Prem rugby in talks to sell a 51% in the league for £275 Million

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

CVC former F1 owners are interested.

Times go into detail more but it's paywall
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/275m-bid-to-buy-premiership-rugby-zq76nc6bp

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/45417946

Bye bye the national team.

When will the clubs learn that the club game won't grow until the National team starts getting more success in the world cups.


But looking at this
Sports’ domestic TV rights:

Premiership Rugby (BT Sport) - £45 million per year
Premier League football (Sky, BT Sport, Amazon) - £1.5 billion per year
English cricket including internationals (Sky, BBC) - £220 million per year
Super League rugby league (Sky) - £40 million per year
NFL American football US TV rights - £5.5billion per year

Prem Rugby could get a lot more money from it's TV deals which is what CVC would do.

 

[BPM]

Those figures are unbelievable.

How can cricket be worth 5 times Premiership rugby? I know that includes internationals but in terms of relative popularity, I can’t see any way that cricket can justify being so expensive by comparison?

 

[Fuzzy du Plessis]

I'm guessing the cricket deal includes everything the ECB put out, all three formats, domestic and international (and crucially the home Ashes series). It gives sky enough content to have a dedicated cricket channel and unlike rugby it's not just played on the weekends. Plus, while rugby might be a bit posh I imagine the average cricket fan is a marketers wet dream. Then you consider that the nature of cricket means long broadcasts with frequent breaks to run ads and you can see why it attracts that type of money when rugby can't.

 

[Amiga500]

What a waste.

The sooner the RFU ostracize McCafferty and PRL the better.

If the current clubs want to play under the RFU banner, then join our new revamped Division 1. If they don't, good luck surviving.

 

[Amiga500]

Just for the benefit of anyone stupid enough to even contemplate this being a good idea...

... where do you think CVC will make their money? [They have to make money, otherwise there is no point in the transaction as far as they are concerned.]


Look at F1 - they tried to drain it dry - realised they were not as bright as Bernie and had to sell up.

 

[ratsapprentice]

RFU are ******.

Depressingly predictable.

 

[Amiga500]

RFU are ******.

Indeed they are.

Yet for all their issues, they give more than two f**ks about the long term health of the game.

 

[Nudger]

Rfu should but it and control our game not some corperate finance company

 

[ratsapprentice]

Indeed they are.

Yet for all their issues, they give more than two f**ks about the long term health of the game.

Aye, just so that no-one misunderstands my post - the bleeped out naughty/"offensive" word said "F'ed"

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Indeed they are.

Yet for all their issues, they give more than two f**ks about the long term health of the game.

Thing with CVC and their ilk is that they look to make their money over the shortish term, often 3 - 5 years and they won’t go into a deal like this without a good idea of their exit strategy. They’ll just see it as a commodity with buy and sell prices like anything else. Legacy, long term and national team aren’t in their vocabulary.

 

[mania]

worth lots and so it should . price of a soul should be expensive and this would be selling the soul of english rugby to the devil.

 

[smartcooky]

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The domestic game and the international game need each other to survive and grow.

 

[RedruthRFC]

worth lots and so it should . price of a soul should be expensive and this would be selling the soul of english rugby to the devil.

To my mind this happened when the RFU buried their heads in the sand and allowed the clubs / their owners to seize control of the top tier of the English game around the time that professionalism came along.

 

[mania]

To my mind this happened when the RFU buried their heads in the sand and allowed the clubs / their owners to seize control of the top tier of the English game around the time that professionalism came along.

agree and this is just a continuation of club owners being in control and RFU losing even more power. but hey at least they made a big profit off it. they'll make a record profit just as the RFU becomes obsolete

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

worth lots and so it should .

£250m doesn't feel like a lot when it equates to a Neymar and a third of an Mbappe.

 

[higgik]

Not too worried as last night as the blazers get the contract right about player release and player welfare.

The RPA should also ensure that players are NOT overplayed, especially with the concussion issues.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Clubs should be in charge of themselves, especially when many of the clubs are older than the international game.

Club rugby > International rugby, especially these days.

 

[higgik]

In many ways I agree. With the blurring of international eligibility, which is only down to the professional club game, then people are less inclined to support their country.

I still would like to see complete separation of club and international seasons, like the Bruce Craig idea.

