South Africa bid for 2017 World Cup

[tumbidragon]

South Africa have submitted their bid document for the 2017 World Cup and remain confident of stealing the tournament from under the noses of Australia and New Zealand.
The bid includes a grant of $200,000 to every competing nation, expansion of the World Cup to 16 teams, use of giant stadiums and – possibly – an emerging nations tournament and a $1 million first prize.
"We have answered a few preliminary questions and I am sure they will come back with more," said Chris Botes, the South Africa Rugby League consultant who is in Manchester for the final.
"We are confident we have out together the best bid we can."
Advertisement
Where is the money coming from, you ask? Well, the TV rights deal the Rugby League International Federation did with management company IMG is worth 100 million rand ($10,760,000), says Botes, and it's a slice of that pie that the bid is chasing.
As for the sport not being recognised in South Africa, the SARL has given up on trying to get the national Olympic committee onside and is now focusing on a new law which would allow the Department of Sport and Recreation to officially recognise them early next year.
"The government accepts we are a sport, they support our bid, but this legislation regarding the recognition of governing bodies has to go before Cabinet," Botes said.
Australia and New Zealand's joint bid is the only rival to the South Africans but is an overwhelming favourite, mainly because taking the World Cup to a country where league is not a mainstream game is seen as too risky.
The SARL had hoped the winning bid would be announced this weekend but it has been put back until early next year.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...7-world-cup-20131130-2yhv4.html#ixzz2mAhZVvyd

Sounds a very far fetched bid. I'm all for RL growing in SA (and all around the world) but surely they need to put in some hard yards and lay the groundwork for a respectable national comp before they get a WC. Walk before you run and all that.. Or maybe this is the shot in the arm RL needs in that part of the world?

Thought?
​

 

[Western_Eel]

They have a good website http://www.sarugbyleague.co.za/

 

[Dutchy]

Give it to USA. Force the RLIF to step in, take over and sort their shit out.

 

[The Great Dane]

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...7-world-cup-20131130-2yhv4.html#ixzz2mAhZVvyd

Sounds a very far fetched bid. I'm all for RL growing in SA (and all around the world) but surely they need to put in some hard yards and lay the groundwork for a respectable national comp before they get a WC. Walk before you run and all that.. Or maybe this is the shot in the arm RL needs in that part of the world?

Thought?
​

I think the only reason that they are bidding is to try and force the government to recognise them as separate from the SARU, but in my opinion South Africa could host a successful RLWC if they have tons of help from the various other RLs and RL competitions around the world.

The first thing that the RLIF and SARL would need to address is the competitiveness of the SA Rhinos as without a competitive SA team the cup would have no hope, the way I'd go about that would be to convince the NRL and Superleague to offer massive cap exemptions to clubs if they convince notable SARU players to jump across, offer another cap exemption on top of the other one for current Springboks. I'd also look to have the Rhinos competing in every major international RL competition and other games in between once their is a good base of strong RU players to build off.

The next thing they'd need to sort out would be the SARL's national competition, I'm not sure how they'd go about making the SARL's comp so much stronger in such a short amount of time but I do know that it would cost a ridiculous amount of money that the RLIF simply doesn't have (maybe give Clive Palmer and other noted ridiculously rich RL fans a ring, you never know).

Those are just two of the many problems that I can see and I would be very, very surprised to see the RLIF give the next WC to the RSA simply because it would come with so much more risk and end up costing them so much more then a WC held in Australia and NZ for much, much less possible monetary gain, but in saying that I'd love to see them take the risk simply because of what it could do for the growth of the game in the RSA.

 

[hutch]

South Africa need to host a few rugby league games to generate interest (amongst a million other things) before even thinking about hosting the rlwc. World club challenge, test series or nrl or super league games. What's the biggest rugby league crowd South Africa have had? I'd be surprised if its over 1000.

 

[Craigo]

With over 600,000 registered RU players, South Africa COULD become an absolute powerhouse in League. Its just working out how to get 100,000 of them to actually start playing the banned game...

http://www.theroar.com.au/2011/05/01/worldwide-rugby-on-the-rise/

 

[paulmac]

I wouldn't be against them hosting a pool and maybe a quarter final at the 2017 WC.For TV rights alone it may be worth putting England in that pool.But in reality its a long shot.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

Just a ploy to get recognition probably, but hey if that does the job then so be it.

If they are serious and they can actually get a government garanty for a set profit (highly unlikely) with a set number of games on FTA TV I say take the risk and give it to them. League doesn't need more propping up in Australia and NZ, you've got the NRL. Imagine what it could do for the game.

Interesting in any case that a decision has been put back. Could this mean the NZ/Aus bid was not the shoe-in everyone thought it might be?

 

[mtngry]

Would love to see SA host for all the obvious reasons of improving RL, exposure, etc, but mainly I hope the Roos get the same Waitress the All Blacks had a few years ago. Would make for a less one sided Final

 

[Bronco Rob]

If South Africa are serious then they should be setting a target of 2021. The RLIF shouldn't get too carried away about this last WC and then go putting the concept at risk by taking it to a nation where the game isn't even recognised. They should be building on this last tournament and then look at SA. Give them time to get a reasonable grounding of RL first and a few ESL or NRL games to test the water.

 

[DC_fan]

I would not have a problem with South Africa got to host the 2017 World Cup. I wouldn't have a problem if China or Japan or the USA got it either.

Time to spread the joy.

 

[langpark]

If South Africa are serious then they should be setting a target of 2021. The RLIF shouldn't get too carried away about this last WC and then go putting the concept at risk by taking it to a nation where the game isn't even recognised. They should be building on this last tournament and then look at SA. Give them time to get a reasonable grounding of RL first and a few ESL or NRL games to test the water.

