Rugby Australia to target top NRL talent

[BODISGOD]

A couple of interesting points - I’m in the U.K, and didn’t have a clue the Lions were playing on Friday night until I was scrolling through the sports channels to find Saints V Leeds Rhinos and saw a Lions game being shown on one of the channels - only from reading this thread do I now know that was a live match - I’d just assumed it was an old match as I know there is a Lions tour at some point soon.
I guess what I’m saying is that is far from ‘wall to wall’, infact, I’ve not had or heard 1 conversation about the Lions tour with either blokes at work or my group of mates, who generally chat about sport non-stop.
Whilst rugby union still has its ‘old boys’ and it’s dyed in the wool toff community, it has no cut through anywhere else in England. Sure people might watch the odd Lions or 6 nations match, but it’s certainly not high on the sports calendar for general folk. Both rugby Union and rugby league are being left way behind.

That's fine, everyone has their own interests. But it is expressly the centrepiece of Sky's summer lineup of Sport in the UK and Ireland.

 

[Vlad59]

That's fine, everyone has their own interests. But it is expressly the centrepiece of Sky's summer lineup of Sport in the UK and Ireland.

And it’s barely raised a sweat here outside the rah rahs.

 

[BODISGOD]

And it’s barely raised a sweat here outside the rah rahs.

Again that might be the case, doesn't invalidate the point.

 

[Vlad59]

Again that might be the case, doesn't invalidate the point.

Mate in the days rugby kind of mattered and we used to beat New Zealand the Lions were a thing when they toured. They might make some money for Australian Rugby but the administration here will blow it as they always do as it’s a sugar hit and nothing more. The game is in awful shape here and getting worse.

 

[BODISGOD]

Mate in the days rugby kind of mattered and we used to beat New Zealand the Lions were a thing when they toured. They might make some money for Australian Rugby but the administration here will blow it as they always do as it’s a sugar hit and nothing more. The game is in awful shape here and getting worse.

Okay you can construct different narratives but I am sticking to what I replied to. The Lions is not going anywhere or getting shortened and is going to make more money this year than before.

 

[Vlad59]

Okay you can construct different narratives but I am sticking to what I replied to. The Lions is not going anywhere or getting shortened and is going to make more money this year than before.

Woo hoo. And my narrative is that rugby is truly fecked in this country. Enjoy the cash.

 

[Cutoutpass]

R

Mate in the days rugby kind of mattered and we used to beat New Zealand the Lions were a thing when they toured. They might make some money for Australian Rugby but the administration here will blow it as they always do as it’s a sugar hit and nothing more. The game is in awful shape here and getting worse.

ridiculous take.

 

[T to the T]

Tour profits are shared 55/45, including commercial and overseas revenues. Rugby Australia are getting a share of everything Lions now.

Source please that Rugby Australia gets 45% of the profit from the Dublin match. My understanding was different but happy to be proven otherwise

 

[BODISGOD]

Source please that Rugby Australia gets 45% of the profit from the Dublin match. My understanding was different but happy to be proven otherwise

No rough estimate is RA get 55% of the tour profits. This was all from an interview with the Lions CEO last month. In actual fact the Lions used to get just 15% of tour proceeds but they now cross sell.

There is a Joint Venture in place - "Lions Tour to Australia DAC". This was first put in place in 2021 for the Tour to South Africa. The Dublin games profit will go into that.

 

[Chimp]

That's fine, everyone has their own interests. But it is expressly the centrepiece of Sky's summer lineup of Sport in the UK and Ireland.

It gets mentioned on a couple of Sky sports adverts, that are shown on Sky - so only people who already subscribe to Sky are getting those Ads. The truth is, it’s getting pretty much zero traction from general public, or even the general sporting community,

The tour will still of course make money, as it’s a nice corporate jolly / rich boys excuse for a tour. So good on them for that - over the years, RU have created a small, but wealthy community who will always ensure internal rugby union games and tours are well attended, but they are sugar hits, it doesn’t transcend to the overall sport being more popular, it doesn’t have any impact on participation levels, no real sustainable impact on talent acquisition or retention, no impact on interest in the domestic game in either hemisphere, and no impact in changing rugby union from being dull as dishwater to anything like entertainment.

It’s very much like cricket in the UK - the domestic game means nothing and is irrelevant, and the sport as a whole is simply an excuse for a boys day out. The craic and day on the beer comes first, the sport is just the excuse given to the Mrs’ to justify being out or away with the lads.

Is the BOD in your name Brian O’Driscoll?

 

[Wb1234]

Okay you can construct different narratives but I am sticking to what I replied to. The Lions is not going anywhere or getting shortened and is going to make more money this year than before.

