Super Rugby Pacific will continue as a united front until at least 2030 after Rugby Australia and its New Zealand counterpart resolved a financial dispute that threatened to tear the competition apart.
As part of the new agreement, Super Rugby Pacific will implement a nine-person board that is set to explore the possibility of merging the Australian and New Zealand women’s competitions into an integrated league that could play its first games as early as next year.
Rugby Australia had previously considered transplanting the five Australian Super Rugby teams into a breakaway men’s domestic league from 2024 unless it received a greater share of broadcast revenue.
Since non-Pacific teams exited the competition with the COVID-19 pandemic, New Zealand Rugby has banked close to $90 million a year from its Super Rugby broadcast deal, roughly three times what RA collects and significantly more than when participating countries split revenue equally pre-pandemic.
Talks between Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby culminated in a joint press conference in Sydney on Friday, when the bodies announced they had buried the hatchet and put pen to paper on a partnership spanning from 2024 to 2030.
“Today marks the dawn of a new era of Super Rugby within our region,” RA CEO Andy Marinos said.
“Securing this long-term partnership provides stability and continuity that the competition and Super Rugby clubs need to enable rugby to grow in stature and importance across the region.”
RA and NZR have come to an agreement regarding broadcast revenue for the final three years of the current deals but the exact distribution of monies has not been disclosed.
“A lot has been made, with media speculation around splits or shares and that sort of thing,” NZR CEO Mark Robinson said.
“(But) the key focus of the entire competition now is to grow the entire pie and the entire commercial value of rugby in this wide region.
“It’s about how we can grow the bigger pie so we all have a bigger slice.”
Super Rugby Pacific has begun the recruitment process for its new board, which will include an independent chair and four independent directors as well as one representative each from NZR and RA and their corresponding players’ associations.
Plans to unite Australia’s Super W and New Zealand’s Super Rugby Aupiki come only weeks after the women’s Rugby World Cup concluded in Auckland before a record-breaking crowd at the final.
Marinos said a united women’s competition was a high priority for Super Rugby Pacific.
“I’d like to say (it could happen) by at least 2024 and if there’s some sort of crossover we can do even next year, we’ll certainly be looking at that,” he said.
“We really are both committed to making sure we grow the women’s game.”
Now that the competition’s future has been secured, Super Rugby Pacific will consider which rules could be tweaked to ensure the competition remains the best product possible.
“We’re looking at things that are not fundamental changing of the law, really just adapting how we can improve the game,” Marinos said.
“It’s not one particular thing, it’s just rather having a focus and saying, ‘How can we present the game and make it a better spectacle?’.
“Pick up the intensity and the pace and bring that [fatigue] into the game, that creates the space and opportunity for tries and people to exhibit their talent and flair.”
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