The Heineken Cup was won by two teams in five of the last six editions of the tournament. The problems isn't with the ERC or the EPRC set-up, it's with the ridiculous laissez-faire regulation of the Top14 salary cap.rooster wrote:Interest in it could fall rapidly from sponsors if it becomes a "same old teams" competition each year, the HEC had a diversity in which the underdog could get a lucky break and there is nothing to get people noticing a competition as an underdog taking on one of the big lads, especially in the eyes of neutrals. At least when Leinster were top of the pile there were different opponents pushing each year, if it becomes the same semi final sides or even 3 of them a year it will die sooner rather than later, 2 or 3 French finals and BT and Sky will only have it as a filler programme and sponsors will do likewise.Flash Gordon wrote: You're right in my opinion. Toulon win it a couple more times in a row driven only by sugar daddy money and people could lose interest. Not sure I'd be that interested in a season where the best we could hope for is the possibility of a quarter final. I said 3 years ago that Leinster needed to lead the next stage in our development when we could legitimately claim that a european tournament without us had no value or credibility and instead we just sat back and waited for the English and French to beat us up and feed us scraps. We shouldn't make that mistake again.
Some of the many reasons to implement a salary cap:
1] to prevent teams from major population hubs and media markets becoming more economically powerful than teams from smaller places and sucking all the playing talent into a small cartel of big teams [i.e. the Scottish Premiership in football, which is unhealthily dominated by Celtic – and formerly Rangers – and is widely regarded as a joke of a league];
2] to ensure that teams are relatively equal and thus that all matches are contests, which creates a more vibrant and attractive league with more meaningful contests deeper into the season – this increases gates, viewing numbers, advertising and television contracts, the last of which should be spread equally across the competing teams;
3] to help prevent the economic collapse of clubs if a major benefactor pulls out.
If you take it that there was no salary cap [or national player regulation] in European competition, but both – or even one – limit applied in national leagues, Toulon would stop being such a nauseating force in European rugby. Boudjellal wouldn't hire buckets of world class extra players who couldn't play in the Top14 [as they would exceed the salary cap] solely to play in Europe, nor would he be able to afford all the players he currently pays within a well-marshalled salary cap system.
The Top14 is a pissing contest for the club owners. Some of them seem like nice guys, others as though they're quite hard work, but they're all very proud and egotistical men. They are also motivated by the same desire to see their team win as your everyday fan. Most of them are not primarily motivated by money [with regards to the rugby side of their businesses], because they could do a hell of a lot better in that regard by acting like the NFL owners.
