Ben Cisneros’ Post

🏉🧑⚖️ A very interesting piece discussing the Restraint of Trade doctrine and anticompetitive behaviour in the context of professional rugby. The ability for players to be selected to represent their country when playing overseas is a point of discussion that is being raised more often than ever, particularly in New Zealand as more and more players look overseas for greater ¥€£$ and experiences. On a similar topic: Looking to the future ➡️ of Super Rugby and the ongoing discussions of what the competition could look like in the years to come: ▶️ Would removing some control that NZR currently has over the Super Franchises foster a greater level of competition? ▶️Is the extent of control NZR has over the Super franchises and All Black players during Super season arguably anti-competitive? ▶️ Would a shift from central contracting to greater privatisation foster greater competition for player signatures and revenue streams? ▶️Could a draft system bridge the talent gap between franchises? Anyone who has been involved in sport knows that competition is healthy… food for thought 💭

The new Men's Professional Game Partnership (MPGP), announced today, is a watershed moment for English rugby, for a number of reasons. 🌹 Most notably: 1) It is the first time that the Rugby Players Association has been a signatory to the agreement governing the professional game, recognising the essential role that players have in shaping the future of the sport. 🏉 2) It includes a landmark joint marketing agreement, which should facilitate a more coherent commercial strategy for selling the professional game, which is desperately needed. 📈 There are many other positive talking points in the new deal but, as ever, the proof will be in the pudding. 🍰 However, it is not clear that this amounts to the full "relaunch" of the Premiership that was promised following the demise of Worcester and Wasps. In particular, significant questions remain over promotion/relegation and the status of the Championship. 🤔 The Minimum Standards Criteria have been adapted to make it easier for Championship clubs to get promoted (if they can win a two-legged play-off) but, as the full RFU press release states, "there is currently a major gap in competitiveness and playing budgets between the Gallagher Premiership and Championship clubs and the financial requirements needed to compete in the Premiership". Yet, strikingly, the new MPGP does not appear to tackle this fundamental problem (which results from the lack of funding and commercialisation of the second tier) and the Championship clubs are excluded from the MPGP. It is disappointing that the opportunity has been missed to remedy this chronic issue, which will, no doubt, continue to plague the competition. What do you make of today's announcement? Let me know in the comments. ⬇ #sportslaw #sportbiz #EnglandRugby #rugby #sport https://lnkd.in/gz-Tc_fU

In a recent post, I stated the financial imbalance between Premiership Rugby, United Rugby Championship & The #Top14, driven by media rights that are considerably greater in favour of the #French League, will see the conitunued outflow of British Players to #France to seek greater renumeration. It's pretty much 101 #supplyanddemand #ecomomics. However, there is a further underlining issue that is much more difficult for the #PremiershipRugby to rectify that puts them at a long-term competitive disadvantage. Over the last couple of decades with heathly promotion and relegation, we've seen the emergence of well-financed 'large-market' city clubs, evenly distributed across France, rise to the top of the #Top14, while many of the traditional 'smaller-town' South-West clubs now residing in #ProD2 or even below. Whereas, the #English league has, for all intents and purposes, become a pseudo ‘closed league’, with clubs residing in the smaller towns or city suburds. The #Premiership has no representation in many of the major city markets, leading to a geographical non-profit maximization scenario. In simple terms if you were starting from scratch Club's would ideally be evenly spread across all the major city markets, in order to maximise the league's audience and revenue potential. The ownership and governance structure of the #Premeriship, where incumbent clubs, along with CVC Capital Partners, own the league and make all the decisions, will naturally, lean strongly towards promoting the continuation of the status quo in terms of it's club representation. Turkeys are not going to vote for Christmas! It therefore seems logical to assume, with this along the media rights disparity, the English are in danger of being in a long-term state of systemic negative competitive imbalance in relation to their French counterparts and number one competitors. #Rugby #SportsEconomics #EnglandRugby #FrenchRugby #economics #sportseconomy #CVC #privatequity #competition England Rugby FFR - Fédération Française de Rugby Ligue Nationale de Rugby European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) World Rugby Rugby Europe Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) WRU - Welsh Rugby Union Scottish Rugby

World Rugby to limit influence of lawyers World Rugby plans to overhaul the red card disciplinary system and restrict any advantage enjoyed by richer nations who can employ expensive lawyers. Standard bans of two or four weeks are to be handed down for red cards during a trial in the Under-20 World Championship, WXV and Pacific Nations Cup. World Rugby's plan recognises the difference between a rugby incident (punished by a ban of two weeks) and reckless conduct such as a shoulder charge (four weeks). The governing body expects 70% of all disciplinary cases to trigger one of the two automatic bans, reducing substantially any influence of lawyers on the outcome of disciplinary hearings. World Rugby wants to remove any perception of the disciplinary system being rigged against developing nations.

Who will get the Lions' share?... (See also: https://lnkd.in/gFZ32_Tj ) "The British & Irish Lions has today announced details of a new player agreement which will see players selected for the 2025 Tour to Australia benefit from a PROFIT SHARE MODEL for the 1st time. The agreement will see the creation of a new partnership model whereby a PORTION OF THE DISTRIBUTABLE POST-TOUR PROFITS will be made available for sharing between players..." However this PORTION may be much less than 100%. And DISTRIBUTABLE POST-TOUR PROFITS may be much less than Total Profits. And Total Profits may be much less than Total Revenue Generated from the tour. So ideally, to maximize remuneration for their work input, players would negotiate additional payments as proportions (say of total series match minutes played) of Total Revenue Generated from future tours. However, the new current agreement does suggest a significant step improvement in player bargaining power, and move to greater incentivization and potentially performance of Lions players....(Wallabies watch out...) https://lnkd.in/gnvq_4bJ

