While Rugby Australia come to grips with the reality of another modest Bledisloe Cup crowd, Twiggy Forrest has his own fresh set of numbers to ponder as a decision on the Western Force’s future looms.
The bad news first? The Force take on Hong Kong in Perth tonight in the sixth game – and second-last – of the inaugural World Series Rugby competition and crowds are on the wane.
Since 19,466 turned up at nib Stadium for their opening match against Fiji in early May, crowds have steadily dropped off – apart from a slight rise for the clash with the Crusaders during the June Test window.
A count of 11,678 was recorded for their most recent game against Apia Samoa, meaning there’s a fair chance that a Hong Kong side lacking genuine street cred will result in a crowd figure under 10,000.
That would correlate to a halving of the Force’s crowd figures over just six matches.
It’s a sobering decline given the jubilation in the stands at the first game – which was both a celebration of the survival of professional rugby in Western Australia and a big middle finger to Rugby Australia, who booted the Force out of the Super Rugby competition.
(Photo by Daniel Carson/Getty Images)
But it’s hardly dire when weighed up against recent crowds of 6,821 in Canberra to watch the Brumbies beat the Hurricanes and 10,340 for the Queensland Reds’ defeat of the Melbourne Rebels in Brisbane. Just over 12,000 rolled in for the Waratahs’ week-one finals win over the Highlanders in Sydney.
New Zealand and South Africa have also contended with ordinary crowd numbers this season, but at least Super Rugby can fall back on decent TV ratings to prove it retains a significant level of popularity despite the structural dilemmas of the last few years.
And the good news? Apparently there are 47 million ready-made rugby fans in just two Asian countries that he can pitch any new version of World Series Rugby to.
In survey figures released by World Rugby this week, China have 33 million rugby fans alone. That’s the equal-highest, along with the United States, of any nation. India have 25 million fans while next year’s World Cup hosts Japan are in the top 10 with 14 million.
They are the kind of figures that a businessman as successful and thorough as Forrest would salivate over given he’s clearly targeting the Asian market.
The numbers seem mind-blowing and a sceptic would naturally question how deep a rugby connection is required to be considered a “fan” in a survey. But if anyone can capitalise on even superficial interest and translate it into sponsors, TV deals and other commercial opportunities, it’s Twiggy.
World Rugby’s own commissioned research and its stark findings also mean that the governing body will likely support Forrest’s rugby investment in the region – if not financially, then by at least pressuring the better-resourced Rugby Australia to work with the WA billionaire.
(AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
RA chief executive Raelene Castle can do with all the friends she can muster. The projected crowd for next Saturday’s clash against the All Blacks in Sydney is about 55,000 to 60,000.
Last year’s 54,846 – at the same venue at ANZ Stadium in Homebush – was the smallest Bledisloe crowd of the professional era.
Now they are sobering figures given the slump since the boom days of the early 2000s.
This is meant to be RA’s time to stash some dough away to pay the bills. Michael Hooper has recently signed on, but Bernard Foley and Israel Folau remain unsigned for next season.
Why the delay in sealing some signatures? Perhaps there isn’t enough money to go around for the Big Three.
Is Forrest courting Folau to be his marquee man in WSR? It’s not inconceivable that Izzy still harbours some resentment towards RA over the handling of the “homophobic” tweet saga. No one ever imagined he would go to AFL, right?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
10 years of top tier professional rugby... A huge chunk of that is the distribution of salaries to the Super Rugby teams and salaries for the Wallabies.
Bakkies
Roar Guru
'Only if you’re the type of person who considers that RA has an existing revenue stream to lose and can’t go gambling on alternatives.' Well they have on the Rebels and over inflated player salaries. $770 million over ten years and what have they got to show for it.
Bakkies
Roar Guru
The sceptics like de Clyne and co fail to mention that Twiggy has been making a fortune despite the WA mining down turn.
