Worries over new league
Super Six plan under fire
Stirling County captain Jonny Hope believes that the countdown to the new ‘Super Six’ league structure has left the domestic club game shrouded in uncertainty.
The planned league, which will replace the BT Premiership, is designed to close the gap between the club game and professional teams in Scotland.
It will sit above an amateur 12-team championship and is scheduled to be in place for the 2019/20 season.
The four-month bidding period to attain one of the six semi-professional franchise slots, which is a fundamental of the Scottish Rugby Union’s (SRU) Agenda 3 programme, is only a fortnight old.
With speculation inside the game that Melrose and Ayr are lukewarm about the process, Hope believes that the governing body have plenty to do to convince the clubs that the process will benefit the club game in Scotland.
The SRU intend to contribute £62,500 per franchise but the clubs, who will be asked to maintain 35-players on nine-month contracts, could need to find as much as double that.
Hope said: “There are both pros and cons regarding the Super Six. Financially it has to be right for the whole club. You can’t just focus everything on the first team and forget about the mini rugby, the youth teams and the ladies’ and girls’ sides.
“Stirling County is a community club and we want to be as engaged with our community as we can. Right now you ask yourself if attaining Super Six status is going to put all of that in jeopardy and I think there are a lot of questions still to be answered.
“So there is a lot of uncertainty about the whole thing and I believe there are at least two other Premiership clubs who are sceptical, what does that tell you?”
SRU chief executive Mark Dodson says he is confident that each of the six franchise slots available will be filled and will help generate fresh interest and commercial revenue.
But there are fears that developing new franchises may dilute personal connections and sponsorships.
Hope added: “I think Mark Dodson has a lot of work to do to convince the clubs that financially the Super Six is something that is
viable and not something that could instead jeopardise everything we stand for within our communities.
“For me I don’t think the SRU have consulted enough with the clubs. I mean to create the new franchise are we going to be re-branded The Stirling Knights or the Stirling Monuments at firstteam level – because that is just going to disengage us from our community.
“We are Stirling County and we are proud of that and everything we stand for within the Stirlingshire community. We are trying to build and grow that as a club, not jeopardise it.
“I know how hard the committee are working to get new sponsors and fresh investment into the club as Stirling County. To change that by re-branding would be a massive kick in the face and threaten all that ongoing work.
“I know that the committee at Stirling County will look at everything very carefully and make sure that whatever direction we take will be for the best for the club and our community.
“But it’s vital that one is not split from the other just to satisfy a concept that looks glossy and slick on paper, but just isn’t appropriate to Scottish rugby at grass-roots level and in its nuts and bolts reality.
“So for me Mark Dodson has a long way to go to convince the clubs Super Six would be good for the club game and everything it stands for in Scotland.”