Re: Cheetahs invited to join Pro12
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2017 11:42 am
BigD163 wrote:The Feral Goat wrote:http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40448854
2 SA teams to join 2017/18 (unconfirmed still but appears a done deal) certainly story not going away.
There have been a few articles on various SA and UK/Irish papers/websites since this first appeared a month or so ago. What I had not appreciated was that SA provide the majority of the TV revenue to SANZAR and Super rugby at present. Indications are that there is an equal split of TV revenue in this Pro12 deal.
As usual further details needed but from a purely commercial point of view it appears to make more sense than I had initially thought.
https://www.alloutrugby.com/sa-teams-queue-for-pro12/
I'd only be in favour in it if:
a) They guarantee the 2 sides in the pro 12 are not to become feeder teams for Super Rugby sides.
b) The eventual plan is for SA to withdraw from SANZAR and join an expanded pro 12.
Not sure how both of the above are workable though.
a) think there is a history of the better teams recruiting the better players from the weaker SA franchises, much like Leinster/Munster have done with Connacht in the past
b) certainly sounds like there are big problems within SANZAR, last thing I would want is a conference system. don't like them, have never known them to work but cant see how there can be expansion beyond 14 teams without it.