PRO12 has new Managing Director and he isn't Irish :D :yahoo:

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Munchkin wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Munchkin wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Marty, your not interested in his comment regarding Australian involvement in the process or neutrality then...?

Hines seems to be saying that he is neutral,....

I read it pretty much the opposite......

Hmmmm... The headline yesterday was something like 'Scotland Pour Cold Water on Claim of bias'. Think that's the why it should be read.

But I'm an arrogant gimp, so don't take my word for it

(note just cut all the quotes down for space)

If there were no Claims Of Bias, then the SRU would not have needed to poor cold water on them, no??


note: almost at that magic number of posts when the mods come and lock down the thread

marty2086 wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

marty2086 wrote:Excluding the Italians from it is stupidity and short termism, if we can get more money into Italian rugby we can maybe grow it or at least at a faster rate it is at the minute which is a snails pace if at all.

A population of 60m can bring in huge sums in terms of tv deals and sponsorship not to mention the ex pats and those of Italian heritage in places like Australia and the US(where the game has the potential to take off soon).

And yet, the FIR was balking at paying its stake to get a shareholding in the league.....

Edit: As of last year's Annual Return in Jan 2015, there were two Italian directors on the board of Celtic Rugby, but the 300 shares issued by the company are between SRU, WRU and IRFU only.   That may have changed in the last 12 months.

The FIR pay to take part whereas the other teams/unions don't, so they are paying to take part and get no return directly from the league.

I don't think you can necessarily assert that.  

Some additional info.  The outstanding participation fees (€1.5m approx) have now been paid.    Gavazzi, the FIR president stated in March 2014 that they had re-negotiated to have their €3m participation fee for the two franchises reduced by 70% as part of a new four-year participation agreement as equal partners.   Then a lot of foot-dragging went on, and the final monies were only paid last year, after some brinkmanship from the other three unions of 'pay-up or leave' occurred.   Added to that, was the financial woes at Treviso, who were going to exit the league, until they finally brokered a four-year deal with their own union, with FIRa agreeing to pay €4m a year to Treviso.

During all of this, Celtic Rugby had to get on with negotiating new broadcast deals - they concluded Sky in 2013, and the deals with terrestrial broadcasters during 2014.   CR do negotiate the TV deals for the FIR as well apparently, presumably overseen through the two Italian directors on the board of Celtic Rugby.

FIR obviously get income from their own TV broadcasting deals with Italian broadcasters for the 22 home games, (and they also get a feed of away games involving Italian teams).
They also benefit from the sponsorship deals with Guinness, Rhino, Specsavers, etc.

What will make any potential future deal (post 2018) with a primary network broadcaster interesting is the "floor" that has now been set in minimum fees expected - with the WRU holding the aces on that one, given their leverage with their current BBC Wales/S4C deal.

If the FIR become an equal partner in any future broadcasting deal with, for example, Sky (albeit Sky Italia dropped out of broadcasting Pro 12 previously), and they receive monies in proportion to number of teams, then the overall sums are going to need to rise considerably.  Possibly the FIR/Celtic Rugby can effectively argue/negotiate that Italy represents a much bigger market, and Sky is willing to pay for access to that.

Based on WRU not willing to accept anything less than they currently get, and likely more than that with assumed increased overall league value, then that would put the bar around €5.5-€6m for them.  With no terrestrial broadcasters involved (or at best delayed feeds/highlights shows), then the production costs are going to go up for Sky as well with more games to cover.  So, WRU and IRFU get 33% each, and SRU/FIR 16% each.   That puts the potential overall desired value into the €16.5-€18m bracket - more than three times the value of current deal with Sky. And double the overall broadcasting deal.