In 12 years time there may be no more aru

What happens then ?

 

[T to the T]

No rough estimate is RA get 55% of the tour profits. This was all from an interview with the Lions CEO last month. In actual fact the Lions used to get just 15% of tour proceeds but they now cross sell.

There is a Joint Venture in place - "Lions Tour to Australia DAC". This was first put in place in 2021 for the Tour to South Africa. The Dublin games profit will go into that.

Let me know when you get a source

That's fine, everyone has their own interests. But it is expressly the centrepiece of Sky's summer lineup of Sport in the UK and Ireland.

Centrepiece is a massive exaggeration It's filler for Sky Sports (which has just 6 million subscribers) with the F1, SuperLeague and England-India cricket test series before the football juggernaut kicks off again in August.

First half of the tour will be drowned out domestically by Wimbledon which is shown on terrestrial TV here, likewise the women's Euros will also get saturation coverage throughout July and vastly higher viewing figures than Lions matches unfortunately.

Don't get me wrong, the Lions Tour is a big event and I will enjoy the matches, but it needs to be put in context for our Australian friends here that it is exclusively shown on a paid service with limited reach compared to the sporting events on terrestrial TV

 

[taste2taste]

Okay you can construct different narratives but I am sticking to what I replied to. The Lions is not going anywhere or getting shortened and is going to make more money this year than before.

RA have sold more tickets and at higher prices than they did 12 years ago. Reading comments from Waugh the profits will be used to pay down their debt facility loan. RA has currently used 55m of the 85m loan.

If all goes to plan, after the 2027 WC RA will be back in the black. Although RA are banking on a 100m profit from the WC which is drastically higher than other host nation made. France walked away with a small loss after hosting the last WC.

 

[BODISGOD]

It gets mentioned on a couple of Sky sports adverts, that are shown on Sky - so only people who already subscribe to Sky are getting those Ads. The truth is, it’s getting pretty much zero traction from general public, or even the general sporting community,

The tour will still of course make money, as it’s a nice corporate jolly / rich boys excuse for a tour. So good on them for that - over the years, RU have created a small, but wealthy community who will always ensure internal rugby union games and tours are well attended, but they are sugar hits, it doesn’t transcend to the overall sport being more popular, it doesn’t have any impact on participation levels, no real sustainable impact on talent acquisition or retention, no impact on interest in the domestic game in either hemisphere, and no impact in changing rugby union from being dull as dishwater to anything like entertainment.

It’s very much like cricket in the UK - the domestic game means nothing and is irrelevant, and the sport as a whole is simply an excuse for a boys day out. The craic and day on the beer comes first, the sport is just the excuse given to the Mrs’ to justify being out or away with the lads.

Is the BOD in your name Brian O’Driscoll?

Again, it is the centrepiece of their late June to early August with football on a break. Sky have explicitly said this - it's the only rugby property they value that way btw (they also still pay for the summer tours), if you want to take that angle. They will be launching the Lions Channel shortly and have turned their core production facilities over for it.

In terms of the value of Sky or not, it is very valuable and rugby moving so much to BT Sports and now Premier is really damaging for it.

I don't really care about all your other winging here about rich boys etc, that's more of your own self narrative that you have to deal with and the real world doesn't.

 

[BODISGOD]

In 12 years time there may be no more aru

What happens then ?

And just like 12 years ago on here, I predict we'll be having the same conversation in 12 years here.

 

[BODISGOD]

Source please that Rugby Australia gets 45% of the profit from the Dublin match. My understanding was different but happy to be proven otherwise

No no dear lad, read again, they get a higher share. And it is of the entire pie. So Australia are benefiting from the 30,000 tour packages sold (for example) which started in Dublin on Friday. They previously only would have benefited from ones they attached themselves to. The entire commercials of it has been bundled in a JV, so Australia benefited from the Friday night game.


Here is an explainer of the whole thing!

 

[BODISGOD]

RA have sold more tickets and at higher prices than they did 12 years ago. Reading comments from Waugh the profits will be used to pay down their debt facility loan. RA has currently used 55m of the 85m loan.

If all goes to plan, after the 2027 WC RA will be back in the black. Although RA are banking on a 100m profit from the WC which is drastically higher than other host nation made. France walked away with a small loss after hosting the last WC.

France paid too much money for the tournament in order to win a very competitive bid process - they bunged it. World Rugby themselves made $1.2bn AUD from it.

The structure has completely changed for World Cups going forward. They are getting their $100m and that's it, tickets go to World Rugby.

 

[taste2taste]

The structure has completely changed for World Cups going forward. They are getting their $100m and that's it, tickets go to World Rugby.

is that 100 m before or after costs ?