Super Rugby 2020: RA set September 4 ‘D-day’ for trans-Tasman Super Rugby negotiations
Rugby Australia have made a bold move to establish a new trans-Tasman competition and TV rights deal with the clock now ticking.
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Rugby Australia has tried to force New Zealand’s hand to establish a trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition by revealing its rugby rights package.
Ahead of negotiations for arguably one of the most important broadcast deals in the sport‘s history in Australia, the entire package was released with several surprises.
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It will include The Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup for the Wallabies, International Tests for the Australian women‘s team the Wallaroos, NSW’s Shute Shield, Queensland’s Premier Club Rugby competition and a short form National Club Championship between the champions of the state based competitions, as well as a showcase of schoolboy rugby.
But the rights package also includes a “State of Union” competition between NSW and Queensland featuring players selected from their state of birth or club rugby teams.
The Super Rugby competition is also in flux with negotiations for a trans-Tasman competition with a sticking point of the five Super Rugby AU teams pitted against the five Super Rugby Aotearoa teams from New Zealand.
It comes after New Zealand last month asked for Australia to submit an expression of interest for two teams to join eight New Zealand sides.
Interim RA CEO Rob Clarke has refused, seemingly going with a five teams or nothing strategy.
In the rights package release, the competition was outlined as: “An Australian domestic Super Rugby competition including five Australian teams, or, a trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition that includes five Australian teams”.
There was also a four-week Super Eight competition to include the top two Australian, New Zealand and South African domestic teams as well as one team each from Japan and South America.
Prospective broadcasters are required to return submissions by Friday September 4, just under four weeks away.
“We have put a deadline for broadcast submissions of September 4 and before we enter into any final negotiations with a broadcast partner, this has to be settled. So D-Day is coming,” Clarke said.
“We can‘t wait much longer on the whole trans-Tasman competition decision. That has been going on now for some considerable period of time and I think it is only fair on the broadcast discussions we are having with potential partners that we are able to give them as much clarity about what the future looks like as soon as possible.
“We are doing what we believe is best for rugby in this market.”
Clarke also refused to budge when asked if RA would compromise on fewer teams to ensure a trans-Tasman competition worked.
Should Australia and New Zealand be unable to come to a solution, The Daily Telegraph also reports that RA could add one or two Japanese teams as well as Fiji‘s Drua, but it would be after the 2021 season.
The broadcast situation comes after former CEO Raelene Castle decided to take the rights deal to market for the first time since rugby went professional in 1996, rejecting Fox Sports‘ five year $125 million offer in February.
In May, Optus, who had been in negotiations, reportedly poured cold water on the talks.
However, The Daily Telegraph reported on Monday night a joint-bid from Optus and Network 10 has emerged as the early favourites to secure the rights.
Having put together an on-the-run one-season deal with Fox Sports to broadcast the Super Rugby Australia season this year, RA is staring at the bleak reality of a further reduction in the game’s value to potential broadcast partners.
According to a report in The Australian last month, the RA domestic game is reportedly worth no more than $10 million per season.
The grim outlook for the 15-a-side game means the sport is facing a broadcast deal worth just $20 million per year with Wallabies Test matches reported to be worth a further $10 million per year.
The estimated value is $15 million per year less than the original $35 million per year offer reportedly tabled by Foxtel to Castle in November.
It was only 12 months ago that the code was playing out the final year of a $285 million broadcast deal with Foxtel and Channel 10, worth $57 million per year.
There have been plenty of barbs from both sides of the Tasman since the negotiations began.
Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said Australia hadn’t been there in the past for New Zealand, voting against the Kiwi bid for the 2011 World Cup and going it alone in 2003 when New Zealand had contractual issues with Rugby World Cup Limited.
“Without being controversial, we have been looking after the Aussies for years,” Hansen said. “And every time we have required something from them, particularly at a high level, sometimes they have gone missing.
“Do we owe them something? No. But because we are the nation we are, and we care about the game more than just ourselves, we bend and buckle a bit.”
Current All Blacks coach Ian Foster also took a swipe at Aussie teams last month.
“We’ve got to actually make sure they’re feasible, they’re financially viable and the public are going to really get in behind them,” Foster said. “It’s got to be competitive, it’s got to be financially viable.
“We’ve seen in the past that if you let in teams that actually can’t survive then you’ve got to keep changing the competition around. We’ve got to do whatever we can to get competitive teams against our teams.“
But former All Black and Queensland coach Brad Thorn has called for unity between the nations.
“We’re really enjoying this national comp playing against our fellow Australian teams, but also with New Zealand rugby teams, nationally as well, obviously being very strong, we want to compete against that also,“ he said.
“The future of rugby is getting talked about, and … we want to be in the best competition, we want to play the best.
“There’s an opportunity to have a very good competition, so you hope that whatever gets done on both sides is for a good result and we get a world-class competition.”
Originally published as Super Rugby 2020: RA set September 4 ‘D-day’ for trans-Tasman Super Rugby negotiations