When the ARU come out and say the financial success of the game is heavily based on the Wallabies, it's not a vain hope for the future- it's how it has always been. Look at the financials- the vast majority of their annual funding comes from gate takings, sponsorship and TV revenue.
Clubs are vitally important to rugby, but to say they can somehow be the centre of our game financially is flawed.
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Long term the objective should be that each level of the game is self-sufficient in terms of recurrent expenses with the ARU providing resources of DOs, structure and admin.
Interesting. So you are saying clubs and juniors should pay their own way.
In other words, increased fees for kids.
These groups have been subsidised (still are), and moves to reduce those subsidies have been met with howls and cries.
Well, I've been involved in a junor club for a while and we've never received any money from either NSWRU or ARU. We raise and spend our own money - the only recent fee increases that we've had to make are as a result of the ARU participation fee and increased insurance because of the different way that the ARU decided to charge per person rather than per team. All junior clubs I know are the same. All subbies clubs that I know of are the same.
So who are these junior clubs who are receiving direct grants from either ARU or NSWRU?
How do we access some of these funds?
Well, I've been involved in a junor club for a while and we've never received any money from either NSWRU or ARU. We raise and spend our own money - the only recent fee increases that we've had to make are as a result of the ARU participation fee and increased insurance because of the different way that the ARU decided to charge per person rather than per team. All junior clubs I know are the same. All subbies clubs that I know of are the same.
So who are these junior clubs who are receiving direct grants from either ARU or NSWRU?
How do we access some of these funds?
Of course.
And what they do could be done by club volunteers for free.
Or perhaps a whip-around and a few extra sausage sizzles.
I've just saved the game in NSW $800k (less my 15% commission).
It's okay, I believe you have not received direct grants to your club.
What I'm talking about is, for example, where the NSWRU funnelled $800k in 2014 (down from $860k the year before) into so-called "Community Rugby". There is some subsidy there.
If that were to continue to drop (and perhaps even drop to zero) then you would carry on with no concerns?
I know and even quoted it the first time. Without coming over all semantic, it's the situation now.Long term the objective should be that each level of the game is self-sufficient in terms of recurrent expenses with the ARU providing resources of DOs, structure and admin.
I know and even quoted it the first time. Without coming over all semantic, it's the situation now.
But I don't think it's self-sufficient or self-sustaining.
As per the thread title, participation is declining. Unless the levels above are tapped - and not just for paying DOs imo - it will continue to shrink. In other words, grassroots needs to be subsidised by pro rugby, even moreso than present (there are limits, of course).
The revenue side of the equation needs some debate, too.
Where can we expect the money to come from?
Viewership across all the platforms will get more and more fragmented, apparently.
Maybe Whirled Rugby should be setting a long term objective of bundling all elite rugby into a global package, slicing the content up, and packaging it for all the geographical markets??