You have to admire the cheek of some people.
“We have created alignment across our competitions which has enabled us to go to market with a rights package encompassing all levels of the game, with the aim of expanding the reach of our competitions and growing the audiences for the sport across each level of the game.”
Substitute a few words and the statement could have been made by a politico desirous of elected office, but those were the actual words of RA chief executive Raelene Castle in describing a decidedly optimistic view of the future of rugby union in Australia.
Castle said other things of a similar nature, but you have to admire someone who can take an optimistic view of dismal prospects.
“Not to worry, it’s just a minor scrape,” Castle might have said had she been onboard the Titanic. “Just some ice.”
Union in Australia needs more than an “alignment.”
Show of hands.
How many football fans, traditionalists or otherwise, view Super Rugby as a way to mark time until the NRL bounces?
We were using both our hands to type, or we would have had both in the air.
It speaks volumes when the broadcaster that has held the rights for 25 years simply walked away from broadcast rights negotiations.
Business is business and the business of business is turning a profit.
Fox Sports grew tired of throwing money down a hole. Sponsors abandoned the code. They abandoned negotiations with RA after RA rejected Fox’s offer for rights for the next five years.
Optus and Network Ten are reportedly interested in broadcasting rugby, but if RA and Castle did not like Fox’s offer, wait until they see the figures Optus and Ten put on the table.
Castle and her cohort seem to think repackaging the rights as a “whole of rugby” offering to include the international sides, SANZAAR (Super Rugby and Tri Nations) and the Shute Shield is a magic elixir, but the reality is that union football is Kool-Aid entirely lacking sweetener.