As a rugby fan it is pleasing to see that Wasps, London Irish and Worcester are looking to make a return to Championship Rugby, which will no doubt see them push for promotion into the Premiership. I think this has the potential to be big for the finances of top flight rugby, additionsl teams would bring additional matches leading to more money through match day income, TV rights and so on. The finances of top flight rugby have been subject to scrutiny of late and whilst I am sure things are going on behind the scenes in a bid to make clubs more viable there has been limited outward press that could allay concerns of fans. However, a lot is going to depend upon whether the top tier expands back to 12 or more teams to accommodate this or if it remains in its current ten team format with the newly introduced promotion and relegation playoff. Depending upon how this season turns out there is a possibility that the Championship next season contains one current Premiership team and the three phoenix clubs all vying for one promotion spot. This could turn into an arms race and that has the potential to be detrimental to long term prospects of a club if they spend big money in search of the top flight only to fall short. As we have seen multiple times in the football league the consequences of this can result in an insolvency process. Whilst the financial stakes are arguably lower in rugby, as the recent insolvencies have shown these carry a significant impact on not just the club but the wider rugby union ecosphere.

It's the re-brand EVERYONE'S talking about!! No, not THAT one silly. It's the Six Nations! I love rugby. I was fairly crap at it before the two broken legs, but my dad played for WRU - Welsh Rugby Union back in the day so I've always had a vested interest. I love rugby. And not to make this too "marketing-y" but of the 4 Ps we must talk about one of them - PRODUCT - that can never be questioned in my eyes. A day out at the ruggers at any level is a day well spent. I love rugby. But christ, the business is tanking... Whether in Wales it's the car-crash of regions vs the union and total lack of investment at grass roots, or in England the main England Rugby man clearly trousering mad bonuses while the ship sinks, or the comedy of the Allianz deal, or the £15m losses reported by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) I love rugby. And I KNOW that fixing the mess it's in can't come down to spending untold thousands on crap like this effort for the "SHINY NEW" Six Nations comp - Europe's premier international rugby competition. Let's not all fall into the trap of thinking that a pretty new logo can fix anything - or even be any kind of "catalyst for change" the chaps in the boardrooms will have discussed. I love rugby. What rugby needs is a systematic change, a clear-out of tired management in all the home unions, to look at the French model, to promote itself better, to do better TV and sponsorship deals... everything, done better. Maybe they should get people who are actually building successful businesses (George) to take a look... I'd help.

Rugby's Paradox: Thriving Yet Changing In an era of record-breaking viewership and expanding global appeal, rugby finds itself at a crossroads. World Rugby's proposed law changes have sparked a debate about tradition, innovation, and the sport's future direction.Our latest analysis delves into: • Rugby's current global success • Proposed law amendments and their rationale • The potential impact on the game's futureJoin the discussion on rugby's evolution. Read the full article by clicking below 👇 #movesports #thegamechangers #movewithus #rugby #portugalrugby

"Good ideas are always crazy until they're not"- Larry Page My heart goes out to all the supporters, volunteers and of course, players and coaches of the Melbourne Rebels, the Board (past and present) who got them in to this mess, not so much. It sounds mad but why don't the Melbourne Rebels field a team in the 2025 Shute Shield? Before you scoff ( I heard it from here) the numbers are not frightening. The cost of travel would be around $500 000 (Assuming 2 Grade Teams and a Colts team - or 1 Grade Team, 1 Women's team and a Colts team). Add to that the cost of running a Shute Shield club (around $1m) and maybe some extras (call it $500 000 to be safe) and you are left with a bill of around $2m . Not a huge number between Victorian Rugby Union, the Victorian Government and Rugby Australia. This number would obviously reduce after Membership, Sponsorship and Gate were collected but even if that revenue amounted to zero - $2.0m to keep a club in Melbourne sounds a fraction of the previous arrangement. The benefits would be a club for Victorian juniors to aspire to (albeit semi professional) there is a Victorian team for fans to congregate around and the games can be played in Stadiums more suited to the size of the crowds. For Stan, there is a reason for Victorian Rugby fans to keep their subscription, it solves RA's issue of providing a team in Victoria and all of us can do something to support Rugby in Victoria. Would the other Shute Shield Clubs go for it? Not sure, the progressive ones would as they should see the benefits to the game, so probably. Liz Radcliffe (President of Victorian Rugby) no doubt has a lot to think about and good on her for taking the role at such a difficult time. No solution is perfect and this idea is a good example of that, however, no fairy god mother is going to appear with the cash required to keep a fully professional Rugby Union team in Victoria. Liz, you will be pleasantly surprised at the number of non Victorian rugby fans willing to put their hand up, myself included, to grow the game. Try it for a year and see what happens - got to be better than the current situation?

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) #Sports covering Rugby Australia's trial to further protect #Rugby players from possible concussion injury. Initial trials and research from data collected over the last six years have shown that the risk of concussion is 4.2 times higher when a tackler's head is positioned above the sternum of the ball carrier. The safest place to tackle is between the waist and sternum. The new law (9.13) has been adopted across all Rugby Victoria competitions, excluding Super Rugby Pacific & Super W elite competitions. Dangerous tackling now includes, but not be limited to, tackling or attempting to tackle an opponent above the line of the sternum. This law trial demonstrates one of the steps to reduce the risk of brain injury in collision sports. The benefits for both kids & adults playing rugby union far outweigh the minimal risk of a concussion injury. Source: Tom Maddocks, Sports Journalist. ABC Sport April 2024 [ABC iView] #Concussion #Rugby #TackleTechnique #Referee #Coaching Melbourne University Rugby Union Football Club Junior Faatoese Tom Lucas