|
Issue No. 125 | 22 February 2002 |
Unfair and Dismal
Interview: If Not Now, When? Activists: Fighting Back Industrial: Croon And Divide Politics: Politics of Extinction History: Harry Bridges: International Labour Hero International: Rats in the Ranks Review: Follow The Fence, Find The Truth Satire: Howard Screws Refugee Kids: G-G Turns Blind Eye Poetry: Let It Be
Building Workers' Bid to Win Back Lives Dog-Tired � Long Hours Leave Beagles Buggered Home Care Workers Reject Sweat Building Commission's Costly Spin Caltex Asked To Explain Price Hikes Palm Sunday Resurrected for Refugees Dismissals: Labor Blocks The Lot Company Collapses: Union Wants Bank Powers Legal Action to Block Job Exports Councils Targeted in Contracting Campaign CFMEU Constructs Lebanese Bridge Israeli Aircraft Destroy Most Of Palestinian Union HQ
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review
Tom's Foolery Give Us a Spray!
Labor Council of NSW |
The Locker Room Bunnies in the Headlights
************** Maybe, just maybe, South Sydney fans have a sneaking sympathy for New Zealand Rugby Union officials so roundly vilified by Australian chief executive John O'Neill in recent days. This presupposes that Rabbitohs backers give a large rodent's backside for anything the Rah Rah boys do or think which, as long as they keep out of Redfern, is probably not the case. They might then be surprised to learn the NZRFU is facing the same poison that threatened their existence, if in a less-concentrated dose. O'Neill has pasted trans-Tasman counterparts for sabotaging the ARU dream of becoming Australia's dominant winter code. Its plan to mutate the Super 12 into a Super 14 with additional franchises in Australia and South Africa hit a big, black snag. But there are two sides to every story and, in this case, New Zealanders are protecting a tradition that offers the lesser paid, even the unpaid, a place in their wintery sun. Unlike Australia, New Zealand has an organic, sustainable domestic competition that has fanned passions for 100 years. Currently it goes under the NPC (National Provincial Championship) banner which, in three divisions, offers recognition to hundreds of footballers who will never pull on an All Black jersey. Otago-Southland and Hawke's Bay-Taranaki mean bugger all to pay television but plenty to people in those provinces. No All Black great is recognised as a Crusader, Highlander, Blue or any other marketing invention. Kel Tremain is Hawke's Bay, Colin Meads means King Country and the Nepia name is synonomous with the North Island's East Coast. Last year it was the promotion bid of a third division, amateur, almost entirely Maori team from Nepia's sparsely populated stamping ground that captured imaginations and headlines across the land. The problem is that the NPC, popular with people rather than corporates, is having the life squeezed out of it by bookends negotiated with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, namely Super 12 at the start of the season, and tri-series Tests at the end. O'Neill, dependent on New Zealand and South Africa for credibility in his domestic marketplace, has a point but so, too, does a country that has nurtured its own competition. Typically, the debate contains ethical, practical and commercial considerations. But the lessons of the marketplace, no less, suggest the answers need not be mutually exclusive. Union's ructions come as big money sports rights deals are feeling the chill breeze of recession blowing right up their jacksies. British operation, Sportsworld Media, which holds AFL signage rights and owns the National Basketball League in this country, is on the brink of collapse. Its share price has plummeted from 220p to a derisory 3.5p in less than four months. German media conglomerate, Kirsch, having paid over the odds for the Bundeslegia and Formula One motor racing, faces imminent bankruptcy. The $500 million Rupert Murdoch dropped on Super League is starting to look like rabbit tucker against his global exposure. News Corp's December quarter result included a $1.5 billion write down on the $8.8 billion, over 10 years, it pitched into American sport. The company identified gridiron, NASCAR and baseball as its blackest holes. Murdoch's BskyB has read the writing on the wall and written off the $1 billion in poured into Kirsch. The Rupert-Kerry-Ten consortium that hoofed a cool half billion into AFL hasn't leveled with shareholders yet but, eventually, it will. The point is not that business doesn't matter, nor that it is unimportant, just that its real place in the sporting queue is a couple behind that occupied by the loyal supporter. The NZRFU appears to be coming to terms with that reality. Souths have known it all along.
|
Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
© 1999-2002 Workers Online |
|