Tigers secure Welford Road funding

[TRF_Cymro]

Leicester have raised more than £4.4million to fund the continued expansion of their Welford Road home.

http://www.espnscrum.com/premiership-2010-11/rugby/story/138136.html​

 

[Jess Matthews]

More seats for more fans must make better atmosphere

 

[Getofmeland]

Tigers should be able to fill the stadium, however this puts pressure on the other teams, hopefully England will have a good year at the World Cup, which will boost the profile of the game further and get more people to watch their local clubs and premiership clubs.

I would personally like to see more Rugby on terrestrial TV, I think its a major area we currently lack in the UK.

 

[monkeypigeon]

I may be completely ignorant to this, but are the beeb really reluctant to show sports? They show Wimbledon, the odd but of tennis and the 6-nations and Match of the day. Everything else seems to be for ITV. Any Champions league (do they still do that?) fa cup and that sorta bizz seems to be on ITV. Why is that?

 

[Getofmeland]

Its down to the BBC being funded by the public and ITV being funded by advertising... The Government has a say what the BBC show on tele, but they aren't able to compete financially with Sky and ESPN and ITV and Channel 5...

 

[CMSeal1]

I swear we make loads of money each year. I remember in the newspaper one time it said Tigers made about £18 million a year.

 

[gingergenius]

Well the BBC has very little money with which to outbid Sky for things, and what little they have they waste going round the world to [strike]oil barons' back gardens[/strike] historical racetracks to broadcast follow-the-leader every other week.

There's a lot of talk of the 'crown jewels' of TV sport, which have a 'wider cultural relevance' and therefore must be broadcast on free-to-air TV (BBC, ITV, C4, C5). If I were the government, I'd codify the following to come under this law:

RU:
- all home internationals involving the Home Nations (broadcast regionally if necessary).
- all 6N games
- all RWC games
- one Heineken Cup game per round
- weekly highlights of Aviva Premiership/ Magners League (depending on location), and of Heineken Cup

RL (in England and Wales):
- home internationals of Home Nations
- RWC games involving Home Nations (both done regionally if necessary).
- Challenge Cup quarter finals and beyond
- weekly highlights of Super League and Challenge Cup

Football:
- all home games of Home Nations (again, regionally)
- all European Championship and World Cup matches
- one Champions League game per round of matches (the arrangement ITV have currently).
- FA Cup/ Scottish Cup quarter finals and beyond (done regionally obviously)
- weekly highlights of English & Scottish Premiership and of Champions League (regionally)

Cricket:
- all England home Test Matches

Tennis:
- Wimbledon
- Davis Cup

Golf:
- The Open
- Ryder Cup

Horse Racing:
- Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup, King George VI
- the Classics @ Newmarket, Epsom & St. Leger

Athletics:
- World Championships
- London Marathon

Other:
- Olympic Games
- Camanachd Cup Final (Scotland)
- All-Ireland Football Final (Northern Ireland)
- All-Ireland Hurling Final (Northern Ireland)

sports like Snooker, Darts, Boxing and Formula 1 can go to the highest bidder. No matter how popular they are, they have none of the cultural significance of the above, at least as spectator sports.

 

[Teh Mite]

The Beeb do also tend to bid for & show whatever their current board of directors feel like. When they lost the Premier League football & Formula 1 to ITV, they did used to show a lot of other sports such as rugby, league, cricket, boxing etc. Now however, the current directors orders are highly football & F1 centric, hence their abandoning of the Premiership license along with with the other sports mentioned as above.

Bare in mind also that the BBC is a profit-driven public limited company which happens to be owned by the Crown. It's not some almighty unbiased service nor a state broadcast machine.

Thankfully ITV, despite all their faults when it comes to entertainment TV, have picked up the slack where needed and do an absolutely brilliant job of broadcasting sport. The quality of their rugby highlights over what BBC used to do for example is like comparing ESPNs excellent coverage to the tabloid bullshit which Sky produce.

 

[Nielsch]

To get back on-topic, here's the design:

I like it.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Ooooooh!
That does look nice!


Where would Tigers go while building that? Wouldn't be able to get that done in the off-season
Would they go to the Leicester Football stadium for a season?

 

[Teh Mite]

It's a beaut of a design, although they're losing a lot of capacity for the sake of style with the "swoop".

They could have it done in an off season so long as Premeier Rugby gave them the extra few weeks at the start of the season with away games. If the **** hit the fan, there's always the Walkers stadium up the road.

 

[Duckdee]

I might be making this up, but I think the Cat stand was done first so they wouldn't have to move to get the rest done.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Does look nice.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I might be making this up, but I think the Cat stand was done first so they wouldn't have to move to get the rest done.

Would make sense if they already had plans to do this when they built it
Basically just build a shell over the existing stand & add in some extra stands too, rather than start from scratch

 

[gingergenius]

Great news. It's so good to see rugby still thriving in the heartlands of the East Mids and South-West... even if the professional bubble bursts on unprofitable clubs like Newcastle and Sarries, it's reassuring to know that there are still historic clubs in rugby towns that play in their own stadiums... hopefully Saints can get some planning permission and get on with theirs too.