 

[C0c0nutz]

Increase it to £500m and it's a done deal.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Looking forward to Monday evening kick offs and totally overseas XVs.

We’re doomed I tell you, doomed. Genies don’t go back in bottles.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

A warning from the F1 experience.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/sep/10/cvc-ownership-f1-warning-premiership-rugby-union

If it’s not CVC now, it’ll be someone else in the future. Altruists all.

 

[Car]

The latest The Rugby Paper also had some good stuff on that, although I've only read parts of it.

 

[Amiga500]

If it’s not CVC now, it’ll be someone else in the future. Altruists all.

Exactly.

How f*****g stupid are folks if they think "private investors" are not looking their pound of flesh at the end of it?

The English clubs have more than enough money to survive healthily - compare their budgets to the Irish provinces. They just need to learn to cut their cloth to suit* and stop paying mad wages for average players!


*If they partner with investors to buy/build their own dedicated stadium, that is a different issue entirely as the investor can get money from hosting conferences/on site hotels etc and the club can get money from not paying rent/bigger gates etc. That can be a win-win.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

The English clubs have more than enough money to survive healthily.

Lol

 

[Amiga500]

Lol

Look at their overall budgets and look where they are spending it!

A loss does not automatically mean there is not enough money coming in!

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Not happening. For now.

https://www.ft.com/content/48ee0038-b5e1-11e8-bbc3-ccd7de085ffe

 

[Rinkadink]

Clubs should be in charge of themselves, especially when many of the clubs are older than the international game.

Club rugby > International rugby, especially these days.

Can't agree more!

For those calling for the RFU to control the professional club game, god no. The state of the RFU championship should serve as a cautionary tale of how the RFU runs leagues, it's not all their fault but a considerable amount of blame lies with them. An astonishing failure in nearly every aspect to turn the second division fully professional and grow the clubs. RFU couldn't even find a sponsor for three damn years. Never would I want them in charge of premiership rugby.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Yet the most successful sporting team in just about any sport on the planet run their game for country first and can anyone say NZ clubs are suffering as a result?

Why do people have such an issue with following a system that clearly works in favour of one that has a history of not working?

We can get the best clubs in England but none of them are financially self-sustaining. The Irish get similar or better performance for less and the French are able to attract the revenue to offset the increased costs. The Aviva is financially unsustainable and it NEEDS to be reformed but compare the 2, the French clubs are strong but the national team is dire. The Irish clubs are strong and the team is arguably the 2nd best in the world, the NS clubs are strong and the national team is easily the best in the world. That should show pretty damn clearly which system works the best overall. Further control to the clubs will cause England to slide the same way as France. Hell we are already there flogging our players like crazy, We cannot ******* continue like this and someone just needs to have a bloody spine, grab the bull by the horns and sort this thing out once and for all. Much as the clubs don't want to admit it, the VAST majority of the population will only see rugby when it is internationals and so if they want to actually get people through the turnstiles, they need to make England a success. I think many clubs are blinded to this under the delusion that rugby is actually a popular sport, it ******* isn't, the internationals are what get the attention of the vast majority of people. We need to get rid of the old boys in suits treating the whole damn thing like their little toy train sets or exclusive club and recognise the reality of where the sport is domestically and internationally.

 

[FrenchFan]

Yet the most successful sporting team in just about any sport on the planet run their game for country first and can anyone say NZ clubs are suffering as a result?

Why do people have such an issue with following a system that clearly works in favour of one that has a history of not working?

because you can't go against different cultures and mentality. We're all different. And England has a strong club culture. It's an asset not a hinderance.

You can't just copy and paste the Irish or NZ system into another one. The game is structured differently from one country to another. And you can't steamroll the culture attached to it. Look at fans reactions over here with the proposed merger between Biarritz and Bayonne, and Stade Français and Racing.
2 examples. Provinces. There are no provinces in our rugby. We gave it a go back in the 90s and nobody wanted them. So we can't go down the road of provinces.
Money. The French union cannot afford to contract the internationals. They don't have the finances for it and can't compete with the clubs. So the Irish and NZ system of federal contracts doesn't apply here either.
Many unions cannot afford to contract their internationals. Look at the PI nations. They're bust. So this is not a solution for them.