{"id":68385,"date":"2021-05-07T05:01:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T05:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=68385"},"modified":"2021-05-07T11:02:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T11:02:58","slug":"massive-crowd-for-super-rugby-grand-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=68385","title":{"rendered":"Massive crowd for Super Rugby grand final"},"content":{"rendered":"

The success of Super Rugby AU has given Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos "something to ponder" as Saturday's grand final hurtles towards a potential sellout at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

Ticket sales are flying for the clash between the Reds and Brumbies, which will also be screened live on Channel Nine's main channel in Queensland, NSW and the ACT.<\/p>\n

It is a massive boost for the code, which was on its knees due to COVID-19 last year as RA copped a $27.1 million loss.<\/a><\/p>\n

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https:\/\/twitter.com\/RugbyOnNine\/status\/1390506913666789379?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

The pandemic forced Australia and New Zealand to go domestic last year while Super Rugby trans-Tasman will launch on May 14.<\/p>\n

Super Rugby next year is likely to feature 12 teams – five each from Australia and NZ and two new Pacific Island franchises.<\/a><\/p>\n

But nothing is yet set in stone as Marinos told reporters on Thursday that administrators hoped to finalise competition structures by the end of next month.<\/p>\n

"It's certainly given us something to ponder," Marinos said of Super Rugby AU's success.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Reformed rugby star's emotional 'lie' confession<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Superstar casualties in bombshell Lions squad<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Wallabies to play midweek Tests against France<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"We've been really encouraged by what we've seen, the enthusiasm, the fact that we have an Aussie winner every week and the fact that we've been able to unearth and develop and bring through a whole lot of new young talent.<\/p>\n

"And there certainly is an optimism – all of our metrics are tracking upwards, our broadcast viewership is up, our attendances are positive.<\/p>\n

"And this is all part of this new era that we're going into, in terms of we've got to look at what the landscape is and certainly do what's best for both of us (Australia and NZ).<\/p>\n

"There's a lot of value in trans-Tasman – it's also good to give yourself a litmus test against your compatriots across the ditch.<\/p>\n

\"Green's<\/p>\n

"We've just got to wait and see – what is that whole competition structure going to look like with the possibility of our other two teams joining?"<\/p>\n

NZR has been leading the addition of Moana Pasifika and Fijian Drua but their inclusion still hinges on RA signoff.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Marinos admitted that the Wallabies playing three Tests against France<\/a> was far from ideal from a player welfare perspective.<\/p>\n

But he said RA was left with little other option given the cards they were dealt by World Rugby and the realities of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Tests will be held in Sydney (July 7), Melbourne (July 13) and Brisbane (July 17).<\/p>\n

"In World Cups past we also had to deal with four day turnarounds – it's not completely unrealistic," Marinos said.<\/p>\n

"Is it optimal? No. Do we want to have a fair turnaround for players? Absolutely.<\/p>\n

"We've got to face the realities that this is unfortunately a COVID-induced environment and we're trying to optimise things on both sides of the balance sheet so to speak."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The success of Super Rugby AU has given Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos "something to ponder" as Saturday's grand final hurtles towards a potential […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68385"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68387,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68385\/revisions\/68387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}