1997 World Club Challenge
The 1997 World Club Championship was an expansion of the World Club Challenge concept by Super League. The competition was restructured to include all 22 clubs from the Australasian and European Super League championships and was known as the Visa World Club Championship due to sponsorship. As it was contested over 6 rounds in 2 hemispheres, with A$1,000,000 prize money (GBP 640,000), the competition was prohibitively expensive to stage, and it reportedly lost over $5,000,000. This, coupled with the poor ratings and attendances that were achieved both in Australia and Europe, led to the competition being postponed for a number of years. No British teams progressed further than the quarter finals. Two Australian teams reached the final: the dominant Brisbane Broncos club and the ill-fated Hunter Mariners.
Read more about 1997 World Club Challenge: 1997 Tournament Tables, Aftermath
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