The crisis involving English Club Rugby is to be discussed at a Westminster parliamentary hearing next month.
Since the start of the season, Worcester and Wasps have been forced to enter administration. Wasps were the latest, on Monday with 167 members of staff including players and management made redundant.
There are fears that it could get worse with the English Rugby Football Union already proposing a further reduction to a ten-team Premiership.
Officials from the RFU and Premiership Rugby have now been called before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee at Westminster in November to answer questions on the problems facing those clubs and the wider sustainability of the club game.
“The fact that two of the country’s top clubs have now suffered the fate of falling into administration raises serious concerns about the future of the sport and its financial viability,” DCMS committee chair Julian Knight said.
“The RFU and Premiership Rugby have acknowledged the need to set a more sustainable path for club rugby. We will be pressing them to ensure they are putting the foundations in place to guarantee the health of the sport from the top level right down to the grassroots.”
The impact of the pandemic on matchday revenues was significant. Rugby does not have the kind of multi-billion TV deals that football has in England and matchday, physical revenue is up to ten times more important.
Pre-pandemic the average attendance for games in the Premiership was 14,507 with the highest, ironically, coming in a game between Harlequins and Wasps where 82,000 packed Twickenham Stadium.
The following two seasons were wiped by Covid, resulting in averages of 7,797 and less than 1,000 average paying customers.
In 2021-22 the number bounced back to 12,841 but obviously a case of too little too late.
Irish provincial attendance has been down as well but in part due to the increase in free-to-air coverage which in the long run creates a wider fan base and will be a positive.
Leinster’s average crowd last season was 14,138, down on 2018-19 but with a Covid hangover through the early part of the season.
Saturday’s Leinster Munster clash at the Aviva Stadium will be a bell weather mark for attendance. Last season’s meeting was the first in a decade to draw less than 40,000 fans and that is the target number for Saturday.
The Irish Government was friendlier towards sport than in Britain with a more comprehensive funding support package made available. The ownership structure is different as well with the model in England based on private ownership of clubs, dangerous when the financial floor becomes fragile.
The United Rugby Championship has expanded with the South African teams and new sponsorship deals. The English game is heading in the opposite direction.
We still need to be conscious of the threat of contagion though. A game in the throes of financial chaos so close to home is not a good thing in any way.
