I happen to know that contact has been made with two Tier One nations and their respective coaches and both have agreed to a Tri-Game Series – 2 home at Ellis Park and one away at each of Cardiff and Tokyo.

Add these 6 games (sponsored) to the 10 (5 home & 5 away) from the proposed Super 6 Series feeder tournament and the Lions have a potent mix for the 1st 6 months which mends a lot of fences for the Lions in SA and builds new bridges with proper rugby partners whose markets can sustain this sponsorship and television coverage, and by making this a 3 year program – to tie down sponsors – it will provide a feeder system of elite talent as well as generate much needed wonga for the Lions, to maintain a level of acquisition and retention of the best players.

Now that is a business model that brings dignity & power back to the Lions den and all of its clubs.

So you propose a reconstructed version of Tony McKeever’s Super 6 Series as a solution for while the Lions are looking to keep their players match fit during what they see as a short break from Super Rugby.

BTW, how well did the Southern Spears do under this guy? Never got going and went bankrupt if memory serves.

In the meantime, how do you propose the Lions give their players game time during the first half of next year and how do you see the Lions getting first tier nations like Wales and Scotland involved during the first half of next year?

A city so great they named it twice!

Smooth – like an Amarula?

All I know is that he was one of the short listed for the Lions CEO and was previously the Spears CEO, knows the game and players inside out and can put together a rescue plan in two ticks to revitalise & rejuvenate the LIONS.
He takes no prisoners and tells it like it is, which is why he gave SARU two black eyes.

informative stuff boet!

I could go on

More sense in your 2 posts, than anything that has come from the Lions execs in a decade.

Ja boet.
You are a student of the game and this is how it is.
The Lions need a firecracker and they need it now.

No sponsors will pay for this cobbled together roster of games.
No broadcaster will cover these games as they have no pulling power.
The Lions are chasing a dream of respectability & credibility and are failing week in and week out as they do not have a 3 year plan.
All of this stuff they presented to us the other day at breakfast is hocus pocus and belongs in a Harry Potter book.
They have chosen to walk a path with Willem Stauss Sports Promotions who is some amped up steroid boosted cretin that offers up Namibia, SAMOA and some French clubs as material equivalent to Super Rugby.
Each game is a R3m party’jie for the visiting squad of 30 players from Russia, Samoa, France and America that will have the Lions footing the bill.
Take R3m X 10 games at home and you have R30m just for these ridiculous turnouts and then add the Lions monthly costs and suddenly you have a reality check that this does not work and the Lions have lost 6 months of planning stuffing around making movies in their heads.

Ja BayLion to answer your question in the simplest of fashion this is what is:

1. Regular game time comes from a tournament that last at least 3 years so the youngsters at school university and clubs can set their sights on playing in an international televised tournament
2. One plays the Top Tier nations like Wales or Scotland that have equivalent heritage and mature corporate sponsors that identify with the rugby heritage. One could even play Japan becuase they host the RWC in 2019 and because the USA is centred around the collegiate sports, focus on high net worth areas like Boston New York, San Francisco, LA and their universities and premier league sides. This is where the money and the alumni are. In fact even Ralph Lauren has http://www.rugby.com registered as his and he is dying to jump in on something as authentic as rugby as we know it from club to professional ranks.
3. The Lions certainly do NOT do as the Southern Kings or EP Kings or whatever their name is or has been doing and break the mould and bring innovation and energy and new ideas into a fossilised tournament structure.

But to do all of this you need someone who gets the idea and vision and can drive and propel the Lions into a worldclass professional sports unit and build a power base of talented rugby players and generate cash from these initiatives. If not the Lions themselves will become prehistoric.