CVC - Rugby Pioneers or Profiteer?

You are spot on with final sentence so I must conclude that CVC will attempt to "sweat" its asset(s) in rue PE style.

Problem is that International rugby followed in the N Hemisphere by Champions Cup remain the big draws ( later rounds in the case of the CC). The Prem does attract
decent crows particularly for local derbies but is the standard good enough?

Having watched a run of poor or one sided games the cost ( to a casual supporter) of £30-60 is probably too much.

Given the issues that have emerged of late ( financial problems with the RFU and SRFU) I'm not holding my breath.

As a mater of interest how financially sound are the Welsh,Irish,french and Italian Unions?

stadium wrote: The Premiership has been poor value this year to many one sided games Exeter v Northampton for example. With the Saracens fiasco and the England World Cup hangover the season seems to be dead already. The RFU did not help with its timing of the announcement that it wants to kill off the Championship. All in All the games future is at stake.

So how would a club WC look? 2 clubs each from NZ, Aus, SA, Eng, Fra, Wal, Ire & Sco? I'm not so sure that any other leagues would be strong enough, maybe Italy. That would give 16 clubs, I should imagine in pools of 4 with the winners making up the semi's. Or would they use the European Cup as a qualification tournament?
Quite like the idea of the tournament in principal....when will they be able to fit it in?

Initial competition within each country then quarter finals etc between the top teams. A point system that favours try scoring. Good idea to examine how Super rugby does it. They have an Argentinean club and a Japanese one in addition to SA NZ and Australia.

Free to air will be a thing of the past, like cricket. 

cheshire exile wrote: An opportunity for the Championship on free to air then?

I think that we could certainly see the birth of a 'super league' with franchised clubs. We already have these in place across the UK with the exception of England. The clubs then feed into the franchise as already stated.

I can see pro's on the one hand, but lots and lots of cons on the other.
If you invite big money into your sport, then the big money will want to take over and get big returns regardless of how they do it.

stadium wrote: The Premiership has been poor value this year to many one sided games Exeter v Northampton for example. With the Saracens fiasco and the England World Cup hangover the season seems to be dead already. The RFU did not help with its timing of the announcement that it wants to kill off the Championship. All in All the games future is at stake.

Agreed, also this is what will happen when the Premiership is ring-fenced. If you are in the bottom 3 or 4 after halfway there will be no incentive to either field best teams or give 100%.

Interest will be lost, attendances will fall and eventually players will be paid less.

Penda wrote: The RFU should drastically cut the money it puts into the Premiership. £70m I believe, goes into professional rugby from the RFU. Why should the community game lose money to effectively subsidise the profits of the likes of CVC?  If the PRL wants to get into bed with commercial parasites like CVC let it. But not at the expense of the rest of the game. You only have to look at what CVC did to Formula 1. There isn't a long enough bargepole.

Oddly enough, I wonder if the CVC wont accidentally level the playing field . After the initial infusion is p*ssed away, then the prem clubs will all get 30%less per year. CVC says that they will grow revenues, but investors want return on investment.