The Australian Rugby Union has given the Melbourne Rebels’ private Owner, Andrew Cox, financial support worth more than A$6M ($4.6M) "for five years to stop the bleeding from a club" that has cost the game between A$15M ($11.5M) and $20M ($15.3M) since its inception, according to Wayne Smith of the THE AUSTRALIAN. Because the deal is front-end loaded, it is understood the Rebels are being paid A$2.6M ($2M) for '16, "the initial year of the deal, but that payments are reduced considerably in value over the remaining four years." The other four Australian Super Rugby clubs -- the Waratahs, Brumbies, Queensland Reds and Western Force -- are allocated A$1.7M ($1.3M) a year for the five-year term of December’s A$285M ($218.5M) broadcast agreement with Fox and Ten, rising by A$50,000 ($38,337) a year. The Rebels "also receive any additional money the ARU periodically gives the clubs," such as the A$50,000 they each received to help with marketing. While the Rebels might receive an additional A$900,000 ($690,000) from the ARU in the initial year of the arrangement, "the deal peters out so dramatically that in year five," the Melbourne club will receive only A$100,000 ($76,675). The benefit for the ARU is that "it is now not faced with propping up a club that, on average, was losing" $3.5M ($2.7M) a season. Cox has "insisted the deal with the ARU was entirely proper and transparent." ARU CEO Bill Pulver said that it was in the ARU's interest for "Cox to succeed and prove that private ownership worked in Australia." Pulver: "The funding arrangement expires after five years and Cox will get what every other Super Rugby club gets. But we chose to go with him because he has a proven record of turning distressed businesses around. We desperately want him to be a success. He can become a role model for other entrepreneurs" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 4/1).
