Talking Footy

Soccer threat to union and AFL


June 14, 2006

RUGBY union and the AFL have been warned they have most to fear from a World Cup-inspired surge in support for Australian soccer.


Former rugby league international John Ribot, the chairman of A-League side the Queensland Roar and consultant with NRL team the Melbourne Storm, said rugby union audiences were a target for soccer.

"The obvious one is rugby union which I think in the last few years has lost its way a little bit," he said today.

"That would be an easier target than the other two."


"If you look at a code with masses playing it that could be damaged a lot because the type of athlete playing the game is more akin to football it is the AFL," he said.

"You could see Jason Akermanis playing soccer."

But outspoken Brisbane Lions wingman Akermanis said he did not believe soccer appealed to an Australian sporting culture demanding more physical contact.

"If the World Cup was held every year, maybe soccer would be a worry," Akermanis wrote in his Brisbane Courier Mail newspaper column.

"But kids will continue to be inspired by the weekly feats of the AFL and NRL or Test match rugby.

"And the corporate world will continue to see greater value in the three contact codes."

Queensland Reds coach Eddie Jones said soccer presented a huge challenge for Australian rugby at an international level.

"In reality our other two winter sports are more domestic sports than international sports," the former Wallabies coach said.

"So rugby's got a great challenger there."

Jones said the Australian Rugby Union was addressing domestic challenges to the code by starting a national club competition to support the Super 14 and Test program.

But he said officials would be unwise to tinker with rugby's rules to boost the game's entertainment value by reducing the number of penalties or the importance of the scrum.

"The sport itself if it's played well is entertaining," he said.

"If you go down the track of wanting to make it entertaining you take the contest out of the game.

"I think the big emphasis for rugby should definitely be in youth development programs."

Ribot said the A-League, which starts its second season in August, was not a direct threat to the rival codes because it was played over spring and summer months.

But he said because of the boost in the Socceroos profile from the World Cup the sport had become "a real competitor".

"I'm not saying it's going to be doom and gloom for rugby league or Aussies Rules or rugby union.

"But I think if people don't really go out there and sharpen their pencil and make good corporate decisions going forward in the best interests of their game they could really get themselves in a bit of strife."

Willis 21 wrote:

Interesting article...

Couldn't agree more.. AFL is dying, and union has been dead for years..

Willis 21 wrote:

Interesting article...

Couldn't agree more.. AFL is dying, and union has been dead for years..

Fox Sports home of the Unwanted
Author: eNews staff and agencies | Apr 21, 2006, 18:09
http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/Fox_ ... anted.html

The contrast was telling. Here was the News Ltd-owned Daily Telegraph in Sydney trumpeting this big deal for soccer in Australia with a fantastic rights deal with Fox Sports, owned by Premier Media Group, which is half owned by News, with PBL.

And here is a story (which is a rewritten version of two press releases) on the more dramatic switch of the domestic cricket competition from the Nine Network to Fox Sports.

In the Tele story much was made of the $120 million value over five years ($25 million a year), while not a mention of the value of the cricket deal by either Cricket Australia or Foxtel or Fox Sports.

And yet the domestic cricket deal is a bigger story because it represents a major retreat (for cost reasons) by the country’s leading Free To Air sports TV Network. Nine’s move means it is now out of any future battle for sports rights, unless its at a more acceptable price.

Nine just doesn’t have the money to maintain the AFL, NRL and Cricket.

The Nine Network signed a huge deal with Cricket Australia last year: a deal driven and shaped by Lynton Taylor, the former Nine executive brought back by Kerry Packer to help David Gyngell and Nine retain the cricket and the AFL and the Rugby League TV rights.

That deal was estimated in media reports to be worth more than $240 million to $280 million over six years starting April 1, 2006.

So within three weeks of the new contract starting, Nine has flicked a large proportion of its coverage to the half-owned associate Fox Sports so that Nine can save money. No mention of that at Nine or in the News Ltd media or any other media.

It's a straight cost cut by Eddie McGuire, Nine's Director of Sport, Steve Crawley and CFO, Brent Cubis.

Nine will retain the international cricket, and games like the World Cup matches from overseas. Foxtel will probably end up sharing those as well showing all non-Australian World Cup Games plus all future overseas tours by Australian teams, except the Ashes, which will be left on the anti-siphoning list.

Nine is also looking at ditching or sharing other sports (and cost) with Fox Sports: these include golf and tennis, such as the US masters and British Open and more of Wimbledon and the US Open tennis.

No mention either in the News Ltd prose about the relative ranking of the deal, which confirms that Soccer is a niche sport and will remain so because it can't make it on free to air TV.

Seven's AFL deal with Ten is valued at $780 million, Nine's NRL contract over six years is valued at $500 million (and will be subjected to cost cutting by Nine management to reduce the impact of the 60% increase next year), the Super 14 Rugby Union deal is worth around $500 million, the cricket is worth more than $240 million (but less now to Nine) and Soccer is worth around $120 million.

Not the gold mine to the code that the AFL, NRL Union and cricket TV deals are.

Looking at the Foxtel deal, subscribers will pay more for their subscriptions to enable Fox Sports to be paid more because they are in the process of lifting fees.

Foxtel will use the soccer and cricket deals as subscription drivers.

It means Foxtel will reach a deal with Seven and Ten on the AFL for Pay TV; AFL is the most important subscription driver : just look at the premium built into the FTA deal for the AFL compared to other sports.

Foxtel subscribers will be financing the $25 million a year that the soccer will cost. They presently finance the $35 million and $40 million a year paid for the AFL under the contract with Nine and Ten that expires at the end of this season.

Seventeen million dollars a year in rights fees will flow to soccer, the other $8 million will be production and marketing costs.

That sounds a lot, but compared to the AFL it's not.

Soccer doesn't even come near the sort of audiences that AFL and NRL games attract on Foxtel: those two codes are by far the biggest audience grabbers.

For Foxtel, the soccer and cricket deals are as cheap if not cheaper than spending millions on marketing to limit customer churn and try and sign up new customers. It will enable Foxtel to have a better chance of retaining customers when their contracts are about to expire.

There are hundreds of thousands of contracts expiring over the next year from the people for moved early to digital when Foxtel converted.

Soccer doesn't even come near the sort of audiences that AFL and NRL games attract on Foxtel: those two codes are by far the biggest audience grabbers

Rugby claims big win on broadcast deal
December 22, 2004 - 12:44PM


Rugby has secured a significant increase in its broadcast rights after the SANZAR rugby alliance finalised a five-year $US323 million ($A423 million) deal with News Ltd and South Africa's Supersport.

The deal with SANZAR - the alliance between the South Africa, New Zealand and Australia rugby unions - includes broadcast rights for Australia, New Zealand, Africa, the United Kingdom and Ireland from 2006 until 2010.

Willis 21 wrote:

Yeah.. your right .. I was just taking the pis... Soccer is no threat to AFL...

Willis 21 wrote:

I think some of the soccer idiots get a bit ahead of themselves.... One month of World Cup every four years does not translate into FTA contracts and huge crowds for the domestic comp...

Willis 21 wrote:

Union could be a little worried though - they have no proper club competition, and their band wagon niche of the Wallabies could be threatened by the Socceroos around the country... I notice that their test match last week was a rating disaster in the AFL states, and the crowds in Sydney and Melbourne for the tests against the poms were far from sell outs...

Willis 21 wrote:

Union could be a little worried though - they have no proper club competition, and their band wagon niche of the Wallabies could be threatened by the Socceroos around the country... I notice that their test match last week was a rating disaster in the AFL states, and the crowds in Sydney and Melbourne for the tests against the poms were far from sell outs...