Cammy, Iain and John review the action from this weekend’s game between Scotland Women and Italy, ask what happened to the government funding the SRU received and ponder whether Sevens could save the sport from financial ruin.
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3 responses
If 2020/21 had been a normal financial year for the SRU it should have produced around £60m of turnover and probably somewhere in the region of £59m of costs. £16m of international ticket income is gone. £6m of hospitality income is gone. c. £4m of pro team ticket income is gone. Commercial income of £10m will be hit. Other pro team income will be hit. Probably around 50% of the annual turnover gone. Still those costs to pay though.
The stated target was to deliver £14m of cost savings – largely through wage cuts and reduced recruitment for the 2020/21 season. Without the grant funding further cost savings over and above that £14m would have been required. The grant funding puts the SRU in a position of being able to just about balance the books from a profit and loss and a cashflow perspective. Which should mean that they are still in a position to deliver somewhere in the region of the £7.5m of club support and development provided in the last pre-pandemic year.
There is no grant funding cash that will be resting in a bank account for years. There are no transfer fees being paid by this money (there are no transfer fees full stop). Next year’s player wages will not be paid by this grant funding – they’ll be paid out of next year’s turnover which is why getting crowds back in for the Autumn / start of the PRO16 season is so crucial.
Incidentally, the RFU made out like bandits from the 2015 RWC. Record turnover. Record profit generated for rugby investment. A rare retained profit of £3.9m. Their problems have been managing their costs and big overruns on the redevelopment of Twickenham. They were already making redundancies prior to Covid due to financial losses in 2017 and 2018 (£30m loss in 2018). They’ve overspent on Test match fees and their deal with PRL while slashing spending on the Championship and cutting their entire rugby development department.
Would that explain the RFU leading the drive for the external capital deal we have seen ?
Thanks for the financial insight , it always brings context for those of us trying to follow the “sport” side of the equation.
The cvc deal set up isn’t that unlike the basis of proposal for the already collapsing “uberleage” in the roundballers world