Premiership is for all – not just the richest, Steve

I fear for the future of the Premiership and the open letter from Bristol Bears owner, Steve Lansdown, has done nothing to ease my concerns. In his letter he sets out his vision for the league, and it contains sentiments that I suspect only the richest owners might agree with. In fact, the Lansdown approach would, in my opinion, run a real risk of driving a number of his rivals out of business.

- COLIN BOAG

He believes that “to drive the commercial growth of the game, we must keep the best players in the Premiership”, but is that true?

Bristol and Bath have an enmity going back generations, and when they clash, do their fans care whether their team is stacked full of expensive, and often imported, talent, or do they simply want to win?

Where some owners misjudge the state of the game is that they are businessmen before they are fans. In my view what fans detest is when the playing field isn’t level – such as when one club can chuck £1m (allegedly!) at a single player, or when, as in the case of Saracens, it looked as though they were playing fast and loose with the cap.

That imbalance turns fans off, and I remain totally unconvinced that broadcasting revenues would suffer if the Premiership’s galacticos disappeared. In fact, I would argue that a competition where the cap was set at a level that was affordable for every club would bring disillusioned fans back to the game.