The demise of the Penrith Emus from Sydney’s Shute Shield emphasised how difficult it is to sustain high-level rugby in such a competitive area.
It’s often reiterated that western Sydney’s population is around two million – and growing – and on that count alone it’s imperative the game’s administrators provide significant investment that will lure players, fans and sponsors.
But up against the tribalism of rugby league, the mass appeal of soccer and the slickness of the AFL, rugby has been left behind in western Sydney’s football code war.
Every sport carries the expectation to spread the gospel. Grow the game. Target new and developing markets. Where are the fertile grounds? How ambitious do we get? Go national? Regional? Global?
SANZAAR is a regional player and it seems Super Rugby expansion is still an option despite the recent failure of the bloated 18-team format. The “SANZAAR 2030 Strategy” paper was leaked to some of Australia’s media this week, revealing some details of their plans.
No regions or countries were singled out in the document but all the chatter was that the United States was a possible target for such an expansion post-2020 when the current broadcast deal runs out.
Yep, puffing the competition back up again to a 20-team, four-conference format.
Perhaps SANZAAR have leaked this document to prove they’re being strategically pro-active after copping plenty of criticism last year, but also – I assume – to get an initial vibe from the public as to which way they might move.
Adding a fourth conference of US teams to Super Rugby is too big a punt to take. The sleeping giant school of thought isn’t persuasive enough for me. SANZAAR should wait at least a few more years until everyone can get a good read on the success of the newly launched Major League Rugby.
Of course it’s a massive population whose fans and corporations have a thirst for sport. But aside from the logistical complexities, the battle for attention against the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and even MLS seems too much to take on.
The US is a vast and rich country. Even a small market share could be deemed a success. But as Penrith’s slide in western Sydney proved, be prepared to be humbled if you scrap with other professional sports in such a highly competitive region and fail to get traction.
That probably sounds defeatist. The rewards are alluring but austerity is what Super Rugby needs for now.
Perhaps only if South Africa choose to take off to the northern hemisphere competitions from 2021 – which is entirely possible – then a US conference is worth a crack. China is sometimes also referred to as a sleeping giant for rugby.
Further Asian expansion would be tempting logistically, but there’s little doubt US franchises would be better prepared to step up to an elite multi-national competition.
It’s too big a task for SANZAAR to try to spark rugby in the US without the exit of South Africa from the alliance, despite the enormous riches that potentially await. Remember, a professional competition was established in the US in 2016 and lasted just one season before it collapsed.
It seems way too bold and too early to chase the holy grail in the US, especially given Super Rugby’s credibility was severely damaged by the 18-team expansion flop.
Fans don’t want more significant upheaval. Stability and consistency should be paramount for SANZAAR.
The Sunwolves are struggling for traction, although SANZAAR will be hoping they get a big boost either side of the World Cup in Japan next year.
(Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images for Sunwolves)
If that fails to eventuate and wins and fans are still hard to come by, the Sunwolves will find it hard to justify their place in the competition. Perhaps only then can SANZAAR look to replace them, and I’d rather a Pacific Island team be first in line.
A team based in Fiji feels like a romantic option. Travel times would be minimised. More home-bred players could be retained and not lost to the European competitions. But above all, it’s a proven rugby-loving region with little else that rivals it sporting-wise.
SAZAAR should shelve the wide-eyed US-dominated ambition of large-scale expansion and if there’s room for any additions, show restraint with a team in the Pacific Islands.
Train without a station
Guest
So well managed that 11 of 12 clubs run at a loss.
Katipo
Guest
@GusTee. Excellent and correct analysis. A third problem is the SR tournament format where some teams play some teams other twice, others once, and others not at all. Then the silly finals qualification format doesn't reward the best performing teams. The tournament has lost all remaining credibility because of this. Anyway, it is no mystery what the solutions are. There are 2 possible solutions repeatedly spoken about by fans and regularly ignored by RA and their Sanzaar partners. 1) SR becomes a round robin tournament where each team plays every other team once. The top 8 teams make the finals play offs (regardless of geography). 2) Each nation takes responsibility for its own domestic championship and finals series. Sanzaar gets out of the way and instead organises an annual Champion of Champions invitation 'Super Rugby' tournament. As I said it's not a mystery what the solutions are. The mystery is why everyone can see the solutions except for RA and their Sanzaar partners?
GusTee
Roar Pro
There are two fundamental issues to be considered: ISSUE ONE Its all about geography and the tyranny of distance. Super Rugby's struggles began when its format saw teams having to travel half way around the world for a game or two.Travel across multiple time zones results in player fatigue and disconnection with fans. Put simply, there is no remedy or format that can resolve this issue. ISSUE TWO You only expand a business into new markets if your product is successful and its existing market is saturated. Only the KIWIs can boast to have this issue sorted out. But even then and for them especially, there remains Issue One. CONCLUSION The Australian/NZ zone is in essence the Pacific and that is where our interests and future lie. The SH cannot replicate the UK/Euro zone as plain old fashioned geography is against us. We in our part of the SH must rebuild our rugby product and make it a challenger to the UK/Euro zone. How can that be done? Well a good start will be to put the right people on the RA Board and start to use our resources sensibly.
