If we want PE in Australian rugby, it should come into Super/the pro ‘franchise tier’.

Provincial Unions need to sell off their teams and only look after proper rep teams (schoolboys and SOO level state teams). Let the Reds etc become independent franchises per the NRL/AFL.

This will:
A) Stop the financial fortune of the game from being tied to RA & the provincial unions as ATMs

B) Subject these new independent franchises to the free market in the sense that they will be forced to adapt to market trends. They’ll be forced to embrace competition....

This will force them to build sustainable financial models as a pre-requisite of their existence

RA should only have a seat at the table when it comes to governing the league as a collective (as the NRL has a seat at the table in the ARLC).

This will free the national and provincial unions up to focus almost entirely on developing the grassroots from revenue acquired by representative brands such as the Wallabies and e.g. the Queensland team (e.g. Reds would rebrand as Brisbane).

It doesn’t make sense to sell a stake in something like RA, when RA isn’t inherently a profit-driven commercial entity. It’s really just a custodian of the game here in Australia.

If we are serious about PE, we need to create opportunities for profit-driven commercial entities to emerge through privatising pro franchises and allowing PE to buy into them instead.

It’s the reason why brands such as the Broncos make $$$. It simply wouldn’t work if the QRL controlled them. It conflates duties that don’t mix together: that of a non-profit driven custodian organisation, + that of a profit-driven franchise entity