydney of various descriptions, and lots of sons of islanders living there whose dads would love to see them play rugby....

TWAS just hates nsw and won't listen to reason

How does that nursery of football talent transfer to corporate support, sponsorship and bums on seats? Some of that existing would be taken from the Waratahs if a Western Sydney popped up. The Waratahs averaged 19k crowds and made $400k in their championship year whilst posting only 2k more than the force crowds and losing similar amounts in 2012-13. The players is probably the least part of the equation. You can always import talent, you can't import income. And considering that Waratahs squad members like Dave Dennis, Kurtley Beale, Wycliffe Palu, TPN, Tolu Latu, Hugh Roach, etc all originate from Western Sydney, yeah it kinda would do that to the playing base too!

Robinson was commisioned to examine the options, and advised the ARU.

Mate, Western Sydney is one of the world's greatest nurseries of football talent, across all codes. They won't cannibalise anyone.

Perth used to get great crowds 10 years ago.

Nothing to do with your post. Reread KTinHK's post, that's why I responded to it. He was trying to pin it on Brett Robinson.

Well they kept an entirely separate set of accounts for the Rebels and it was all outflow. The rebels received the standard funding and then more to subsidise them.