1. Everyone has an idea
2. Nobody likes anybody else's idea
3. The group must come to a decision
Given these three conditions it seems inevitable that whatever that final decision was, that it was going to be a complete cock-up. An anonymous fly on the wall has informed me that the meeting was "frosty as fuck" and several unions' CEOs may have had some unrepeatable words with each other while the NZRU were out of the room.
This is the environment we're in. Everything is about the dollar and the only competition that's seen as bringing in that money to the unions is the NPC (in whatever form it takes).
The only way rugby unions can survive is with the sponsorship dollars that comes from nationally televised games and the larger crowds. And because of that, suddenly every team has a right to be in the top division.
Teams that have struggled recently to compete both financially and on the field suddenly decide that they can win if they go to court instead of sucking it up and really competing in the second division. This action basically kills off any idea of promotion/relegation, an idea that it seemed everyone liked (until it was their team being relegated).
So now we have a system where everybody wins and so (naturally) everybody actually loses. No wonder Canterbury's red shirts do so well, it's COMMUNISM!
I see only one way out of this: make Dan Vettori the head of the NZRU. The boy is a born multi-tasker.