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Shaun Edwards:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/apr/16/guinness-premiership-relegation-bath-worcester
Odd, isn't it, that in the very week English rugby gets its first billionaire backer – a fan dedicated to making Bath a European giant again, playing in a state-of-the-art stadium – another fan who has spent millions on his club and has produced one of the best venues in the country should be considering the prospect of life outside the Premiership.
On the one hand you have Bath changing hands with the local boy Bruce Craig, dedicated to a 20-25,000-seater stadium within five years, taking over from Andrew Brownsword, the owner for 14 years. On the other there is Cecil Duckworth, whose money lifted Worcester through something like six leagues in six seasons before six more in the top flight.
All the while Duckworth invested his personal fortune in Sixways. I can't remember us ever winning there, but nonetheless it is one of the nicest places to play. A fantastic surface, a fine new stand running the length of the ground, great training facilities, smart offices and fantastic fans who pack the place out. Everything in fact that Craig, below, wants for Bath.
It makes you wonder about English rugby's priorities – whether we are right in our dedication to promotion and relegation. In the past I have come down on the pro side of the argument, if only marginally. I understand the English fascination with failure – the tall poppy syndrome. For instance, where else would attention have been so concentrated on a football club like Newcastle, when a great man like Alan Shearer was doing his high-wire act, wobbling, without a safety net.
It has always seemed right to reward the kind of industry that Duckworth put in to Worcester on their way up. The drop also produced rugby that was never dull. Look at the table today and a third of the clubs are still dodging the bullet, so with the battle for the play-off places going on at the top there will rarely be a game with nothing on it.
However, the bottom line is whether the Premiership will be a better place next season if Worcester, Leeds, Sale or Newcastle go down and are replaced by Bristol, Exeter or any of the other eight clubs battling it out in the Championship play-offs. I know Bristol were once one of the greats and that Exeter have invested heavily, but the Premiership feels right as it is.
For the good of the game, it's important that there is a geographical spread. The north-east and north-west are strong rugby-playing areas, as is Yorkshire where Leeds, once the yo-yo club, bouncing between the top two tiers, have grown into the Premiership. They might have looked a little flaky at the start of the season but as Wasps have found out, Headingley is now a difficult place to play.
Likewise Newcastle, and surely no fan would want to see Sale hit the buffers. As their owner, Brian Kennedy, said recently, they are paying the penalty for the excesses of a few seasons ago when some marquee signings helped take a championship to Edgeley Park. But rugby needs more than just a toehold in such a football-mad area.
I think the game could do with a bit of stability. In the past I've never been entirely swayed by a purely financial argument, but now I sense the time might be right for the top 12 clubs – more if Premier Rugby deems it necessary and workable – to have some guarantees. Craig said he was investing because he wanted to have a bit of fun and didn't see a sports club as a money-making organisation but even he, with his vast resources, underlined that Bath would have to be financially successful – something I took to mean that he expected to break even.
Having sold his company for close to a billion, he has the financial clout to guarantee Bath's future. Others are less sure about investing. Yes, we all know that gates are rising and we are fairly optimistic that in the current refereeing climate entertaining rugby will continue to pull the fans in increasing numbers. But it is the other climate that continues to worry us.
No matter what kind of recession we are in, there are plenty of clubs just bumping along financially, getting by with the help of backers who underwrite losses but are unwilling to invest heavily. If we want new stands or bigger, better grounds, those backers need the assurance of a future that will not be crippled by relegation.
