We will see. WC is in OZ and if people feel the Lions will win easier they might just hold off and come support their team at the WC in 2 years time. For everything RA has said the Lions money will only get them to the WC so that doesn’t seem like it is making the kind of money it did 12 years ago or more likely RA have most of it spent already and when contract come up for renewal in 2028 or 2029 that there will be no Lions money to keep players at home. It is why people feeling they should just say Bon Voyage to people who RA can’t afford to pay more to is shortsighted.

The links between RA and each of the SRP teams are not normal B2B links. Have we had RA directors saying how they have signed players to SRP teams, generally a non shadow director is not saying things like that. Is there a business agreement between the two parties or do the RA directors call the terms and the SRP directors can’t reject the terms but must be subservient to them.

It was more complicated but the Force showed how they could fund themselves. The Rebel did not and we now see the problems that has caused. One was got rid of because RA couldn’t afford to run to loss making teams (again shows that RA have helped out in the past) but the pick the team that didn’t show it wouldn’t be loss making.

Who determines what the wage cap is. Who determines how much the directors and shareholders can invest in the team. Why do RA give money to the Rebels for wages so the players can be paid. Why are RA now paying the wages of the Rebels, most teams that fold the players aren’t paid.

What do you mean by NH clubs. In France you can’t play in the T14, PrD2 or National (3 professional divisions of 44 teams) unless you have cleared your debt (unless for Stadium or other investments) from the previous year. It is why a team like Grenoble had to sell all their players so they could clear their debts and pay their players to be in the ProD2 the following year. Any rich person in France can walk away from their team at the end of the season but they must clear their debts. Benettton have the rugby teams as part of their group so no issues around them walking away, in realtiy it is a sponsership and giving back to the local who have helped build up Benetton into the multi billion euro company it is. Then we get into the English and Welsh which are following the same models as the RA states and some are run well (Bristol, Saints, Tigers, Quinns) and ones that are not (Sarries). It may also be why the English and Welsh teams are stuggling off the field just like the Oz and NZ sides who are all relying more and more on their sugar daddy (be that private owner or Union) to bail them out. Rebels are gone, Force have a Private Sugar Daddy, Tahs would be in the same mess but the Union bailed them out. Drua nd MP have State Sugar Daddies and all the other SRP sides have either asked for more money or are cutting things just to stay in the game. The reason that France has doubled their income in the last 10 years is because they have built business around the rugby team, what SH side has built any captial or revenue streams. As NZR found out with SL making revenue streams is not cheap and not easy.

Rebels haven’t been losing every game by 50pts which will be the reality of the new team unless RA change their approach

Scotland have looked to bring back their third team and have decided against it because of the large costs. If its not called the Rebels then how do you get the word out there. Melbourne is a large sports market and while the Rebels might not be well know they will be much more known than this new enity. If you are starting with new people then there is a cost to that as they learn the ropes and the environment. If this new team is financially viable it would need to be running on less than $5m a year as the wages of the current team are more than the total income (never mind all the other costs). Its easy to say we will just create a new team but it rarely goes well the first few years. What will this new board do that the pre and post 2018 boards didn’t do, if it is spend what you earn then will fans show up to be beaten by 50pts on a good day and closing in on 100pt on a bad day. If you have 35 players on only $75k you will spend $2.6m leaving you with maybe 3-4m if you are lucky to pay everyone elses wages and travel costs and running costs. Chris put the cost of running SRP team at 12-14m and 1m for Super W so if wages are about $5m then that is an additional $7m to run the team off the field and pay for all the travel. https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/01/29/rugby-australia-is-back-where-they-hoped-they-would-never-return-and-their-next-move-could-make-or-break-the-game/

Thats why the money paid to the SR sides and then turned out to be loans will be an interesting one.

Report touches on it. We will see if more comes out about wages. We don’t know if RA does the deal with a player like Thor and Rebels pay a % of it or do both organisations do their own deal. RA control their existence by holding the licence and is their main income. Once you get above 80% it is never good. If RA were doing deals with players like Thor did they have a responsibly to make sure Rebels could pay. They were quick to take over wages which an unconnected company doesn’t do. We also have to see if it is deemed RA treated the Rebels and Tahs the same way and when the Tahs were taken over did that imply that RA does have control over the SR teams.

Is the current board the same as the one pre 2018 that also couldn’t make it. Team was only insolvent from 2018 because it became a new company under new ownership. Really the report should say we have never seen a financial year that looked sustainable. So how does the new team get set up so as not to infringe on trademakes, etc of the current team. How do you convince all the current staff and players to move over on less money. If you don’t have a squad to play good luck with the team. How do you justify this new team over any other new team set up in Melbourne. Any new team would involve a transparent process for RA selecting a 5th SR side which isn’t cheap and doesn’t always give you the results you want.

So if the Rebels only pay $1m in wages (about what they can afford) do they get to bank the money over and above that the RA pays to the team. They can play in a smaller stadium now if they want to but you might find their deal with Vic Government is part of a wider deal between the Vic Government and RA that includes test matches in Mebourne. For Rebels to be financially secure off the field they will be wipping boys on it. Their wage bill would need to be slashed by atleast 60% so then no player on RA top up be able to be there so then they lose all the RA wage top ups too.

