From today's Times :
Premiership Rugby club chairmen have warned that the professional game could die if the government does not provide a rescue package.
The 13 leading professional clubs have been talking over the past two days about how they will survive without crowds being allowed into their stadiums after plans for a gradual reintroduction of fans were scrapped.
One chairman told The Times that if the government did not act then there was a risk that “four or five of the clubs will go down”.
Another chairman warned that, “with no bailout, the whole of next season would have to be mothballed”. He said that the players would then have to be put on unpaid leave. “It is not about cutting costs; even with another huge wage cut there are still wages to be paid with no income to pay them.”
Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that no crowds would be allowed at sporting fixtures, possibly for six months. The news has left the clubs feeling desperate as they had budgeted on being allowed a proportion of fans in stadiums from the start of the new season, which begins in November.
“This has come as a severe blow,” Semore Kurdi, the owner of Newcastle Falcons, said. “We are pretty thin already, we’ve operated with virtually no income from February. We’ve already done redundancies and salary sacrifices.”
Simon Orange, the co-owner of Sale Sharks, said: “We’re running out of options. Club rugby was hardly viable beforehand; with coronavirus it’s much, much worse; without crowds it’s impossible. The industry and the sport is genuinely in jeopardy. The industry is in danger. We could lose rugby, as we know it, from our lives.”
Bruce Craig, the owner of Bath, said: “The implications of no crowds and no revenues without aid will be terminal for some of the Premiership clubs and catastrophic for their communities.”
“The news from Tuesday is catastrophic,” Martin St Quenton, the Gloucester owner, said. “You cannot underestimate what has happened. Without a government bailout, club rugby is now unsustainable.”
For most clubs 50 to 60 per cent of their income comes from ticket sales, match-day hospitality and general match-day revenue. The clubs are now each losing between £750,000 and £1 million a month. The Treasury is expected to give the green light to a rescue package for sport as early as next week, though the size and scope is as yet unclear.
St Quentin said: “All the clubs had budgeted on what we thought were conservative attendances. Maybe even no fans this current season but 25 per cent from the new season’s start in November and normal crowds from the new year. Even that seemed pessimistic.”
Now that there is little hope of crowds returning, the clubs are pushing for a government bailout. Some clubs are owned by the super-rich, such as Bristol Bears, whose owner, Steve Lansdown, is a billionaire working in financial services. Others, however, are suffering and say that they will need a £5-6 million bailout to keep them going.
“We are all working on our cashflow and working out how long we’ve got to survive,” Orange said. “It’s costing most clubs £1 million a month; there aren’t many who can keep that up for long.”
Organisations will be able to submit bids for grants, or more likely long-term loans, from the Treasury’s rescue package to see them through the crisis.
Whitehall insiders say no decision is imminent on the size of the fund or exactly how it will work, but the £1.57 billion arts and culture rescue package announced in July is likely to be used as a model.
The loans from that fund last up to 20 years at a very low interest rate so would be an attractive proposition for sports struggling to get through the next six months.
The government is expected to make the fund available to all sports organisations with the exception of professional football, believing that the Premier League has enough income through its £3 billion annual TV income to fund the three divisions of the English Football League below it.
Some of the Premiership clubs are exasperated that the new guidelines are ruling out the return of even small crowds to games.
When Bath played Gloucester at the Recreation Ground on Tuesday evening, the game was intended as a pilot event for small crowds and 1,000 tickets had been sold. After the new government diktat that day, though, the fans were not allowed in.
“The 1,000 supporters would have been in a very safe environment,” Craig said. “Without doubt the risk of transmission would have been much less in the ground than the same 1,000 congregating indoors in pubs in Bath. Whether the decisions being made are being driven by science, academics, worst-case doomsday forecasters or government officials, there appears at times to be an absence of common sense.”
Orange said: “The government needs to be sensible and realise you can get 3,000 people in and be safe. Some clubs are creaking right now.”
How Covid crisis is affecting the community game
Preston Grasshoppers
In stating its case for a government bailout, the RFU estimated the community game in England would lose £86 million in revenue this season. “We are in danger of clubs disappearing forever,” Bill Sweeney, the chief executive, said.
Preston Grasshoppers expect their revenue to fall from £1.5million to £100,000 this year. The clubhouse has been empty; the beer festival and bonfire night have been cancelled. Grasshoppers have had to make three-quarters of their staff redundant.
The club kept training to help players preserve their mental and physical health. On Tuesday police cars turned up to make sure the socially-distant sessions on three pitches did not break government regulations. Gareth Dyer, the club’s head of rugby operations, said Twickenham must re-examine its priorities after squandering money since the 2015 World Cup windfall. “Money draining out of the game constantly is not the way we will build a sustainable future,” he said.
Penryn RFC
The oldest club in Cornwall, Penryn RFC will celebrate their 150th year in 2022. The plan was to spend the next 18 months working on ways to secure their future for another century. Instead, Penryn’s committee will be tasked with ensuring they survive to celebrate the anniversary.
Trevor Howells, the treasurer, fears Cornwall could lose a quarter of its amateur clubs. “There are 38 clubs in Cornwall. If we lose this season, that will be more like 28,” he said. The situation for Penryn became “much more serious” after the latest restrictions, which could lead to the clubhouse closing. Howell said Penryn would survive because the club has been “part of the life, part of the culture” of the town since 1882 — but without rugby it is difficult to diversify.
“We are trying to become a 12-month business but the brand of Penryn is the rugby club,” he said. “The volunteers’ passion is driven by the sport. If you don’t have rugby the old club is not there anymore.”
Topic: Rugby clubs ‘will collapse if no bailout’ (Read 1115 times)
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