Will Brumbies-Rebels be played in empty stadium after Melbourne redundancies add cloud

Officials are growing concerned about the prospect of playing in a deserted stadium with the Rebels' long-term future in doubt as the embattled club's debts are laid bare.

Preparations took another major blow on Thursday, when Rugby Australia confirmed some Rebels staff, including chief executive Baden Stephenson, had been made redundant.

"RA continues to engage with the administrator, government and various relevant stakeholders on the future of the Rebels beyond this season," a Rugby Australia spokesperson said.

"It is expected that a decision on that future will be made before the end of Super Rugby Pacific, and therefore before the conclusion of staff contracts."

All high performance staff have been retained and the majority of staff have been offered contracts until the end of June.

Documents have shown the Rebels had only $17,300 in the bank, while auditors have revealed the club owes $11.6 million to the Australian Taxation Office, $5.7 million to board members, $2.8 million to suppliers, $720,000 owed to the State Revenue Office and $250,000 in superannuation owed to employees.

Further to that is $1.1 million in lease payments and hiring fees for AAMI Park, where they are slated to face the Brumbies on February 23.

Tickets are not yet on sale for the season opener in Melbourne - and any hope of shifting the game to Canberra Stadium is dashed by a Matchbox Twenty concert in the capital on the same evening.

Now some are beginning to wonder if anyone will be there to see the Brumbies face the Rebels in scenes reminiscent of games played during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fans have started purchasing tickets for Super Round in round two - when every club plays at the same Melbourne venue - however that event is being run by TEG, not the Rebels.

The future of the Rebels could be decided on that same weekend, but Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh is refusing to speculate on the club's future.

"I don't want to put a timeframe on it. It's very early days," Waugh said.

"There's always going to be a review on how it accelerated to the point it's at. We're close to all clubs and we've made comments on why it has accelerated which has been made quite public.

"At the moment, the focus is on delivering the season. There's a lot going on in the background, but right now it's about securing the performance of the team and that's about delivering a good on-field environment.

"Those other aspects around how did we end up here, how did it accelerate so quickly, we'll dive into that over the next period of time.

"The focus is the delivery of the 2024 season. The players are preparing well, management around the team are preparing well. We think about two different streams. 2024, how do we deliver it with as little disruption as possible? [There is a] secondary stream around what does '25 and beyond look like.

"The priority right now is just delivering '24 really successfully for the Rebels."

The Brumbies enter the new season positioned as the Australian team most likely to contend for the title having made consecutive semi-final appearances.

But Brumbies captain Allan Alaalatoa - targeting an April return from an Achilles tear - is hopeful a star-studded group can charge into a competition decider.

"As a playing group at the Brums, there is always a competitive edge in and around the environment with boys genuinely competing for spots, boys competing with each other to try to get better," Alaalatoa said.

"We've been coached by some world-class coaches as well who focus hard on the smalls entails of the game and continue to get the best out of us as players. That's worked nicely for us over the past few years and it's something we're continuing to focus on throughout this year."

Concerns regarding the future of the Rebels come during a debate about the viability of Moana Pasifika amid claims there was a push to merge Melbourne with the New Zealand-based franchise which was created to represent the Pacific Islands.