The Rugby Football Union depends on the Premiership to provide its players. The rest of the game depends on those players to provide the funds to keep the game going. The Premiership is now down to 10 sides from 13. At 13 sides no club made a profit out of rugby, it must follow that they stand no chance with 10. It is not just that the Premiership depend on wealthy men to bail them out. If one of the owners goes bust, loses interest or dies the league would be unviable (if it isn’t already). The whole thing is mired in debt and the only way to get out of debt is to make a profit. The RFU have increased their payment to the Premiership for season 2024/25 but it goes nowhere near the £25 million loss the clubs made in 2023/24. If the basic needs of the Premiership are not addressed the whole union will suffer.
The main source of income for Premiership clubs is home games. People have talked about resurrecting the three clubs that have gone bust.
1. Worcester - it has been shown over the years that there is not enough support around Worcester to sustain a premiership side.
2. London Irish - a limited support plus no side has ever survived in the Premiership with a rented ground.
3. Wasps - no ground; people have talked about the name but Moseley, Coventry, Richmond and Blackheath all have wellknown names but it takes a lot more than that to survive in the Premiership.
We must look to existing teams with existing support and stadiums to give us what we want. We must also accept the premise “you must use all your assets to their full advantage”, that means stadiums and players. There is no point in having stadiums that cost many millions of pounds and only use them once every 14 days.
We also produce many talented players who have little chance of getting regular games, we must produce a league that gives them this chance.
The main points of my argument are:
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