Roaring for the fans

Lions boss Allers wants supporters allowed on rugby return

● Lions boss Altmann Allers believes social distancing protocols should allow supporters to attend games when rugby resumes.

Allers emphasised that the team is ready to resume normal activity when it gets the green light.

He is hoping social-distancing rules at that time will permit some spectators.

“If your stadium seats 1,000 people, then maybe you can host 150 or 200 spectators. If you have a stadium that seats 60,000 people then surely you can get a few thousand in. There has to be a measure of logic in applying safety rules,” said Allers, the Lions company chairperson and main shareholder.

“It’s like saying only seven passengers can be allowed on a minibus and then you apply the same number to trains. That would make no sense. These are difficult questions but it doesn’t mean you have to come up with ridiculous answers. ”

Allers believes local teams will continue to struggle unless SA Rugby hardens its stance on player defections to the northern hemisphere.

He said the defection of marquee players to the north eases contractual obligations on SA Rugby, but those savings are not reinvested in the game. Not stemming the tide of players going abroad, while still selecting the big names for the Springboks, he argues, will eventually bite SA Rugby in the back.

“If business continues as it is, we will lose more senior players to overseas clubs. Then we’d have to look at unleashing our juniors earlier in senior competitions. I agree with John Dobson’s [Stormers coach] sentiments when he said we’ll become like Fiji in our export of players to the rich north.”

Just this week as the 21-day window closed on players who wished to opt out of their local contracts, Allers’s Lions saw four players heading for the exit.

He said SA Rugby did not feel the defections as hard as the franchises. “Rassie [Erasmus, SA Rugby’s director of rugby] and Jacques [Nienaber, Springbok coach] can still select players who are based abroad.

“They can still rope in the best Springboks under regulation nine [World Rugby’s regulation on availability]. That is a shortsighted philosophy. What will happen is that more young players who aren’t Springboks will go overseas and when SA Rugby wants to select that player, his club and the national federation where he is playing are going to put him under huge pressure not to play and rather qualify for the national team of his club.

“We need a transparent conversation around this. Whatever saving SA Rugby is making by having those players play abroad doesn’t filter back to the franchises to develop more talent,” said Allers.

The Covid-19-induced measures to trim the wage bill at the teams will bring between 25% and 30% in salary cost relief at the Lions. “Salaries are by far our biggest expense,” said Allers. “We will only see the impact of the cost-cutting measures on salaries and other expenses at the end of May.

“I think we will still be left short. You take a calculated risk in how you try to make up the shortfall in income, but if we go beyond

June without starting up rugby it will definitely be tough and we will have to look at additional cost cutting.”

Apart from trying to retain talent on a shoestring budget, Allers, along with other team bosses around the country, have had to slash their expenditure during the financially crippling Covid-19 pandemic.

The Lions have considerable expenses. Under normal operations their budget for the upkeep and security of the Ellis Park Sports Precinct (including Johannesburg Stadium and the Johannesburg Arena) stands at R3.5m a month.

“We’ve cut that back to just over R2m per month during lockdown but that is still a considerable cost when there is no income. Security alone costs about R500,000 per month. You can’t slack on security. The moment it is known that something is standing empty it becomes a target.”

Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber can select players based abroad. They can rope in the best Springboks under regulation nine. It is a shortsighted philosophy

Altmann Allers

Lions chairperson