But if 2024 was played under a six-team format, it would leave one of the Blues or Hurricanes hosting just a single knockout game and missing out on a potential six-figure windfall that comes from ticket sales.
The Rebels and Drua are still in the competition, not because they necessarily deserve to be, but to ensure that both the Hurricanes and Blues are not unfairly financially disadvantaged for dominating the round robin series.
The problem that has often proven true in the past, is that clubs need these additional knock-out games to balance their books.
Often it is as stark as clubs who make the playoffs, but who don’t host a single game, can end the season in the red.
It’s not unheard of for a team to make the final and yet not manage to break even financially, while last year the Hurricanes made the playoffs, were beaten in the quarterfinals by the Brumbies in Canberra and posted a $1.4m loss.
This year, if they can win their next two games to earn the right to host the final, they will most likely be looking at a much-improved set of accounts that end the year in profit.
The Brumbies have been a perennial fixture in the Super Rugby Pacific playoffs, but they haven’t been able to finish in the coveted top two spots to secure more than one home knock-out fixture, and they lost a combined $490,000 in 2022 and 2023.
Super Rugby’s problem is essentially one of integrity being pitted against financial viability, and while fans would have baulked at seeing the Crusaders sneak into the playoffs on the back of just four wins, both the Hurricanes and Blues would have been quite happy as a home quarterfinal against the defending champions would have drawn a huge crowd in either Wellington or Auckland.
It’s not that the clubs want this extended, eight-team playoff format out of greed, they want it so they have a better opportunity to survive, and this is the dilemma for Super Rugby, it can’t continue to present itself with a choice of giving the fans what they want – a shorter, more dramatic playoff format - but one which damages the clubs in the process.
And next year is going to bring this issue to a head as the Rebels are defunct, leaving the competition to most likely run with 11 teams, which surely eliminates the prospect of being able to continue with an eight-team playoff format.
Credibility dictates that the playoffs will have to shrink to a six-team format, which is inevitably going to lead to the clubs, rightly, asking what can be done in terms of changing the financial model to give them a higher degree of confidence that they can operate sustainably without having to host playoff games.
This need to build commercially lucrative rather than fan-focused playoff formats is a problem seemingly unique to Super Rugby.
The NRL delivers enough base broadcast revenue to its teams to give them a high degree of certainty that they should be able to meet all their operating expenses no matter where they finish on the table.
Theirs is a model that doesn’t set the playoffs up as a financial lifeline for the best teams to survive, but one that is designed to maximise the sense of drama for fans and also deliver greater advantages to the team that tops the minor premiership.
Super Rugby would dearly love to reach this same promised land where the playoffs represent a chance to pit the best against the best – but they won’t get there unless they reconsider and redesign their existing financial model to create a less intense relationship between on-field success and financial success.
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and has written several books about sport.
