A potential second Victorian applicant is poised to enter the running to become the 15th Super rugby team.
South Africa, New Zealand and Australia Rugby (SANZAR) has called for expressions of interest for the new position in the Super tournament from 2011 onwards.
Australian Rugby Union (ARU) deputy chief executive Matt Carroll revealed on Thursday that a second party from Victoria after the Victorian Rugby Union had expressed an interest.
Carroll also expects expressions of interest from the Gold Coast and western Sydney, while South Africa's Southern Kings are tipped to apply for a place in the Australian Conference of the expanded tournament.
The three SANZAR nations apart, the Samoan Rugby Union has also been provided with an expression of interest document, though Carroll said a successful team from that area would have to be based in either Australia or New Zealand.
Under the time frame set out by Carroll, expressions of interest have to be lodged by July 22 with the national unions then deciding how many of the applicants they will endorse.
Carroll said any applicants endorsed would receive a memorandum of information starting from August 7, with presentations from the endorsed applicants presented to SANZAR around September 18.
A final decision on the successful applicants is expected to be made by November.
Carroll wouldn't disclose specific details about the second Victorian party.
"We knew that there was a group down there (in Victoria) that was interested," he said.
"During the Test match in Melbourne, they indicated their interest is still there." He said the key factors and criteria for the applicants would be their corporate structure and financial backing, plus an appropriately-sized stadium seating around 25,000 fans, training facilities and geographical location.
While the last of those factors should favour an Australian applicant, Carroll said broadcast rights value would be a crucial factor.
He stressed the candidates would need over $A5m ($NZ6.31m) worth of capital to get started.
Carroll revealed the ARU was looking at four different ways of ensuring a new Australian Super franchise would have sufficient playing talent to be competitive, without damaging the established teams.
"We are developing some regulations to ensure the four existing (Australian) Super rugby franchises are in no way disadvantaged or affected by the advent of the fifth team, that's very important," Carroll said.
"We obviously want them to continue to be successful.
"We are looking at the talent pool available in Australia and also Australians playing overseas, so we are starting to assemble data on that.
"We are also looking at, in conjunction with SANZAR, appropriate rules and regulations for this team whereby it may well have a larger number of non-Australians.
"One of the aspirations of SANZAR is to encourage Pacific Island players who are currently playing in Europe to play in the Super rugby competition.
"We're very confident there is a good talent pool out their for the new team to draw on."
