18 December 2007

ARU cans ARC

18 December 2007 | Joe Canberran

To me this is painfully short sighted.

The ABC is reporting here that the Australian Rugby Union is claiming that continuing to fund the Australian Rugby Championship, after a $4.7 million loss this year would be “fiscally irresponsible”.

Now I agree they shouldn’t throw good money after bad but there is a real need to develop and display rugby talent in this country outside the Super14 comp. Sure the ARC wasn’t pulling Super14 or even NRL crowds but it wasn’t far of what some of the A League games got which isn’t too bad for the first year of a comp. I personally enjoyed some of hte ARC games I saw at Manuka more than some ofhte Super14 games last season.

Short sighted ARU, short sighted. I hope they come up with a viable mid-level comp soon

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junkett11:12 pm 19 Dec 07

Life looking good from the couch there Barney? I’m as blue collar as anyone. I love league, cricket and RUGBY. Grow a brain….and once you’ve figured out how to do that, show the ARU how to grow one. Dumb all round.

Heavs5:05 pm 19 Dec 07

Rugby Union really reminds me of Carthage.

barney4:52 pm 19 Dec 07

Good. The less boring Rugby-Union the better. Bunch of “Prima Donna’s”.

KW4:24 pm 19 Dec 07

This is yet another nail in the coffin of Australian Rugby. Union is dying a very slow death.

Mr Evil10:08 am 19 Dec 07

Yeah, but soccer only gets good crowds because differing ethnic groups see it as a good excuse to have a ‘go’ at one other! 🙂

stan_bowles9:48 am 19 Dec 07

“The A league had a couple of years of dismal crowds, and are only now, starting to get reasonable crowds.”

I don’t want to turn this into a ‘my code’s better than yours’ contest, but I don’t think dismal is the right word for the A-League at all.

First season was average of 11,000 (not including finals), second season was 13,000 (not including finals), this season is close to 14,000. I wouldn’t consider any of them dismal.

Also A-League is regularly the highest rating program on Foxtel — the ARU actually had to pay the ABC to broadcast the ARC because no-one else wanted it.

hairy nosed wombat9:03 pm 18 Dec 07

God almighty, just how short sighted is the ARU. The A league had a couple of years of dismal crowds, and are only now, starting to get reasonable crowds. Obliviously you will not get large crowds in the first year.

Of course having said that the 742 people who attended the East Coast Aces v Vikings, the 1,010 (East Coast Aces v Central Coast Rays) and the 15 other games with crowds of less then 2,500, says that the ARU has to do a lot more marketing to make the league (sorry, union) more viable. But the A league has managed to do better in 2007 than in 2006.

Mr Evil2:42 pm 18 Dec 07

I think the ARU need to go and have a look at how to run a real provincial competition like the NPC in NZ.

justbands2:37 pm 18 Dec 07

Yeah…’cause they’ve been REALLY good! Ha! Overpaid leaguies…..should send them back to the second rate comp (NRL) so they can stand out again.

Mr Evil2:29 pm 18 Dec 07

Why does the ARU need to cultivate talent: can’t they just keep paying heaps of money for ARL has-beens?

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