Agreed, I just can't see them getting it in '17. 2021 would be far more realistic.


One thing's for sure though, we definitely need a 3rd alternative when it comes to World Cups, because at this stage all we can really do is alternate between UK/France and Aus/NZ... Whether it's South Africa or North America, I don't really mind, but at some point, we need another option otherwise it doesn't really feel like a World Cup...

 

[RedVee]

2021 for me as well.

It would be nice if SA could get an England (or GB) Test against Australia or NZ a couple of times between now and then though.

 

[Kurt Angle]

There's some pie in the sky people here. Instead of a world cup, how about they host....

wait for it...

just ONE major RL game first.

Host a test, a WCC game, NRL game, even a 4 nations..... anything before we give them our (now) marquee international tournament.

 

[roughyedspud]

bingo lad

 

[The Great Dane]

There's some pie in the sky people here. Instead of a world cup, how about they host....

wait for it...

just ONE major RL game first.

Host a test, a WCC game, NRL game, even a 4 nations..... anything before we give them our (now) marquee international tournament.

Because giving them a test or a 4 nations game that didn't include both the SA Rhinos and one of the 'big 3 nations' would most likely give us a false gauge of interest in the sport in SA and even if we did convince one or more of the big 3 nations to play a game against the Rhinos in SA the resulting thrashing would do more harm then good for the game in South Africa and most likely the event would be a one off that sustains very little hype around the sport.

I would argue that there is no way in the coldest part of hell that you'd be able to convince any of the NRL teams to play a game in South Africa as there is nothing over there for them or the NRL to gain in the short term, it is extremely unlikely that the local government would cover the costs (partly or completely) of the event and unless I'm mistaken it's unlikely that any NRL event would make a profit it SA. So basically there's nothing for the NRL teams to gain in South Africa and at the moment the NRL's too focused on Australia, NZ and PNG to be worrying about South Africa as well, and anyway once again unless I'm mistaken and the NRL is relatively popular over there it would also give us a false gauge of interest unless there was a genuinely massive advertising campaign to grow interest for the and around the event.

A WCC is the most likely of your suggestions to happen IMO, but I think you would have a lot of trouble convincing both the teams to interrupt their preseason preparations to go on a detour to South Africa for what is essentially a hyped up trial game with a trophy for the winner (don't claim it's not, we all know that is how most of the NRL teams treat it), you'd probably struggle to convince the RSA's government to support the event and you'd again need a sizable (and expensive) advertising campaign to spread the word that the game is happening.

Out of all of these suggestion a WC as outlandish and IMO as stupid as it would be is the only one that is likely to garner any sort of government support, gain any large interest in the community without spending an extra couple of tens of thousands on advertising, cause a stir in the local media and in the local RU community (a couple of well placed 'code wars' articles should do the job), legitimately include the SA Rhinos without to much unwarranted tampering and likely break even or even make a small profit. The only thing apart from the obvious and normal things that go along with any WC that would need to be addressed would be the quality of the SA Rhinos team and their form, but as I suggested in an earlier post above you could use the money that the NRL has come into to change that by exploiting RU pretty easily.

Don't get me wrong I defiantly do not want to see a RLWC held in SA anytime soon as I think it is just to big a risk, though in saying that I wouldn't actively oppose it if it were to be announced that one of the next WC's was to be held in South Africa, but holding any other sort of other major RL event in SA is even more of a pie in the sky idea because it simply wouldn't get the local backing, hold large enough prestige to make any difference in the interest of the game locally (except a negative one) or feasibly make any money (let alone break even) for the idea of the game to even get off the ground, but anyway as I said earlier the bid is probably just a last ditched attempt to get the game recognised over there anyway and not a serious bid for the WC, though I'm sure the SARL would jump at the opportunity if it was offered.

 

[joshbristow123]

Have always thought SA were the obvious sleeping giant of League considering how good they are at Union

 

[bender]

Where is the money coming from, you ask? Well, the TV rights deal the Rugby League International Federation did with management company IMG is worth 100 million rand ($10,760,000), says Botes, and it's a slice of that pie that the bid is chasing.

This is actually a pretty interesting quote. If South Africa were to host it, they might actually have some advantages over the other traditional options. With a mainly televised world cup, they could rely on tv money instead of gate receipts for profit.

If we assume a 16 team comp, only to make it easier, what is to stop South Africa from selling group 1 (Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga) to , the highest bidder of say Australia or New Zealand. And Group 2 (Wales, Fiji, England, Italy) could be sold to England. This would leave Group 3 (South Africa, USA, Russia, Wales) and Group 4 (Scotland, Ireland, France, Lebanon) with French games possibly even sold to France.

the advantage of a set up like this, is that they could potential negotiate decent broadcast deals from both hemispheres and by playing the final game at 2.00pm local time on a saturday, they would actually get prime time in Australia (East Coast) and a decent time about midday in England. Potentially, you would think that you would get decent gate receipts etc in Australia (all high profile games) as well as England and to a lesser extent France. The games played in South Africa would still be a lot and would be between countries who are thought of as large countries in south Africa, so there should be more interest in those countries in south africa which would allow the game to be promoted there.

I dont think it will happen like everybody else, but i do think that there are some pretty interesting advantages from a TV perspective.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

Bump

Australia and New Zealand's joint bid is the only rival to the South Africans but is an overwhelming favourite, mainly because taking the World Cup to a country where league is not a mainstream game is seen as too risky.
The SARL had hoped the winning bid would be announced this weekend but it has been put back until early next year.

Interesting. What's holding up what would surely be a no brainer decision?

 

[parraparraparra]

LOL south africa wanna play in the big league but have absolutely no cards to play. pathetic