If an Australian side is axed, the Force, Rebels and Brumbies are considered to be the ones most in danger.
Pundits and fans are becomingly increasingly frustrated with the patchy standard of play and the unwieldy and convoluted conference structure.
"I think the competition is stupid at the moment," Mehrtens said on Fox Sports' Super Rugby: Kick & Chase.
"There's no way, in 10 years' time, that we're going to be looking at a competition that covers three massively distinct time zones.
"Our best thing is to go just within this time zone here. It makes it a lot more logistically easy to manage for the teams and players.
"You fly overnight, a 10-hour flight to Japan, you can handle that because the time difference is not massive.
"In Asia and Australia and New Zealand and the (Pacific) Islands is where the future of this competition lies for us.
"The sooner we can get there the quicker we can develop it and the better."
Speaking on the same program, former Wallabies captain and hooker Phil Kearns felt an independent commission was needed to regulate the competition.
"Whenever anyone's got a vested interest they are not going to do what's in the best interests of the game, they are going to do what's in the best interests of their province," he said.
Fellow panellist and former Wallaby back-rower Steehen Hoiles said while there were probably too many teams in the competition, the much-criticised conference system wasn't working.
"We can't have a conference system between five countries, everyone has to play everyone once, it's the only way it's going to be fair," Hoiles said.
