The huge gap between New Zealand and Australian rugby has been borne out in the last five weeks.
It is not so much if they will win, it is by how much they will win. The odd victory going an Australian team’s way may be because the New Zealand team just cannot find the motivation on the day. We need investment. We need to bring back and stop losing our talent to overseas clubs in order to raise the level of intensity of club and Super Rugby. We need to invest in grassroots.
How do we do that? Private equity? There are real cons to PE investment. They will want their pound of flesh. Everything will be put behind a paywall. One we are just starting to break down with Channel 9 and Stan (albeit a small cost for the latter to access so much more rugby content than I have ever seen in one space). I feel this is all at risk right now.
We really need to consider and try going to the rugby public first. $100 a year or $150 for different tiers and privileges (tickets and so on) including voting rights on key issues that matter to the Australian rugby community. Even life memberships for $1000 or so. When becoming a member, x-per cent goes to your local club, y-per cent goes to your state union and z-per cent goes to the Rugby AU.
Lotteries can be run for a certain number of top seats for games making it accessible not just to the well-healed portion of our rugby population that have never experienced nosebleed seats (appreciate there is a trade-off to get revenue here but we need some access). Wallaby merchandise giveaways could be ran through member lotteries. Wallaby TV could be created and access could be given to members following their teams and the Wallabies through their season journeys.
We could use crowdfunding or even use technology like blockchain giving the members rewards points based on profits. Members can redeem these points for merchandise with their membership number on the arm for tickets and such or transfer them.
(Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
I know we have the Wallaby First memberships but how many know of it and how many buy them? A cap, a pen, a scarf and access to buy tickets early…really? Feels like kids stuff. We need to fundraise, we need budgets and targets, use of funds explained and we need investment in our clubs, states and the national union to be combined.
We need proper membership cards that can offer discounts at stores or gyms. We need to feel and be a part of Rugby AU and Wallaby success. Run Wallaby Run. Win or lose. I just want to feel like I am helping Australian rugby. I feel helpless right now.
AndyS
Guest
My understanding was it was $45M, and one could argue that more than half of it went straight to the Premier clubs in direct funding. A bit over $2M a year from 2000, only being finally cut off in 2014. So when you say blowing money....? The last NRC also cost c.a. $2M/yr, and it was paid for by TV. Who knows where we might be now if they had instead started that in 2003, and with effectively twice the funding. If nothing else, they probably would have been in a far stronger position to expand SR in 2006 and 2011.
piru
Roar Rookie
A well thought out clear strategy on the Game rather than a clown show series of knee jerk silver bullet solutions featuring proven failures like the NRC And your suggestion is? The NRC has never been allowed to run as it should - it's certainly not a proven failure
Tom G
Roar Rookie
A well thought out clear strategy on the Game rather than a clown show series of knee jerk silver bullet solutions featuring proven failures like the NRC. I know that’s asking a lot, it would require a modicum of business acumen by professionals but it is how most successful industries are run.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
And just think 2003 was meant to happen in NZ. It only came here luckily because the provincial administrators over there wouldn’t agree to a ‘clean’ stadium rule relating to sponsors facilities and advertising. JON was without doubt the luckiest administrator in Australian sports history. Classic right place at the right time
piru
Roar Rookie
But nobody is promoting a status quo. What do you want then?
Tom G
Roar Rookie
But nobody is promoting a status quo. Everyone I’ve spoken to wants improvement without exception. Hard as it is for you to accept, their ideas aren’t the same as yours. This is precisely why no progress is made. The tired old “if you’re not with us you’re against us” attitude of some NRC proponents and the scorn they have for what already exists. If a reboot of the NRC in the form it previously existed is the answer to all if the games issues then I’d hate to think what the question was
piru
Roar Rookie
As i said good luck.. you’ll need it Thanks Surprised NSW folk are so happy with the status quo, given the results of the Tahs this year
Perhaps the point is more about where Ays rugby would be if they hadnt had that windfall in 2003. Bad management has plagued Aus rugby for 15 years then they sack the first CEO to start putting things in place. Thats RAs decisions and yep they couldnt run a chook raffle...
Tom G
Roar Rookie
As i said good luck.. you’ll need it
piru
Roar Rookie
cutting out the biggest market in Australia doesn’t sound like a recipe to grow the game to me. You mean the market that's already as big as its likely to get, and is now stopping growth elsewhere for its own benefit? I disagree
Tom G
Roar Rookie
Good luck with that.. cutting out the biggest market in Australia doesn’t sound like a recipe to grow the game to me.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
It was pure stupidity, a half baked notion that if elite league players made the switch then league fans would follow.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
My point in a nutshell.
Micko
Roar Rookie
What baffled me JD was the bizarre desire to start hiring highly paid rugby league mercenaries to fast-track into the wallabies side from the late 90's onwards. I remember thinking at the time about what a waste of money it was.
BeastieBoy
Roar Rookie
Jacko, not the way they blow money.. what happened to the $70m from 2003. Why would the Game entrust the Crown jewels to the mob that has destroyed the game in Australia?
Micko
Roar Rookie
The whole development obsession/delusion is bizarre isn't? The kiwis love it for several reasons: * the focus is on them * schadenfreude * they get pro(SR: Force, Rebels) & semi-pro(NRC) rugby played in areas of Australia they migrate to, like Perth & Melbourne, where there's little to no appetite locally for the sport, but hugely expensive better quality rugby to watch locally than they've ever had before. What kiwi migrants would want the present system changed?
BeastieBoy
Roar Rookie
Throwing Good Money after Bad. Already my club charges students 18 $450 to play.. which is huge. The fundamentals are wrong. The game is Boring and structured to Death. a commercial amount of people will not follow it any more without massive rule changes. So many players are excluded. If you have not been picked up in an Elite (awful word) Program by 16, you chance of reps honours is gone. if you are in the centres you catch a cold waiting for the ball..
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
“ No amount of information will change the fact that the code attracts little interest for Republican.” The code began long, long before the 60’s and is a lot wider than the Tasman block. And very well funded. Millions of dollars are placed into young Australians’ pockets as they ply their rugby trade around the world. Your input here is another attempt to parade your cultural fatalism.
Fracktobunt
Roar Rookie
They weren’t down to 14 for the rest of the game, you can replace red cards after 20 min these days.
gatesy
Roar Guru
Alastair, I agree with you and I feel for you. As a Roar contributor, I am continually amazed at how quickly readers get off the track and push their own little barrows. I usually expect it to happen within 3 comments, but you didn’t get that far! The thesis of your article was self-help and crowd funding (ie getting organised and being innovative) – not just chook raffles but high level organisation and it would be a great place to get some focus groups, steering committees, or brainstormers together. There are people out there who specialise in this stuff – you may be one of them – if so, put your hand up to get the ball rolling. Roarers, this is an idea that has merit and is worth following up on. Let’s get behind it, at least to find out whether it fails or succeeds. If you are a professional in this field, or know someone who is, get (them) onboard.