I hope NZ win the Rugby World Cup--they should.
Otherwise, there is going to be riots even worse than those as a result of the Canadian hockey team that lost the Stanley Cup.

The thing that Rugby Union has over AFL is the international component.
Fans love nothing more than supporting their country.

I don't know if there are too many pro sports in Australia. I think it appears as though crowd attendance is down because of the fact that the sports are generally based on location i.e. they are divided by region.
In Victoria, AFL is huge whilst League and Union take a back seat. In NSW, Rugby (both forms but mainly League) is pretty big. In QLD, League and Union are big, whilst AFL takes a back seat.
The problem is that the allocation of teams isn't always proportionate to it's state-based popularity.
e.g. The Melbourne Rebels are a Rugby Union team that are based in Victoria, where AFL is the more favoured sport. Hence, their popularity is hindered as they have to try to acqurie AFL fans as potential new Rebels fans.

In NZ, Rugby Union is common all across NZ.Hence, crowd attendences are going to be huge nation-wide.
In NZ, the domestic rugby competition this year has been condensed into 8 weeks because of the Rugby World Cup. Over that time, there are 1 or more games everynight except Monday nights. All games are televised (Hence 16 teams play 10 games=160 games all televised live over 10 weeks).

I think for pro sports in Australia to be more successful, they need to really consider the regions/districts that their sports are big in. i.e. Was a Rebels Rugby Union team necessary in AFL-dominated Victoria? Does SA need 2 AFL teams given both have struggled with attendances?
Is a GWS AFL team really a smart investment in the West-Sydney area that is dominated by League?

At the end of the day, there is no need for new sport teams to be created in areas where that sport has little signifigance or is a minority sport.
If potential sport team owners don't heed this warning, then sport in Australia will only decline beecause attendances will drop.
Potential sport team owners need to consider the regional popularity of each sport and ensure the team allocation is proportionate to the popularity of the sport in each locality.

I understand some people(mainly guys like Demetriou and Gallop) want certain sports to be common across all of Australia and they want a full domestic league where their sport is flourishing in all parts of the country.

But sometimes nationalisation of certain sports can actually hinder the sports success.

Let the sport operate where it is most successful first.
Then when grassroots participation, picks up and the popularity of the sport picks up at other parts of the country, then you can introduce a professional team there.

But I don't think its a good idea for sports teams to be introduced FOR THE PURPOSE of increasing grassroots participation or trying to get the sport to become big in a certain region..It is clear this is what the Rebels are doing. Pro teams see low crowd numbers and decreased profits this way.

Let them only enter where this is sufficient popularity of the sport first.