The Super Rugby competition will expand to 18 teams in 2016, with three new clubs coming from South Africa, Argentina and possibly Asia or the United States, the New Zealand Rugby Union said Thursday.
NZRU chief executive Steve Tew said a revamp was needed in the southern hemisphere competition, which currently includes five teams from each of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
He said expansion, which has been approved by governing body Sanzar, would meet South African demands for a sixth team and help establish elite professional rugby in Argentina.
The addition of an 18th team would also take the game to new markets, he said.
“There’s interest on the west coast of America, there’s interest in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan,” Tew told reporters, adding that discussions were already underway with “credible” potential bidders for the groundbreaking franchise.
Under the new blueprint, the competition will be split into two regional groupings, South Africa and Australasia, each containing two conferences.
The South Africa grouping will have eight teams – including Argentina and the 18th team – with two conferences of four teams.
Australasia will 10 teams, with the five Australian and five New Zealand sides each forming a conference.
Teams will play the majority of their regular season games against sides from their own regional grouping, which Tew said would minimise the large amounts of travel needed under the current format.
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Country-size land deals
US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:
Louisiana Purchase
If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.
Florida Purchase Treaty
The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty.
Alaska purchase
America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".
The Philippines
At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million.
US Virgin Islands
It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
Gwadar
The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees.
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