Too old
Guest
I say go ahead with this crazy plan. It will hasten the demise of Super rugby. The Americans will shun it. Why would they watch this incomprehensible muck? They already have American football.
BeastieBoy
Guest
Its NOT in our Time Zone..In any event Super Rugby is Dead Man Walking. Don't know that the Kiwis will want to stay after 2020. We are not much competition. We need to change Leadership entirely asap
Wozza
Guest
Not the prosecution???
lao hu
Guest
if world series rugby gains traction i would say expansion into Asia would be on the cards. i wait with interest. in. seeing how HongKong preforms v the force and also the tv ratings.
Katipo
Guest
Yes exactly TWAS. The Premiership is well managed. Their matches are played in appropriate sized stadiums. How about those Blues at Eden Park? Today we'll see the Blues play the 'Tahs in an appropriately sized stadium: Brookvale Oval. I predict the atmosphere will be sensational! It'll televise well. That's the way forward for Super Rugby... smaller stadiums. Just accept it.
Train without a station
Guest
The correct structure for us is based around a commercial successful domestic competition - even though we don’t have one yet? That’s just selective thinking. In theory it is. In reality unless the NRC has matured to a similar level of interest, it won’t have the value to be viable to base it around. For it to ever work years of investment into it was needed. Even if we brought it in after the RWC when we had money that would have been years of reduced revenue and increased costs before it replaced Super Rugby. If we halved our TV value for 3 years, with the increased costs we may have gone broke.
Derm
Roar Guru
“No regions or countries were singled out in the document but all the chatter was that the United States was a possible target for such an expansion post-2020 when the current broadcast deal runs out.” The US certainly seems to be the chatter; I wonder if links with other NH competitions are also considered in the thinking behind this leaked document. I think Biltong’s comment about gathering teams/countries around similar time zones is a good one. Long distances work in test rugby because they are infrequent. They dilute the impact of club competitions.
Carlos The Argie
Guest
Free trade? Are you mad? We will impose tariffs. We will build a beautiful wall to stop players from leaving. Oh, wait, walls to stop people leaving haven't worked before very well. Or stopping people from coming in either. Nevermind. This was not a Nirvana moment.
Carlos The Argie
Guest
It took me 21 years to decide, two years to get the papers together until it finally happened. I am not that familiar with the USA seven's players. I do recall some were college football players that were not good enough or fast enough to make it in the pros (NFL), like Baker. There two speedsters, if I recall correctly, come from that path. They also have a few PI players. To me, the best player is Danny Barrett. He is ferocious. And has good skills. Plays XV too very well. https://www.usarugby.org/mens-sevens-players/
Harry Jones
Expert
Carlos, but not if we open a "free trade zone" between NZ-OZ-SA-ARG as the "founders." Players can float and be eligible, etc.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
Totally agree Carlos. Sevens is technically easier to learn, although aerobically and anaerobically very tough. So you don't need such a wide range of skills within a team. Do you know where the US sevens players are coming from? I'm assuming they have mostly come from another sport. NFL? Track? And congratulations on the 7th anniversary of citizenship. I still haven't done it despite being here for 16 years now.
Carlos The Argie
Guest
Tsuru, I have been living in the USA for over 30 years now. Today is my 7th anniversary as a citizen (thanks for the memory, Facebook). I have played, refereed, helped coach, watched (my son), supported, etc. rugby in the NorthEast and California for many, many years. I am fully aware of many of these issues. Every couple of months someone writes a piece about the sleeping giant waking up and getting ready to dominate rugby. It's been overdone. It is only true, and very true, in sevens. But in my mind, this is a different sport where it is much easier to succeed. This is why so many countries can be competitive compared to fifteens.
Carlos The Argie
Guest
Keep dreaming! It is not "Sulamericana" but SUDamericana. And for people to speculate to what Argies would do in a league playing US, Canada and Uruguay and expect that they will get excited is ridiculous. This is not soccer, to quote a famous Welsh referee. Quite right.
Carlos The Argie
Guest
No, it will destroy pro rugby in Argentina.
Carlos The Argie
Guest
Totally agree, Mike.
Carlos The Argie
Guest
You take the Jaguares from playing the Kiwis, Saffas and Aussies and you kill pro rugby in Argentina. It is holding up by a thread as it is, with only one team. Maybe now that they beat two kiwi sides in a row at their home (2 NZ sides, get jealous Aussies!) they will get bigger crowds at home. But no one will show up to watch them play the yanks and lumberjacks.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
Carlos, the problem for home grown rugby here in the USA is finding the players of sufficient athletic ability. Most of the talent going into sport comes from the college level (I guess LeBron is an exception) and they rather obviously go into the most popular and high paying sports first in roughly this order: football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, track, swimming. And this leaves rugby to pick up pretty much only the ones who couldn't make it in the above. Admittedly it's a very big pool of talent but it makes it tough to develop world (or regional) class teams. So, despite the start made with MLR, it will be a long hard climb.