Ring fencing premiership and championship

[spursindevon]

Why what other four teams are going under?

Newcastle aren't very healthy, even a well run club like Exeter were struggling so who knows

 

[Saintjay]

Newcastle aren't very healthy, even a well run club like Exeter were struggling so who knows

Still failing to see four teams going under and a need to start turning into the URC. Financially struggling teams don't need the further burden of flying a squad to Georgia for example.

 

[Geordie]

Still rumours Newcastles Owners are going to take us under their wing and a few other sporting clubs around the region. Literally pocket money from them could keep us very healthy.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

I swear that there is always rumours of these big owners buying the smaller sport teams around them.
They never tend to materialise.

It might be pocket money but these owners don't tend to splash money on things they have zero cares about.

It's Unfortutely not like they care about the city of Newcastle, they wanted a prem football team

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

What could the RFU do???

People saying the RFU can't hide
But what can they do? Yeh the wage is crazy but it's what CEO's charge.

Why was a club of Jerseys size fully pro if it couldn't afford it???
RFU could limit spending in the championship and people would ***** about the RFU stifling things.

I take this back apparently the funding pulled due to lack of certainty over the leagues past this season.
Which is 100% on the RFU

 

[Which Tyler]

I swear that there is always rumours of these big owners buying the smaller sport teams around them.
They never tend to materialise.

It might be pocket money but these owners don't tend to splash money on things they have zero cares about.

It's Unfortutely not like they care about the city of Newcastle, they wanted a prem football team

Steve Lansdowne would be the only one who springs to mind as actually doing that.

I take this back apparently the funding pulled due to lack of certainty over the leagues past this season.
Which is 100% on the RFU

But also because "why would I fund a rich sport like rugby?" and wait until the day before pay day to tell anyone about the decision made at least a week earlier.
Which sounds more like a personal axe to grind, and therefore sabotaging the club.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Steve Lansdowne would be the only one who springs to mind as actually doing that.


But also because "why would I fund a rich sport like rugby?" and wait until the day before pay day to tell anyone about the decision made at least a week earlier.
Which sounds more like a personal axe to grind, and therefore sabotaging the club.

Yeh and Lansdown was born in Bristol which makes sense.

That's true I def think Jersey fell on their sword to put pressure on the RFU.
But it shouldn't get to that point, to have the RFU not even be able to say what the league situation is for the future is a massive failure on their part and does look amateurish

 

[Which Tyler]

Yeh and Lansdown was born in Bristol which makes sense.

That's true I def think Jersey fell on their sword to put pressure on the RFU.
But it shouldn't get to that point, to have the RFU not even be able to say what the league situation is for the future is a massive failure on their part and does look amateurish

Sorry, I was editing whilst you were posting - I'll bring it down here:


Beyond that, the RFU (amongst others, it's a negotiation after all) are at fault for us arriving at the beginning of the 2023-24 season and not knowing what professional rugby in England is going to look like for after this season.
On the other hand, 3 clubs (and now a 4th) have gone bankrupt, which may possibly have disrupted plans (well, we know 100% that plans were ditched, as it was initially set to include an expansion of the Prem, then went to a shrinking of the Prem - and working out on the details of how to achieve that, balance stability (ring fencing) with integrity of the competition (promo&rele + reduced MSCs) and sent everyone back to the drawing table.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Considering it was the Jersey Government that pulled their funding it's weird timing - the RFU have, apparently, always planned to announce structure later this season. Obviously that creates doubt/uncertainty, but why would the Government fund the club up until august just to pull the plug? Like shouldn't it have been up until the end last season? End of financial year? Two weeks into the season is just...bizarre

 

[Which Tyler]

Considering it was the Jersey Government that pulled their funding it's weird timing - the RFU have, apparently, always planned to announce structure later this season. Obviously that creates doubt/uncertainty, but why would the Government fund the club up until august just to pull the plug? Like shouldn't it have been up until the end last season? End of financial year? Two weeks into the season is just...bizarre

Hence suspicion that it's personal from the decision maker.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Does anyone have the breakdown of what the RFU invests and into where?

 

[Which Tyler]

Does anyone have the breakdown of what the RFU invests and into where?

https://www.englandrugby.com/dxdam/3c/3c392c15-090b-455e-991a-30653bc4c855/AnnualReport2022.pdf

Good luck; let us know what you find out

 

[Rinkadink]

Does anyone have the breakdown of what the RFU invests and into where?

Took the RFU 3 whole years to find a sponsor for their rebranded "fully professional" restructuring of the second tier into the Championship. There are many more examples of RFU shenanigans besides but that should tell you all of how they run professional rugby.

The RFU should have governance over grassroots/semi pro only and let a PRL type body take over at least the top 2 tiers, and play less international fixtures instead promoting the domestic game in its place. Hell, I don't mind replacing the RFU entirely with a new entity that values all its key pillars unlike the current union.

 

[McTallshort]

Took the RFU 3 whole years to find a sponsor for their rebranded "fully professional" restructuring of the second tier into the Championship. There are many more examples of RFU shenanigans besides but that should tell you all of how they run professional rugby.

