The Brumbies have been hit with financial issues after their naming rights sponsor Huawei withdrew from a four-year $4 million-plus sponsorship of the Super Rugby club.
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The Australian Rugby Union announced an $8 million loss earlier this year but they may be forced to step in and save the Super Rugby franchise – as they did with the Reds last year.
The Reds won their first Super Rugby title in the professional era in 2011 but the Brumbies are Australia’s most succesful Super Rugby franchise having won two titles.
Brumbies chief executive Andrew Fagan has declined to comment but it seems that Huawei, China’s largest privately owned company has signed off on the sponsorship before Huawei’s Australian office encountered a problem and withdrew their sponsorship.
Huawei have been bidding to be part of Australia’s National Broadband Network rollout and the sponsorship pullout suggests that they have been told they will not be included in the network. A spokesperson for the company said they were still hopeful of becoming a major supplier to the project.
“If we were to go ahead with it, we needed to make a decision before Christmas and we’re not in a position to do that,” the Huawei spokesman told the Australian.
“But that doesn’t mean we won’t look at it again later in the year.”
The Australian Rugby Union have stepped in financially for New South Wales and Queensland Rugby so it is unlikely that they won’t step in this time. If they don’t the Brumbies will be in serious trouble.
“We have to go back to the drawing board,” a Brumbies insider said.
“And the timing is murder, two days out from Christmas. You don’t get companies committing to sponsorships at this time of year.
“If we don’t get this resolved, we’ll definitely have cashflow issues. ”
“There’s no getting around that. If you take away the naming rights sponsor of any Super Rugby team, it’s going to create a massive problem.
“No one can afford to run their program with that sort of hole in the budget.”