West Coast Pirates Bid News

[flippikat]

Yeah, hopefully the Force get axed from Super Rugby & the prospect of NIB stadium having no major tenant in winter gets the ball rolling.

Otherwise Perth has a huge white elephant that sits idle for most of the time outside the A-League season.

 

[The Great Dane]

That's pretty much what i though would be the situation.Expansion very good chance 2023.
Waiting,wishing and hoping the Force would be flicked.

Any competitor in their right mind, would seek to take advantage of any opposition's demise.Just like union and AFL did when the Bears were flicked.

I have a gut feeling the Force will remain, and there will be a Brumbies/Rebels joint venture -playing split venues.IOW union still retains a presence in their current locales.

The ARU's already said that they won't touch the Brumbies.

 

[taipan]

The ARU's already said that they won't touch the Brumbies.

The ARU's has said many things ,made many promises, some meaningless.They may not have a choice but to have a joint venture involving the Brumbies.
You've got the Rebel's owner preparing to sue for a motza,you've got the WA Govt in a dither and the Force admin taking legals into their hands.
From a selfish viewpoint I want the Brumbies to stay,as the Raiders and them have a chance of getting a new you beaut stadium.
NB it's fair to say the ARU ATM,does not know it's arse from its armpits.

 

[The Great Dane]

The ARU's has said many things ,made many promises, some meaningless.They may not have a choice but to have a joint venture involving the Brumbies.
You've got the Rebel's owner preparing to sue for a motza,you've got the WA Govt in a dither and the Force admin taking legals into their hands.
From a selfish viewpoint I want the Brumbies to stay,as the Raiders and them have a chance of getting a new you beaut stadium.
NB it's fair to say the ARU ATM,does not know it's arse from its armpits.

I don't disagree...

They've really backed themselves into a corner, whichever decision they make they're f##ked.

However if they do decide to mess with the Brumbies then the only sensible option would be to kill them out right, if they were to be merged they'd be treated as the Brumbies ugly cousin by us in Canberra, and the local RU and RU clubs would back them in name only, it'd effectively end up being a relocation of the Brumbies brand to Melbourne if the ARU merged them with Melbourne, so the ARU would be better off in the long run just killing the Brumbies and leaving the Rebels as they are.

 

[Stormwarrior82]

Whoever they kill, the nrl has to go after that team. Take there, up and coming juniors, Aus reps if possible and really tighten the noose the Aru has already started making.

 

[Perth Red]

I don't disagree...

They've really backed themselves into a corner, whichever decision they make they're f##ked.

However if they do decide to mess with the Brumbies then the only sensible option would be to kill them out right, if they were to be merged they'd be treated as the Brumbies ugly cousin by us in Canberra, and the local RU and RU clubs would back them in name only, it'd effectively end up being a relocation of the Brumbies brand to Melbourne if the ARU merged them with Melbourne, so the ARU would be better off in the long run just killing the Brumbies and leaving the Rebels as they are.

I get the sense the ARU will be buying back the license with some compensation to the Rebels owner will be the eventual outcome. Force are digging in and have an agreement to play until 2020, as do the Rebels but the Force want to be in, I get the sense the Rebels owner would be happy to offload given the losses they have incurred.

I think the ARU would prefer to keep a Melbourne team over a Perth team but not sure they will have a choice.

 

[DlEHARD]

Unfortunately I agree that the Rebels will go and Force stay.

 

[Marlins]

I'd rather see the rebels go now it might get some of their fans to cross over to the storm. It's not like either League or union will grow huge grassroots in Victorian. On the other hand having a union team still in Perth until a Nrl side is finally introduced will continually to grow more juniors.

 

[Marlins]

On the Perth side matter what are the odds Souths might relocate to WA by '22?

 

[The Mad Hatter]

On the Perth side matter what are the odds Souths might relocate to WA by '22?

0%

 

[Diesel]

They need the large up town Melbourne corporate support which would be worth more than WA or ACT combined.

They're f**ked either way and SANZAAR will make the decision for them, since they're so piss weak they can't make a decision for themselves

 

[taipan]

0%

Agree ,.Think 90,000 people marching up a Sydney main street, sent the message out.Souths need to be in the comp in Syderneee.That being said great membership numbers, but hope when ANZ is reconfigured the Rabbit's crowds get up to the 20,000 mark regularly.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Agree ,.Think 90,000 people marching up a Sydney main street, sent the message out.Souths need to be in the comp in Syderneee.That being said great membership numbers, but hope when ANZ is reconfigured the Rabbit's crowds get up to the 20,000 mark regularly.

100% agree.

 

[Stormwarrior82]

I believe the aru/sanzar are having a meeting soon? What are the chances the aru go to sanzar and say,"this is the situation we are stuffed either way, can we get financial help depending on which way it falls because otherwise you will lose rugby in Australia". Both governments are backing there respective clubs as well as picking up the pieces (games) of the dumped side. By putting the heat back on sanzar they may make the decision for the aru.

 

[taipan]

One thing for sure the ARU cannot continue with 5 teams in their comp.they don't have the players, they don't get the crowds(not that some of the NRL crowds of late are worth bragging about),their Tv ratings are beneath the horizon, and the media coverage everywhere is getting worse.

Continuing with this 5 team set up will further eat into what remaining $ remain in the ARU's cookie jar, which ATM is about as full as a kindergarten kiddy's first Money Box.

Whichever S18 club eventually gets the flick, any NRL admin worth its salt, would be pushing to secure as many disillusioned union supporters from that club as possible.
I hope its Melbourne,as I see the Storm already with 19,200 members would be able to capitalise.

