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Joined February 2024
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Rugby Australia (RA) has just released its 2023 Annual Report, posting a $9 million loss and revealing an equity of negative $13 million. Back…
As Rugby Australia considers the future of Australian rugby, it is worth reflecting on three critical challenges facing the game down under. 1. How…
Yeah it is always hard to unpick but you are right, I think the 2022 NZ CBA is when they really split apart so it may close in the future.
– The NZ 2016-2018 CBA was around $34m per year in player payments.
– The 2014-2017 ARU agreement isn’t public but rose from 26-29% gross player revenues, which would have been somewhere around $30m to $40m over its life.
The insurmountable problem facing Australian rugby in a doomed rivalry with New Zealand
Nice article JB.
I think at the end of the day, all that has changed this year is that a rebuilding and injured Crusaders has given a couple more wins to Au teams. Now that the Saders are getting used to their new system, I think we are already returning to the status quo. Thier game against the reds this weekend will be an interesting test.
ANZAC Round showed New Zealand teams still well ahead in terms of SRP scorelines, but are the Aussies slowly closing the gap?
Nice article Ben. I love your comment that the most reckless thing we can do is beat them! 😂
In all seriousness though, you came to a very similar conclusion to my article yesterday.
I would add a 7th reason: Money.
All those factors lead to more investment and money in rugby.
– We have a player budget of $45-50m (including 15s, 7s and women), while NZR has a player budget of around $60m + third party player agreements.
– Money draws Au top players to NRL before they even start.
– NZ is better placed to fend off contract offers from NRL and Europe, leading to better players and teams.
I think our options are realistically to go broke trying to keep up, or to go domestic while letting our top players play overseas.
The insurmountable problem facing Australian rugby in a doomed rivalry with New Zealand
Yeah as I loosely touched on in my article this morning, I think this will increasingly be the norm.
RA and clubs are going broke trying to compete with Europe and NRL for players. Players should be free to do what is in their best interest.
RA needs to accept this reality and pursue new opportunities for a more sustainable model and rugby product that meets the needs of fans.
Wallabies' young gun mulling NRL switch as Rebels' future continues to cloud picture
TBH I’m not certain we can be competitive against NZ teams in SR:
– We have a player budget of $45-50m (including 15s, 7s and women), while NZR has a player budget of around $60m + third party player agreements.
– NZ will always be better placed to fend off contract offers from Europe. Affording to retain better players leads to more wins.
– Many discuss an NRC but this would reduce the AU player budget further, leading to a better playing pool but many taking up European contracts.
I think our options are realistically to go broke trying to keep up, or to go domestic while letting our top players play overseas.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Yes a good clarification. Due to space constraints I touched on this very lightly in the article by saying it was funded by higher broadcast revenues, but could have better worded it.
It was unfortunate that it was never positioned to succeed. Ultimately it disappeared when the broadcast rights weren’t renewed.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Yeah this is my concern too.
I think we need a bigger rethink of the whole model for Australian Rugby.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Now you mention it, the Murdoch v Packer context does sound familiar.
I’ll need to look into it further.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Thanks Ken.
Yeah my proposal is not dissimilar to yours (only you were years ahead of me!):
1- Have teams focus on domestic matches
2- Aggregate them for Trans-Tasman
PS. I love your turn-of-phrase with the Force cull boomeranging back at RA!
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
I agree. It was clear a new model was needed well before 2020.
RA missed the memo that you should never let a good crisis go to waste.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Not a representative sample but the State of Rugby Union 2024 found 13% of people followed Rebels despite 9% of respondents being in Vic.
They must also have TV fans in other states?
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
The annual reports seem to get more vague each year on this.
All it says is “Super Rugby Pacific’s weekly Saturday night game on FTA was 106,900”.
Nothing about Stan audiences or geographic breakdown.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Agreed.
Regarding NZ, I don’t think it would benefit them if Au go domestic so that relationship would need to be carefully managed. Realistically, substantial change couldn’t happen until 2030 when the current agreement ends.
Regarding the standard of teams, I think everyone has been fighting for the current standard for decades, which is why RA and most clubs are broke. Once we accept that we can’t compete with Europe and NRL for players, it opens us up to far more opportunities to develop a sustainable model and product that meets the needs of fans.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Yeah revenues have risen, but the rate has been a fraction of AFL, NRL, Top14 etc.
20 years was another story but now it is so hard to compete for top talent for our domestic comp. We need to develop a strategy that can grow the game within this reality.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Does someone more knowledgeable than I know the context of why we went with SR in Australia rather than a domestic comp? What brought AU, NZ and SA together to go down this path in the 90s?
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
A pretty good summary.
I recall the original plan for 2003 was to create a fund similar to that coming out of the 2000 Olympics, but members wanted larger allocations instead. Not sure what happened to these funds?
I agree we need to cut player salaries and administration to be financially viable.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Yeah agreed. You would either stick with the current teams initially or maybe have 2 teams in the safer Brisbane and Sydney markets to get some local derbies and rivalries.
To be viable, you would need to lower the salary cap and therefore quality. As I said, if clubs were to expand, the key is finding the balance so as to not have the reduced quality be more of a deterent than the wins and tribalism are a draw for fans.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
I 100% agree on the benefits of NRC. But I think it will benefit the Wallabies more than SR. My thinking:
– The biggest budget line items are player expenses and administration.
– If salaries are tightened to pay for NRC, SR clubs will still lose the top players to Europe.
– No matter what, our player salary budgets are smaller than NZ, so we can afford fewer top players, so NZ will win SR each year.
As for a domestic comp, broadcasters will pay based on fan engagement. I personally think more fans will watch a competitive national comp.
I agree it increases the gap to test rugby, hence some sort of regional end of season would be valuable as a stepping stone.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Yeah I think this is broadly what SoARR were proposing?
I know RA made an effort to tighten the belt during Covid but given the WC overspend, I’m not sure whether this discipline has persisted.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Interesring points. You may not like what I proposed in this morning’s article then (start the comp in Oct, so kids can play in spring and Wallabies return for the finals run in Autumn 😊 )
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Rugby Australia's debts blow out to almost $89 million after draw-down of PEP facility
Yeah that is true. The problem wasn’t an NRC per se, but rather the context in which it was run.
Tribalism is so important. A second team in Sydney and Brisbane would go far towards stiring rivalries and interest.
But this would potentially mean lower salary caps and spreading star players initially to be financial. The key is finding the balance so as to not dilute the quality so far as to negate the benefits.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Thanks! I thought a snapshot was timely given their current financials and Waugh’s talk of being more sustainable.
You raise good points. There are lots of opportunities out there!
Playing in summer isn’t ideal but I think the clear air from NRL is important. It aligns well with Test windows, so kids can get some game time in the absence of an NRC which RA has already sunk $millions into to no avail. Whatever RA does there will have to be trade-offs.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Good point.
Part of my argument is whether we need to shrink to be competitive. A national comp could grow domestic rugby, and SOO could be one way of agritating teams to be competitive with NZ in an end of season tournament. Not necessarily THE solution but there are more options out there than cutting teams.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
Agreed, my premise is it would be more economic for domestic to replace SR rather than sit below it. SR could be a shorter tournament at the end.
But overall, this is to prompt discussion and I’m happy to be swayed on specifics.
RA has said they are setting up a sustainable financial model. Often this involves hoping for increased broadcast revenues while continuing to spend. What if revenues don’t materialise? There are big opportunities out there if they consult widely and give a broader view to potential solutions.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?
To a degree. These days I’m personally happy to see any of them beat a NZ side.
From World Cup glory to a financial precipice. Where did the $48 million go?