The RFU should have governance over grassroots/semi pro only and let a PRL type body take over at least the top 2 tiers, and play less international fixtures instead promoting the domestic game in its place. Hell, I don't mind replacing the RFU entirely with a new entity that values all its key pillars unlike the current union.

That's fine as long as when a Premiership or championship club goes under every one stops screaming that it's the RFUs fault which is the current fallback option

 

[RedruthRFC]

Took the RFU 3 whole years to find a sponsor for their rebranded "fully professional" restructuring of the second tier into the Championship. There are many more examples of RFU shenanigans besides but that should tell you all of how they run professional rugby.

The RFU should have governance over grassroots/semi pro only and let a PRL type body take over at least the top 2 tiers, and play less international fixtures instead promoting the domestic game in its place. Hell, I don't mind replacing the RFU entirely with a new entity that values all its key pillars unlike the current union.

According to my recollection, The Championship wanted to find their own deal and failed to do so. The Greene King deal was negotiated fairly quickly when the RFU took charge of the situation.

The Championship equivalent of the PRL (AFAIK, the clubs' chairmen sat around a table) have repeatedly shown themselves to be incapable of achieving anything positive. They would have to outdo themselves in order to make a compelling case to the PRL that they could bring enough to the pot to justify being brought on board. It's a pity that nothing was done in this regard back then the top two tiers were the Allied Dunbar 1 and 2.

 

[Rinkadink]

It was the RFU who removed several teams from the league (then nat1) and aimed to make it "fully professional" whilst expecting this to happen with 500k (or less) paid to each club in central funding and no league sponsor. Considering the RFU is now talking about spending £32million per year on signing 20 "core" premiership players (plus extras around) for the England side in a new hybrid contract system, it is absurd (if not downright insulting) with what they've offered the championship over the years and with another club just going out of business under their stewardship.

I'm still recovering from COVID and run out of energy fast at the moment but I'm sure there will be links in search engines.

 

[will311293]

I assume some of you listen to the Eggchasers... they were talking about the numbers of womens rugby vs the championship.
Championship clubs funding went from 500k to 150k investment from RFU.

Overall £3m cut by RFU in 2020/21, then 2025 Facility improvement fund (£7m over 4 years).
Champ - 2.1m total will be spent by RFU next year on Champ clubs for 2023/24 season.
Womens Rugby (if aligned to the information pulled from the RFU annual report) - £22m per year for next 10 years. BONKERS.

"WOMEN'S PREMIERSHIP - The season's Allianz Premier 15s was the most competitive since the league began in 2017. Saracens won the ***le at Sixways with victory over Exeter Chiefs, in the Chiefs' second season in the top-flight. The RFU livestreamed more games than any other season with two matches from each round broadcast. The BBC came on board mid-season to broadcast one of those, and BT Sport showed the semi-finals and final. Across BBCCEO'S REVIEWOF THE YEAR17ANNUAL REPORT 2022Sport's website and app, BBC iPlayer andPremier15s.com, over one million people watched top-flight women's rugby across the season. In June 2022, the Board committed to a ten-year strategy to transform the league into the most competitive, progressive, and sustainable domestic competition in the world. A new operating company will manage the league from season 2023/24,with up to £220m to be invested in the professional womens game over the next year.

 

[will311293]

I assume some of you listen to the Eggchasers... they were talking about the numbers of womens rugby vs the championship.
Championship clubs funding went from 500k to 150k investment from RFU.

Overall £3m cut by RFU in 2020/21, then 2025 Facility improvement fund (£7m over 4 years).
Champ - 2.1m total will be spent by RFU next year on Champ clubs for 2023/24 season.
Womens Rugby (if aligned to the information pulled from the RFU annual report) - £22m per year for next 10 years. BONKERS.

"WOMEN'S PREMIERSHIP - The season's Allianz Premier 15s was the most competitive since the league began in 2017. Saracens won the ***le at Sixways with victory over Exeter Chiefs, in the Chiefs' second season in the top-flight. The RFU livestreamed more games than any other season with two matches from each round broadcast. The BBC came on board mid-season to broadcast one of those, and BT Sport showed the semi-finals and final. Across BBCCEO'S REVIEWOF THE YEAR17ANNUAL REPORT 2022Sport's website and app, BBC iPlayer andPremier15s.com, over one million people watched top-flight women's rugby across the season. In June 2022, the Board committed to a ten-year strategy to transform the league into the most competitive, progressive, and sustainable domestic competition in the world. A new operating company will manage the league from season 2023/24,with up to £220m to be invested in the professional womens game over the next year.

#This also isn't me having a go at the womens game but more at the ludicrous logic of the RFU.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Where's that £22m going?
It's not like it's going on salaries/to the clubs

 

[will311293]

Where's that £22m going?
It's not like it's going on salaries/to the clubs

Yeah this is what i want to know... its a staggering number and can't be right but surely someone reviewed the report before it was published.
£220m is an insane amount and £22m is even more nuts. even half of that i can't see where its going.

Its not like Allianz 15s is breaking viewing figures and there's loads more playing. From the report, figures were 1m viewing on all platforms across BBC, BT Sports and Allianz15.com, womens rugby has around 40,000 players compared to mens at 132,000 roughly in 2022.

I just don't understand where all this money comes from in the RFU and why so much is needed> and why the Champ couldn't have even a quarter of that.