Australian Rugby Union side ACT Brumbies is "quietly optimistic" it can "buck declining crowd trends and a tight financial market" to turn a A$1.68M ($1.21M) loss into more than a A$1M ($720,000) profit in the next 12 months, according to Chris Dutton of THE AGE. Brumbies CEO Michael Jones detailed his plans for the future -- including increasing sponsorship, merchandise and crowds -- to end five years in a row of deficits. The team will get a "major boost" on Thursday when the ARU announces a record A$285M ($205M) TV rights deal. It followed "a week of uncertainty after it was revealed there was tension with the Brumbies' long-time partner the University of Canberra," which stems from the ongoing ACT Police investigation into "the anomalies into transactions from the sale of the club's Griffith base and move to the university." But Jones hopes the parties "can reach a resolution." He said, "I just want us to get down to business. We're going to be at UC for 30 years, we need to repair the relationship, it's as simple as that. ... It's going to be another hard year [in 2016] because we've set ourselves some ambitious targets to turn around a dismal [financial] performance. But we've made the structural and fundamental change to deliver that. There's a clearer vision of what we're trying to do" (THE AGE, 12/16).