Bakkies
Roar Guru
I say the Fijian team playing in WSR will likely be the Drua so they play year round as a team. Ben Ryan said while he was Fiijian 7s coach that was money being put together in Fiji to support a pro side.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It’s odd. Not sure if it’s just a bad couple of years or what it is.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
That doesn’t stop players being eligible to play in state schoolboys or 20s.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
How is it disingenuous? He was 4th choice in a state U20s team and as far as I know played 0 minutes of Super 20s despite being fit and available. I’ve got zero against it. It’s absolutely misleading to talk about how good the quality of the squad is when players of this Le el are full time professionals. This time last year I believe he started 1 game of prems rugby. Deegan never played for the Spirit also... Yes McGregor couldn’t get a run at the Rebels. He’s still not Super Rugby quality. He was given plenty of NRC time to develop but ultimately he’s probably not going to get to Super Rugby standard, which is why the Rebels released him, because they Didnt intend to retain him. Hope he goes well at the Force but I’m doubtful he will prove to be a loss.
Force Girl
Guest
Sorry to add to my spiel. Why would we want Folau as suggested. We have our own stars here.
Force girl
Guest
In your drea ms. The WA community has more soul than any other State. The Western Force Club has a new dynamic style of play that keeps supporters of both teams watching the whole game and a healthy competition. We have massive player programmes for players from very young ages involved. We are building Rugby in the South Pacific without paying 6 million dollars to one player. Expect an exodus overseas from your best players after locking one person into a position who is average . We had nearly 11,000 last night at our game against Hong Kong. Full house expected against Japan next week. W.A hasn't sour grapes against you eastern clubs. We just despise ERA and we are happy playing our better style of game. I just wish you would stop publishing stories that aren't correct. Will tolerate if facts are true. Play the Game
Crazy Horse
Roar Pro
In WA school rugby are second tier competitions. The main competition for juniors is club rugby.
Chris
Guest
Maybe Twiggy could get both Rugby codes together as he seems to have a vision.
Crazy Horse
Roar Pro
The plan has always been to make the announcements once the current WSR games are finished. That doesn't men nothing is in place. It just means that it hasn't been announced yet.
Crazy Horse
Roar Pro
300 players over 7 teams (The force already has a team). That would be 42 per team.
andrewM
Guest
For some reason, that is one area where WA has really fallen down in the past few years.
andrewM
Guest
Crowd of 10,800 last night, against a team that I think quite frankly not many knew too much about. Cold, but dry conditions. I think next week if the conditions are decent a crowd of 15,000 against the Knights would not be unreasonable to hope for.
Bakkies
Roar Guru
'Yep, it really needs someone who wants their name associated with a Pacific Island side, but which doesn’t live there i suppose. Don’t know how it would work, but if there’s a way' Denis O'Brien of Independent Media and Digicel (past sponsors of fame) is a possible candidate. O'Brien is rumoured to be footing the bill for a large portion of Sexton's salary. The IRB and Fijian Gov't already kick in for the Drua.
Bakkies
Roar Guru
It is more believable than the tripe you post Rugger.
Bakkies
Roar Guru
The 300 players included those who wanted to move closer to home after being abroad in Europe for so long. Twiggy has already brought Deegan (Connacht), Longbottom (Saracens), Rod Davies (Biarritz), the Orr brothers back to Australia alongside Jaque Fourie and Jeremy Thrush.
ForceFan
Roar Rookie
But these stakeholders have major say in the shape of World Series Rugby.
ForceFan
Roar Rookie
Hodgson's 300 player list is a list of Aussie and International players from professsional rugby interested in playing WSR. I find your comment regarding Elliot Turner somewhat tragic and certainly disingenuous. Are you actually against young players being given an opportunity to show their stuff? Players develop at different rates. Super Rugby is full of journeymen and late bloomers. Through the Western Force restart players such as Andrew Deegan and Jack McGregor have the chance to play consistently at a higher level. Deegan was surplus to needs in NSW so got a chance to play NRC for the Perth Spirit before getting a few runs at Connacht. He's developing a good game as was evident in the recent Wallabies trial. No SR team was prepared to give him a chance. McGregor came West and immediately got to play in the Mauritius 10s and got MOM in the WF v HK Dragons last night. But he couldn't get a run at the Rebels. I hope that even more young hopefuls will move West and play in the local club competition and be on the radar for the Western Force or another WSR team.