Six Nations lose £5m as sponsors slash deal
THE full extent of the Six Nations title sponsorship loss can be revealed today – £5ma-year with immediate effect.
The Rugby Paper understands that to be the outcome of a gamble on over-estimating the tournament’s commercial value in a volatile market. It has backfired on a spectacular scale.
The six national Unions responsible for running the 15-match tournament fear their main sponsorship deal will be reduced to £9m this season and that they have no alternative but to accept less money than last year only a matter of months after rejecting an offer of £14m-a-year.
RBS bid £56m over four years, a long way short of the Six Nations target of £100m over six years but an increase of 40 per cent which experts describe as above-average in a deflated market.
Despite talking to more than 100 multi-national companies, none was prepared to come anywhere near the RBS figure, let alone match it.
That offer was rejected largely because two of the Six – understood to be Scotland and Wales – recommended a renewed search to find more money which flew in the face of the economic down-turn caused by Brexit.
Not surprisingly, they failed to get a better deal
The Six Nations reopened talks with RBS only to be told that their offer was no longer on the table. Negotiations with the banking group, which includes Natwest and Coutts, resulted in a oneseason offer of £9m.
That is less than RBS paid last year at the expiry of a four-season deal which extended their title sponsorship to 14 years. Undaunted, the Six Nations set their sights higher in pursuit of £100m over six years – almost £17m-a-year.
“It sounds easy to say in hindsight but they should have taken the RBS renewal offer,’’ a leading sports marketing expert said last night. “They would have done had the Scottish and Welsh unions not shifted the goalposts.
“£56m was a really good deal with the market the way it is. Scotland were particularly vehement in saying: ‘They’re not paying us enough. It’s worth more.’
“John Feehan has done a great job as chief executive. Despite that, he was told to get a bigger deal when there wasn’t one to be had. It’s tough out there, tougher than it’s ever been and that’s before you factor in Brexit.”
Feehan in buoyant mood at the tournament launch last January, said then: “The Six Nations is the biggest sponsorship in world rugby by a country mile. We have been in touch with well over 150 companies and we are in a very good place.”
He declined to comment yesterday. Any loss of revenue will pose a serious threat to all four home countries who depend on the Six Nations to finance the game at lower levels. Rugby’s blue riband event, whose income has risen steeply under Feehan’s astute direction, had always been seen as immune to the vagaries of the economic climate.