Rugby Australia prepares revamped broadcast package with bold club rugby plan
Rugby Australia is set to change the country’s club landscape with the NRC to be scrapped for a national competition as Raelene Castle desperately attempts to revive the code’s broadcast deal.
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A new national club rugby competition with two divisions, running after the Shute Shield and Queensland Premier Rugby, could be introduced as early as next year under Rugby Australia’s new broadcast proposal.
Shute Shield would remain as is for 2020, to be shown on Channel 7, however the new merged club championship idea would be shown by the broadcaster who wins the rights from 2021.
The development comes as RA chief Raelene Castle declared that she expects Fox Sports to still bid for the 2021-25 rugby rights after they walked away from negotiations last week.
The two division club tournament would have a promotion-relegation system and could open the door for the return of the Penrith Emus to the rugby scene.
The tournament would replace the National Rugby Championship, which is set to be scrapped after this year.
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The innovative club model would be the third tier of the game in Australia behind Tests and Super Rugby, and would see a return of Wallabies players to their local grounds when not required for internationals.
The idea for the new competition can be revealed just as RA prepare to sign a deal with Club Rugby TV owners Nick Fordham and John Murray for the rights to the Shute Shield, with a deal expected to be announced on Thursday after two days of positive negotiations.
Shute Shield would remain as is for 2020, to be shown on Channel 7, however the Sydney competition and Brisbane’s equivalent would be folded into one under the proposed club championship idea from 2021.
Discussions and the potential make-up of the club tournament remain at an embryonic stage, however it is possible to have two divisions of 11 teams that keeps Canberra and Melbourne involved, as well as bringing Penrith back into the fold two seasons after they were cut from the Shute Shield.
Castle is under immense pressure to deliver a lucrative broadcast deal, having already rejected a $200 million offer from Fox that has put her off-side with the subscription television network, owned by News Corp, publishers of The Daily Telegraph.
With Optus emerging as the favourite to win the rights alongside existing free-to-air partner 10, Castle said at Wednesday’s launch of the women’s Super W competition that she expects Fox to come back to the table.
“We went through a negotiating process with them [Fox Sports] through their exclusive negotiating period, unfortunately we couldn’t get to a place we were both comfortable with” Castle said.
“So now we’re in tender and we would expect that as a market process they would step into that process.
“We’ve put together what we believe is the strongest package of rights and aligned package of rights that we’ve ever been able to do with a whole of rugby solution.
“That’s attracted some real interest from the market and we’re looking to have tender documents out by the end of the week. That will be a month-long process to allow those bidders to come forward and make sure they have time to consider the offering we have go and step forward with their best offers.”
NATIONAL CLUB COMPETITION (potential divisions)
DIVISION ONE
Sydney University
GPS
Warringah
Brothers
Eastwood
University of Queensland
Northern Suburbs
Canberra Vikings
Manly
Eastern Suburbs
Randwick
DIVISION TWO
Wests (Brisbane)
Gordon
Souths (Brisbane)
Parramatta
Southern Districts
Bond University (Gold Coast)
West Harbour
Sunnybank
Norths (Brisbane)
East (Brisbane)
Melbourne/Penrith
Originally published as Rugby Australia prepares revamped broadcast package with bold club rugby plan
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