| 1997 World Club Championship | |
|---|---|
 Trophy won by Brisbane Broncos | |
| Duration | 6 June – 17 October 1997 |
| Teams | 22 |
| Matches played | 68 |
| Average attendance | 7,989 |
| Attendance | 543,258 |
| Champions |  Brisbane Broncos (2nd title) |
| Runners-up |  Hunter Mariners |
| Top point-scorer(s) |  Ryan Girdler (118 points) |
| Top try-scorer(s) | Steve Renouf (13) |
The 1997 World Club Championship was an expansion of the World Club Challenge concept by Super League. The rugby competition was restructured to include all 22 clubs from the Australasian Super League and the Super League championships and was known as the Visa World Club Championship due to sponsorship. As it was contested over six rounds in two hemispheres, with A$1 million prize money (GBP 640,000), the competition was prohibitively expensive to stage, with suggestions that it cost A$6 million.[1] This coupled with the poor ratings and attendances that were achieved both in Australia and Europe reportedly resulted in a loss over A$5 million, and the World Club Challenge was not staged again for a number of years. No British teams progressed further than the quarter-finals, with two Australian teams reaching the final (played at the Ericsson Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand): the dominant Brisbane Broncos club and the ill-fated Hunter Mariners.[2]
- ^ Mascord, Steve (17 October 1997). "Gold Coast hunts the Mariners". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, New South Wales: John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited. p. 45.
- ^ Hadfield, Dave (16 October 1997). "The short but amazing life of Hunter Mariners". The Independent. independent.co.uk. Retrieved 6 October 2009.