 

[King hit]

Can't they just merge both the Rebels and Force together, keeps Rugby alive in WA and Victoria and ensures the club isn't totally wiped from history.

 

[Billythekid]

One thing for sure the ARU cannot continue with 5 teams in their comp.they don't have the players, they don't get the crowds(not that some of the NRL crowds of late are worth bragging about),their Tv ratings are beneath the horizon, and the media coverage everywhere is getting worse.

Continuing with this 5 team set up will further eat into what remaining $ remain in the ARU's cookie jar, which ATM is about as full as a kindergarten kiddy's first Money Box.

Whichever S18 club eventually gets the flick, any NRL admin worth its salt, would be pushing to secure as many disillusioned union supporters from that club as possible.
I hope its Melbourne,as I see the Storm already with 19,200 members would be able to capitalise.

I'm not sure that reducing to 4 teams really fixing any of these problems. Ratings and crowds will both still be god awful. It will reduce their overall media presence in the country which can't help with sponsorships.

In terms of strengthening the Australian teams I'm again not convinced. If anything I think the talent is likely just to be picked up by the NRL or foreign rugby clubs. The remaining 4 won't have any more money and won't attract better players. Meanwhile they'll be reducing their junior base weakening their player ranks in the medium and long term. That will also have knock on effects to the wallabies which further hurts the game.

In some ways I think the best thing for Australian rugby would be for super rugby to be just Aus and NZ and for SA to have their own comp. For many reasons that can't happen and would bring its own problems.

I think the problems rugby has won't be remotely solved by cutting one team.

 

[The Great Dane]

It's pretty obvious to me that the ARUs' problems aren't going to be fixed by cutting a team, if anything it's going to exacerbate their problems.

The ARU really needs to make a handful of major changes if they are going to be successful again, first they need to get their product on free to air (even if it means a large hit to the bank balance for the time being), second they need to get ride of the early starts to games as much as possible (e.g. get ride of games in SA as much as possible), which almost certainly means that they have to divorce themselves from the South Africans and Argentinians at club level, and finally, they need to stop funding their sport from the top and hoping that it'll trickle down to the roots and start investing a sh!t ton more into juniors and amateur competitions, particularly in the bush (something that the NRL needs to do as well).

First thing I'd do if I was the ARU is I'd call the NZRU (and maybe the Japanese as well) and talk to them about setting up a new trans-Tasman comp, if they agree then great go down that route just make sure that it's on free to air, if the NZRU won't budge on Super Rugby then despite the problems that it'll cause I'd bite the bullet and talk to the broadcasters about a new national competition broadcast on free to air and go down that route instead, cause if they don't get on free to air soon then they're gonna completely f**k themselves and in my view it's better to have burnt some bridges but still be alive then to kill yourself trying to keep everyone happy.

If they're forced to start a national competition then I'd start small, probably a 6 team comp (1 each in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Canberra, and two in Sydney seems the best bet, Adelaide would be the smokey of course), source the extra players from the Aussies playing in Europe as much as possible, then take the rest from the second grade.
Then if the NZRU is receptive start a small end of season competition against their Super Rugby clubs after the season to fill the calendar out a bit more.
Of course all of that is reliant on one of the broadcasters being willing to broadcast the competition, cause if they're not then the ARU is probably better off just sticking with Super Rugby.

Another thing they should do if they do end up starting a new national competition is they should change/introduce some new rules to try to get the teams playing more expansive footy and not the penalty fest that has been RU for the last 15 or so years, start by lowering the value of goals (or upping the value of tries) as a start.

Of course I can't see any of that happening, the ARU don't have the balls to tell the rest of SANZAR (and potentially World Rugby) to go and get f**ked and start doing what's best for Rugby in Australia instead of what's best for everybody but themselves.

 

[Perth Red]

I'm surprised they didn't go for a two conference system with nz, Aus and jap and then SA and arg and maybe USA.

 

[flippikat]

In some ways I think the best thing for Australian rugby would be for super rugby to be just Aus and NZ and for SA to have their own comp. For many reasons that can't happen and would bring its own problems.

I think the problems rugby has won't be remotely solved by cutting one team.

If an ANZAC rugby competition replaced Super Rugby, there's a fair chance there'd be more than just 5 NZ teams - the depth is there, and it helps to fill TV schedules.

Taranaki (national championship 'Mitre 10 Cup' nickname the Bulls, amber & black) and Hawkes Bay (Magpies, black and white) were eyeing up an expansion spot in Super Rugby before Argentina and Japan were chosen.

I doubt they'd use their M10 Cup identity, as all our current Super Rugby teams have different names and jerseys from their M10 Cup bases..although they do draw their colours from those unions.

It's tempting to think another Auckland-based team may be in the mix too.

How about this...?

Blues (Navy blue, Light Blue, White) - Based at Eden Park - North & Central Auckland
Jets (Orange, Black, White) - based at Mt Smart - South Auckland, including area around the airport
Chiefs (Red, gold, black) - Waikato/ Bay of Plenty, most games in Hamilton, 1 or 2 in Rotorua or Tauranga
Bulls (gold, green, black) - Taranaki/Manawatu - Most games in New Plymouth, 1 or 2 in Palmerston North
Magpies (Black & White) - Napier
Hurricanes (Black & Gold) - Wellington
Crusaders (Red and black) - Christchurch
Highlanders (Blue, gold & maroon) - Dunedin, some games in Invercargill.

That's 8 NZ teams, add 4 Aussie teams & you have a reasonable 12 team competition.