While the Australian Rugby Union "may be struggling to find a sponsor for Super Rugby, it has landed one of the world’s biggest corporate sponsors" to support the Olympic Gold Medal-winning Australian women’s sevens program for four years, according to Nicole Jeffery of THE AUSTRALIAN. The ARU announced global insurance company Aon, which sponsors ManU, the MLB Chicago Cubs and New Zealand Yachting, "will provide financial support for the Pearls and for the development programs that will deliver the next generation of players to the national team." The company will also be the major sponsor of the new national universities competition, "which will kick off in August and of the national youth series." ARU CEO Bill Pulver said, "This is going to be the most comprehensive talent development pathway probably of any sport. If you think of capturing the national schoolgirls sevens right through to the national series right through to the superstar international sevens girls, the Aon partnership is incredibly significant. We’re going to be taking schoolgirls and making them into superheroes of international sport." Pulver added that the Gold Medal the women's team won at the Rio Olympics "had made all this possible." He said that rugby, like the Australian Football League and cricket, now realized the "strategic value the women’s game had in growing participation in the sport, and that all were fighting for the best female athletic talent." Pulver: "Women's sport is catapulting in this country to the point that there's a land grab for elite talent" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/3). In Sydney, Tom Decent reported asked whether the new sponsorship deal "would result in even more handsome salaries" for Australian rugby's "golden girls," Pulver said that "more could be done." Pulver: "It's probably fair to say that the girls behind me contribute far more to Australian rugby than we pay them. The commercial value they bring to the game is priceless and I think they know that Australian rugby is extremely grateful for that. They're, I think, unquestionably the best paid elite female athletes in the country. Are they worth a lot more than we pay them? Absolutely." The ARU is "still without a major sponsor for the Super Rugby season." Asked if Aon "might be able to help out," Pulver said, "We're chipping away," adding that "if there's any potential sponsor listening to any part of this, Super Rugby is the best provincial tournament in the world and we would love to speak to you" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 2/2).
STAY HYDRATED: The ARU announced a new partnership with sports hydration company SOS Hydration Inc. Beginning in '17, SOS will become the official hydration partner of the Wallabies through the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, as well as the Australian men's and women's sevens teams, in their build up to their Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games campaign (ARU).
