SUPER Rugby’s future stars could find themselves based in Los Angeles or Tokyo if dollars make sense in the next broadcast deal.

With Rugby Sevens entered into the Olympics in 2016, the sport will have exposure to a massive, untapped market and SANZAR officials will explore the possibilities of including teams from the US and Japan into Super Rugby when the competition is set to expand in four years. The current broadcast deal extends to 2015 on the basis of 15 teams, but to generate future revenue SANZAR plans to add teams and possibly conferences.

North America and Asia are two markets where Super Rugby is televised on a small scale.

Adding teams into those regions would reap enormous interest and allow SANZAR to sell broadcast rights for hundreds of millions more than the current deal.

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SANZAR chief executive Greg Peters said the US, Japan and Argentina would all be looked at for extra teams.

“There’s absolutely possibilities within the States and Japan for increased television revenue, and that has a lot to do with Sevens being in the Olympic Games in 2016,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“The interest in rugby in new territories has grown on the back of the Sevens’ introduction to the Olympics, so there’s a real opportunity to take that Sevens to 15s, and see what it might look like.

“Then of course we’ve got Argentina coming into the Rugby Championship, so I’m sure Argentina has aspirations to have a greater involvement with SANZAR or in SANZAR competitions in the future … we obviously would need to be talking to them, and we need to drive more commercial revenue out of that part of the world.”

Sports broadcasting expert Colin Smith said there was potential for a $1 billion-plus deal in the broadcasting contract beyond 2020 if more US and Japanese teams could be included in a separate conference.

“You could have a deal comparable to the other major sports in Australia,” Smith said.

“Rugby is a college (university) sport in the US, if soccer can create its own league there and sell teams for $40 million, imagine what you could do in 10-12 years with rugby in that market.”

The expansion idea has recently been mooted by ARU boss John O’Neill.

NZRU chief executive Steve Tew said

500 Word Extract from Original Article Only...

SUPER Rugby’s future stars could find themselves based in Los Angeles or Tokyo if dollars make sense in the next broadcast deal.

With Rugby Sevens entered into the Olympics in 2016, the sport will have exposure to a massive, untapped market and SANZAR officials will explore the possibilities of including teams from the US and Japan into Super Rugby when the competition is set to expand in four years. The current broadcast deal extends to 2015 on the basis of 15 teams, but to generate future revenue SANZAR plans to add teams and possibly conferences.

North America and Asia are two markets where Super Rugby is televised on a small scale.

Adding teams into those regions would reap enormous interest and allow SANZAR to sell broadcast rights for hundreds of millions more than the current deal.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

SANZAR chief executive Greg Peters said the US, Japan and Argentina would all be looked at for extra teams.

“There’s absolutely possibilities within the States and Japan for increased television revenue, and that has a lot to do with Sevens being in the Olympic Games in 2016,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“The interest in rugby in new territories has grown on the back of the Sevens’ introduction to the Olympics, so there’s a real opportunity to take that Sevens to 15s, and see what it might look like.

“Then of course we’ve got Argentina coming into the Rugby Championship, so I’m sure Argentina has aspirations to have a greater involvement with SANZAR or in SANZAR competitions in the future … we obviously would need to be talking to them, and we need to drive more commercial revenue out of that part of the world.”

Sports broadcasting expert Colin Smith said there was potential for a $1 billion-plus deal in the broadcasting contract beyond 2020 if more US and Japanese teams could be included in a separate conference.

“You could have a deal comparable to the other major sports in Australia,” Smith said.

“Rugby is a college (university) sport in the US, if soccer can create its own league there and sell teams for $40 million, imagine what you could do in 10-12 years with rugby in that market.”

The expansion idea has recently been mooted by ARU boss John O’Neill.

NZRU chief executive Steve Tew said adding extra teams from New Zealand and Australia is unlikely due to financial

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