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Sorry Melbourne. If the ARU is genuine, the Force must stay

10th April, 2017
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The Rebels are a victim of the ARU's failings. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Expert
10th April, 2017
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So here we are. SANZAAR have committed to strengthening the Super Rugby competition by chopping teams, and the ARU will play their part in the process by choosing to effectively kill the game off in either Melbourne or Perth from 2018.

There’s any number of questions that deserve answers as to how we got to this point, but they’re largely inconsequential now to fans of the Melbourne Rebels and Western Force.

On Monday, the ARU confirmed that the Brumbies met all the criteria developed to make the decision on which team to chop, which makes you wonder why there wasn’t more support for them in the first place.

The ARU will now enter a period of “consultation” with the Rebels and Force over the next few days, before deciding which team will be boarded up. On their own “48-72 hours” timeframe, the decision should come sometime on Wednesday, though a Western Force statement late on Monday said, “we have now been advised that we will have further time to present our business case.”

ARU Chairman Cameron Clyne and CEO Bill Pulver said on Monday that the thought of cutting a Super Rugby team had been discussed internally for some time now, pointing to the changing environment of professional rugby globally, as well as the state of the game at the professional level in Australia.

“Performance declines by our teams since the expansion of Super Rugby [to five teams back in 2011] has had a direct correlation with declines in revenue across their businesses,” Clyne said.

That being the case, why did the ARU bother going through with the sale of the Rebels to the Imperium Group back in June 2015? That was a clear opportunity to make the same concessions that have now been made, and with far less emotional and financial pain.

As part of the deal, the ARU agreed to pay the Imperium Group $6 Million over five years, over and above the annual Super Rugby grant.

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Tony McGahan Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby Union 2017

Interestingly, Clyne also indicated that the Rebels being privately owned did not give them an advantage over the Force. That would at least indicate that the decision has not already been made.

Legal action could still eventuate from the Imperium Group, and indeed, RugbyWA advised ARU representatives in Perth on Monday afternoon of their intention to seek an injunction against any team-chopping moves. It’s clear this is not going to be a simple process.

Regardless of how messy it may or may not become, the wheels are now in process to make a decision.

And I firmly believe that Australian rugby will lose the least by closing down the Melbourne Rebels.

In all reality, rugby in Melbourne and broader Victoria is well down the pecking order. The AFL dwarfs all comers, but the A-League, NRL, Super Netball, and NBL competitions all have significantly more awareness of their brands than the Rebels and Super Rugby enjoy. The Rebels-Waratahs report after their Friday night home game several weeks ago saw half a column jammed in alongside the provincial trots and greyhound results in the Herald-Sun.

TV ratings for Rebels games are as flat as any of the other Australian sides.

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By their own admission, the Rebels’ membership has nearly halved from more than 10,000 in 2016 to around 5500 this season. You can’t imagine that has grown much since, given their current form on the field, and the once-strong Rebel Army is virtually non-existent.

Meanwhile, over in the west, around that same number of people have signed up to $1000 shares to own part of their team, under the ‘Own The Force’ community campaign.

Future financial sustainability and ongoing sponsorship we said to be among the ARU’s criteria for the decision, and while the Imperium Group are running the Rebels on their own books, it’s notable that the Rebels have the only clean jersey-front in Super Rugby this season. They haven’t replaced this significant naming rights revenue stream since foundation partner RaboBank ended their association after the 2015 season.

After three seasons of their clever ‘multiple sponsors’ initiative (which to my understanding was still worth near $950,000 a year in total), the WA Government’s Road Safety Commission took up the naming rights for $1.5 Million in 2017, and with a three-year roll over renewal option. Several of their ‘community’ sponsors, now on the back of the jersey have announced recent extensions beyond 2017.

Significantly, new WA Premier Mark McGowan underlined his Government’s support for the Force, taking to social media just two weeks into his new Premiership:

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I’ll stand corrected, but I can’t recall Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews even mentioning the Rebels.

Rugby as a sport has grown significantly in Western Australia since the admission to Super Rugby of the Western Force, and the pathways are now starting to bear serious fruit. The Force’s Super Rugby squad has around a dozen local players in their squad in 2017, ten of whom have taken the field this season.

The Future Force program has converted half a dozen young players into Super Rugby debutants in three season, and Perth Spirit’s maiden NRC title last season came after playing in the inaugural Final in 2014.

While the Rebels obviously haven’t been around as long, it’s hard to see how they meet the same game development marks as the Force, and even with private ownership, their ongoing financial position is still reliant on ARU input. The oft-referred promised land of the stronger corporate market in Melbourne really hasn’t been of any great benefit, and the though the game may be stronger at grade level, it isn’t really growing.

And with Melbourne’s higher population completely engulfed by AFL, and football to a lesser degree, it’s hard to see that changing. The Melbourne Storm really hasn’t done much for rugby league in Melbourne in nearly two decades, and let’s see how much traction they have in a few years’ time once their group of generational players call time on their careers.

There is no doubt the ARU is in for a legal fight whichever way they go. Compensation to the Imperium Group has already been mentioned and probably threatened, yet the ‘greater good’ argument should actually value the development of the game at all levels in Western Australia higher anyway.

If the ARU want to strengthen the game in Australia, they won’t ignore where it is genuinely stronger.

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