A full strength NPC?
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The sport's national governing body announced that all competitions below Mitre 10 Cup and Farah Palmer Cup would be axed, which also includes the Jock Hobbs Memorial National U-19 tournament, the national sevens tournament and all provincial Union representative rugby tournaments.
Those cancellations amount to an overall saving of $20 million for NZR, said CEO Mark Robinson.
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Fuck it, someone has to put it out there. How does the Heartland Championship get axed but the FPC goes ahead?? Which one has the history again?? Does the FPC generate income? Or is it required simply in order to generate a national team, which goes on to cost NZR money?
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Probably because there is at least one Farah Palmer cup match live every weekend (as double headers with Mitre 10 Cup) as well as the two finals, and the money generated from Sky is greater for these than just the two live finals of Heartland Championship.
I think the Sky contract pays NZR in terms of broadcast hours rather than number of matches?
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Sponsor update from HB Rugby, could be a much stronger NPC - hopefully..
"Mitre 10 Cup – There are some really positive discussions happening about this which is exciting for us. Several scenarios are being looked at with one sticking to the current format and distributed draw, secondly an option to establish a 14 team competition with a full round robin like the old days. There is a very good chance all Super Rugby players will be available from the start with the cancellation of the planned Super Rugby competition. All Black test matches are under severe threat so AB’s could be introduced and additionally the majority of players who were playing in Japan, France the UK etc have returned to NZ and indicated that they would be keen to play. We have been told that here are more than 50 players who have returned with the likes of Kieran Read (Counties Manukau) and Brodie Rettalick (Hawkes Bay) who would turn out in provincial rugby as they just want to play. Sky TV now don’t have the televised rights for cricket so can be more flexible on start and end dates to competitions as they want the rugby content for their viewers and the provincial competition is very important due to the ability to connect throughout the whole of NZ. "
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@shark said in A full strength NPC?:
Fuck it, someone has to put it out there. How does the Heartland Championship get axed but the FPC goes ahead?? Which one has the history again?? Does the FPC generate income? Or is it required simply in order to generate a national team, which goes on to cost NZR money?
I guess because the international teams have to have some rugby in case of internationals, both men and women. We don;t need the girls being stuffed by England etc in the coming months - if anything happens. Just a guess
Great news about the M10, only feel sorry for the poor feckers at the bottom of the pecking order that will fall out with ABs and SR players rocking up to the squad - hopefully they'll be sorted?
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@alftelf I hope HB is right re availability. I'm not sure that the clubs those returned players are still contracted to would be ok with it; but fingers crossed assuming their own comps aren't running!
I'd love to see a full round-robin and six team finals series.
I said on the other SR v NPC thread that this could be a good opportunity for NZR to boost sponsorship revenue, and this extends to the unions as well. It'd be tough on a sponsor who'd supported a union of late but if the value of the sponsorship increased due to the profile of the competition then so be it. An existing sponsor could either pay more, or pay the same amount for a reduced role which in a higher-profile comp could still equate in value to them (if this was measurable).
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@alftelf said in A full strength NPC?:
Sponsor update from HB Rugby, could be a much stronger NPC - hopefully..
"Mitre 10 Cup – There are some really positive discussions happening about this which is exciting for us. Several scenarios are being looked at with one sticking to the current format and distributed draw, secondly an option to establish a 14 team competition with a full round robin like the old days. There is a very good chance all Super Rugby players will be available from the start with the cancellation of the planned Super Rugby competition. All Black test matches are under severe threat so AB’s could be introduced and additionally the majority of players who were playing in Japan, France the UK etc have returned to NZ and indicated that they would be keen to play. We have been told that here are more than 50 players who have returned with the likes of Kieran Read (Counties Manukau) and Brodie Rettalick (Hawkes Bay) who would turn out in provincial rugby as they just want to play. Sky TV now don’t have the televised rights for cricket so can be more flexible on start and end dates to competitions as they want the rugby content for their viewers and the provincial competition is very important due to the ability to connect throughout the whole of NZ. "
If we get this, we need to get as many people along and watching on sky as possible so they get a message this is what we want!
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@Kirwan said in A full strength NPC?:
@alftelf said in A full strength NPC?:
Sponsor update from HB Rugby, could be a much stronger NPC - hopefully..
"Mitre 10 Cup – There are some really positive discussions happening about this which is exciting for us. Several scenarios are being looked at with one sticking to the current format and distributed draw, secondly an option to establish a 14 team competition with a full round robin like the old days. There is a very good chance all Super Rugby players will be available from the start with the cancellation of the planned Super Rugby competition. All Black test matches are under severe threat so AB’s could be introduced and additionally the majority of players who were playing in Japan, France the UK etc have returned to NZ and indicated that they would be keen to play. We have been told that here are more than 50 players who have returned with the likes of Kieran Read (Counties Manukau) and Brodie Rettalick (Hawkes Bay) who would turn out in provincial rugby as they just want to play. Sky TV now don’t have the televised rights for cricket so can be more flexible on start and end dates to competitions as they want the rugby content for their viewers and the provincial competition is very important due to the ability to connect throughout the whole of NZ. "
If we get this, we need to get as many people along and watching on sky as possible so they get a message this is what we want!
Problem is even if NZ want it, if overseas don't and won't pay to watch it then it won't happen. Unless we pick ABs from overseas and then the M10 will be back to no ABs anyway cos we won't be able to compete in the slightest.