{"id":317052,"date":"2025-11-29T19:13:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317052\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T19:13:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:13:34","slug":"r360-delayed-until-2028-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317052\/","title":{"rendered":"R360 delayed until 2028 &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\">The proposed R360 rugby competition has been officially postponed until 2028, with organisers confirming the delay in a statement to player agents and media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The decision ends months of speculation surrounding the rebel rugby concept, which had hoped to rival existing competitions by launching in 2026 with a star-studded player base and global broadcast ambitions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">In a league statement, R360 officials said the board had made a \u201cstrategic decision\u201d to move to a full-scale 2028 launch rather than attempt shortened seasons in 2026 and 2027.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-222030\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"2025 State of Origin Game 1 Media Day\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/089A5742_e-scaled.jpg.webp.webp\"\/>Zac Lomax posing for a photo in preparation for Game 1 of the 2025 State of Origin series for the NSW Blues. (Photo: Joshua Davis)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cThe rationale is straightforward &#8211; launching at full scale in 2028 creates the optimal environment across product, market, commercial and operational factors,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cIt aligns more cleanly with the global rugby calendar and ensures we enter the market at maximum strength following the 2027 Men&#8217;s Rugby World Cup and Women&#8217;s British and Irish Lions Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Organisers also confirmed that all conditional player contracts previously issued had been terminated, effectively halting negotiations with several high-profile athletes who had been approached about switching codes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The postponement follows reports that R360 had struggled to attract sufficient financial backing to fund its ambitious global showcase league, which aimed to sit between international and club rugby.<br \/>The ARL Commission, led by Peter V&#8217;landys, had been openly critical of the project, warning players that the competition lacked credible financial guarantees.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the setback, R360 insists the concept is far from dead, saying the delay will allow time to strengthen commercial partnerships and credibility before its eventual launch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposed R360 rugby competition has been officially postponed until 2028, with organisers confirming the delay in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-317052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}