KEY POINTS:
Sanzar bosses are aiming to launch their dramatically revamped Super Rugby competition a year earlier than planned, having received approval from broadcasters to do so.
Super 14 and Tri Nations have an existing broadcast contract that will expire in 2011 but Sanzar officials have been encouraged by concerned media partners to implement change in time for the 2010 season.
New Zealand Ruby Union chief executive Steve Tew met his Australian and South African counterparts in the UK this weekend, when it was expected they would agree to have a new competition structure up and running before the expiry of the present deal.
The desire to pull the restructuring forward is being driven by a realisation that the game in the Southern Hemisphere is in turmoil, with players leaving for Europe in their droves and TV ratings slumping at an alarming rate.
The NZRU is hopeful that a rejuvenated Super Rugby competition that starts later in the year, runs for longer and embraces new countries will do much to encourage players to stay.
The NZRU board also agreed last Thursday that it would be open to changing eligibility laws once the new competition is set up that would allow qualified New Zealanders playing for any team in Sanzar competition to be available for the All Blacks.
"Steve Tew is sitting down with our Sanzar partners this weekend to look at the competition," said NZRU professional rugby manager Neil Sorenson.
"We still think 2009 is too early but we could hopefully bring it in 2010. That is something broadcast partners have brought up and they have said they are ready to talk.
"There would be some operational stuff we would have to work through but there is no reason why we couldn't get things done before 2011."
SkyTV, the New Zealand broadcaster that bought a five-year rights package from the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corporation in 2006, says it is open to the idea of restructuring ahead of the time.
The latest viewing figures from AGB Nielsen Media Research reveal that the accumulative audience through nine rounds of Super Rugby is 1.1 million viewers less in 2008 than it was in 2006. In 2006 the accumulative audience after nine rounds was 5.2 million, which is down to 4.4 million this year a drop of 21 per cent.
After nine rounds in 2006 the average audience for games played in New Zealand was 238, 000 whereas this year there has been a drop of 25 per cent to 179, 000.
Only 171,000 people watched the opening game between the Crusaders and Brumbies, which was 47 per cent down on the number that watched the Blues play the Hurricanes first up in 2006.
While it could be fairly argued that the Blues versus Hurricanes is a major clash by New Zealand standards and is always likely to attract a significant audience, the viewing numbers are still down on a like-for-like basis.
The Blues played the Chiefs on the Saturday night of the opening weekend a local derby featuring a host of All Blacks and only 180,000 people watched. That was 38 percent fewer people that watched the Crusaders play the Highlanders in the equivalent 7.30 pm Saturday game of the week in 2006.
The Hurricanes played the Chiefs on a Friday night in week three as they did this year providing the perfect comparison. In 2006 the audience was 313,000 whereas it dropped 25 per cent to 233,000 in 2008.
"Something does need to happen to give Super 14 a shake-up," said SkyTV's head of sport, Kevin Cameron. "We are certainly keen to see how it evolves.
"There have been discussions between all sorts of groups and there is a desire to take a good look at what model might work. Should the NZRU come to us and suggest an early start then we would certainly be happy to talk about that."
New Zealand, Australia and South Africa all have working groups in motion assessing what form the new competition structure should take.
Australia Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neil would like to see a 26-week tournament featuring a team form Japan.
All Black coach Graham Henry has said he would favour something similar with a view to achieving his two key objectives of a longer off-season and a more stable environment in which players don't represent three teams in a year.
Ideally if Super Rugby could be extended to 20-plus games New Zealand's top players wouldn't play provincial football that could see the Air New Zealand Cup reduced to a semi-professional competition operating on vastly reduced costs.
The various working groups will have to come up with a solution as to how an extended Super Rugby season can fit around permanent June test commitments and the Tri Nations.
They will also look at the viability of setting up teams in new venues such as the US, Canada, Pacific Islands, Asia and Argentina. One thing Sanzar and their broadcast partners have already agreed is the change is vital.
Sorenson said: "The viewing figures are showing us that quite clearly the public are not rapt with the competitions in their current format."