Its not cheap to start a new team and we don’t know if fans will come. If there is a new team how does it not suffer the same fate as the Rebels pre 2018 that went bust or Rebels post 2018 that went bust. Who owns the naming and branding of the rebels.

When RA cut one of the two financially insolvent clubs was it their responsibility to make sure the one they picked was was sustainable. RA controlled what Rebels could do and they took the income for the competition and gave the Rebels what they felt they were entitled too. That is a connected company in most places of the world.

I think RA could still be seen as the shadow board of the Rebels and it was when they refused to support then in 2023/2024 it all fell apart but if RA were doing what they did from 2018-2022 there would be no issues.

Women’s rugby as currently set up in Oz is nearly doomed to fail. There is no SANZAAR so either RA and NZR are paying for things or they are are dependent on WR. Both USA and Canada missed out on the men’s WC so now have less money to run the men’s game never mind the women’s. There is no SA money to help out and the P4 is going to be area based rather than getting X number of home games each year. While IRFU, WRU, SRU are joining together to fund a 6 team league that will expand into Italy and probably SA so they will have a URC and then a women’s Europe Cups. On the other hand RA and NZR are going to have to run a women’s league with less money when they are already struggling to run the men’s league. While it is noble to purse professional women’s rugby it could break RA and NZR. 6Ns are the ones making deals for the Women’s game and until SANZAAR do it will not grow.

But it doesn’t fix the problem that wages exceeded income. Having a new team like in 2018 would still be just as insolvent as they were back then. There aren’t 1,000s of fans refusing to attend games and join membership because of the current owners.

Most of the ones you want will. Can RA afford to add about 35 players into the other 4 teams and still be solvent. Either Rebels players will leave or they will replace a player who has left.

Or RA directors will be seen as running Rebels from behind the scenes and propping up a failing business and the Rebels being a branch of RA.

So they refused to keep the Force who had secured a backer who was willing to cover costs for the Rebels who according to this report were insolvent their first year after the Force were kicked out. Not sure how it works down there but the administrator saying that RA were their main funder and held the SRP agreement you could be looking at RA could be seen as shadow directors.

Its yet another issue with SRP. As a player could go down in pre-match warm up they have to have 3 front row players per position. If there were another 8 games in the season (going home and away) then instead of GIBBON starting 7 games all starts (320 minutes), AEDO KAILEA 7 games 1 start (270 minutes) and ELOFF getting 2 games as sub (50 mins). Because there are only 14 games Gibbon will want to start every game he can in SRP as he might get injured, this means Aedo Kailea is rarely getting the experience of stating a game and the 3rd LH is holding bags for most of the time. For Connacht they obviously have more games but they have 4 players in each position. At LH Buckley has 18 games 12 starts (815 mins), Dooley has 15 games 5 starts (531 mins) Duggan as 7 games 3 starts (247 mins), Burke has none but has had injury issues. Its why some players are leaving SR and taking up a role in Europe as if thirds choice in SRP they will get very little but in Europe they are getting starts and alot more game time. Connacht still have 4-6 games left and have played 20 while Rebels have played 8 but only have 6-8 left. Until teams like the Rebels get bigger squads because they are playing more games players like Pone can’t move to the Tahs and will be looking OS once his contract is over if he isn’t getting more game time, last year he only had 1 start but played all 14 games.

Tickets is only half the money they are looking for. 90% were sold out but 1/3 of tickets are being sold through the Lions so we don’t know how they are selling. We don’t know if the cost is what they had hoped for or how the corporate boxes are selling.

RA need to follow Scotland not Wales (or they will end up like Wales) where everyone will be picked based on form, they will pay up to say $300k for a player and any more they can head OS unless a private backer wants to jump in. That way you have 2 good SRP players in a position not a test player and a kid because that is all you could get after paying $500k to one player and only had $100k left over.

Its why European teams generally have 12 frontrowers in their squads and normally a few props that can change sides. SRP is too short to justify a 45 man squad but having a smaller squad means they can loan a 3rd or 4th choice TH off say the Force who would still have 3 left so you have to take a guy out of college or off the building site who has been training 2 days a week to fill the whole as no way the Force is giving up their 3rd choice prop as they need all 3 for game day incase one of them gets injured in the warmup.

Easy to say it but how many backrowers can you lose each year before people stop turning up for the WBs or even worse end up getting relegated to Nations League D2 because they finish behind Fiji and Japan. If Wales beat Oz in this series then alot less will show up for the Lions and the WC and then RA will have not money for anything be that grassroots or even the national side.

Big loss if he goes but anyone following the contracts of English and Welsh players would know that its not just the T14 but some of the bigger ProD2 clubs are also making big signngs. ProD2 shares 25% of the LNR Budget (T14 takes the other 75%). More and more ProD2 Clubs are getting payments from T14 clubs to buy out contracts of players like Louis Bielle-Biarrey with Grenoble