Premiership Rugby to 'relaunch' for 2024-25 after demise of Wasps & Worcester

[Neils]

Thanks for posting Neils. Quite an encouraging read from the point of view that they seem to want Wasps to exist. But there are a lot of unbacked up statements such as a commitment to grow the game commercially - Yes, but how? It’s good to see a probable focus on the Championship - not least because if we do exist again that is where we’ll be.

You also have to question whether this is a quick statement ahead of the DCMS  Committee Conclusions and Recommendations.

[mike909]

Thanks for posting Neils. Quite an encouraging read from the point of view that they seem to want Wasps to exist. But there are a lot of unbacked up statements such as a commitment to grow the game commercially - Yes, but how? It’s good to see a probable focus on the Championship - not least because if we do exist again that is where we’ll be.

+1. A concern is that if looking to other sports is possibly problematic as cricket (say) has a much more established income stream and can be played more often as it's not a contact sport. The sponsorship is also well established and gets very mainstream TV coverage.

Regardless - proof of the pudding etc etc....

[Rossm]

Does the above blurb mean it's status quo, hard luck and goodbye Wuss and Wasps, and hello 10 team Prem?  And don't worry EAs  - we've got your backs?  Can someone enlighten this thicko?

Roughly - Yes!

And who else gets kicked in the niags to make it a 10 team league?

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Does the above blurb mean it's status quo, hard luck and goodbye Wuss and Wasps, and hello 10 team Prem?  And don't worry EAs  - we've got your backs?  Can someone enlighten this thicko?

Roughly - Yes!

And who else gets kicked in the niags to make it a 10 team league?

They might just have one year with relegation but no promotion.

[Shugs]

That will fall into their lap due to some of the financial accidents still waiting to happen in the prem. I note with suspicion Falcons letting McGuigan go “in season”. Screams of a financial move.

[Skippy]

It’s nothing more than four bullets of guff designed to give the impression of a strategy and a veil of competence to those spouting this waffle.

Witness the grow-the-game bullet. Every business will claim to have that aim — so it’s hardly news. The key question is how that will be done. And the honest answer is that neither the PRL nor the muppets at the RFU have the first clue. In fact, neither has the leadership capable of finding its own arse in the dark, let alone designing a proper strategy.

[Lwasp]

A cap set by formula, the suggested % of revenue for example, further bolsters the squads of the sugar daddy rich. It is very easy to boost revenue if you don't care about profit. If that, or something equally foolish, gets through then nothing will have been learned from ours and Worcester's demise.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

A cap set by formula, the suggested % of revenue for example, further bolsters the squads of the sugar daddy rich. It is very easy to boost revenue if you don't care about profit. If that, or something equally foolish, gets through then nothing will have been learned from ours and Worcester's demise.

Of course nothing has been learned.  They made it very clear that they would not be helping us with relegation or retaining the P Share because our business model wasn't sustainable, and in the same breath say they have to significanly change rugby because none of the business models are sustainable.

The only thing they are actually saying is that if you don't find a rich benefactor to bail you out time and time again you can eff off.

[Shugs]

Correct VV. And furthermore your business case must be that robust that it can withstand a pandemic.

[Skippy]

…but only if you’re a club. If you run the game you are perfectly entitled to use the pandemic as cover for your own incompetence and ineptitude.