SRU’s £44.5m windfall will ‘future-proof’ game
SCOTTISH rugby chiefs have welcomed a £365million Six Nations deal with private equity firm CVC Capital that will benefit the governing body by £44.5m over five years — and help ‘future-proof’ the game north of the border. The money from CVC — who have bought a 14.3 per cent share in future tournament monies — will be divided on a sliding scale among the six unions. England, with the biggest and most lucrative television market, will receive £95m while Wales will get £51m and Ireland £48m. Neither France nor Italy have yet revealed their shares of the cash. A Scottish Rugby statement read: ‘Today’s announcement marks an important step in the evolution of the Six Nations as a tournament. The initial amount for Scotland will be around £7.4m (before costs) at completion, out of a total allocation for Scotland of up to £44.5m (before costs) if Six Nations meets various future financial performance conditions. ‘Scotland will also benefit from an increased commercial focus on the competition as a result of the partnership with CVC. Scottish Rugby’s board and council will take their time to determine how best to utilise this future income, having both backed the proposal to bring
CVC on board. Bringing in a significant external partner is the result of many years of hard work in developing the tournament and recognition of its value and future. ‘It provides a great opportunity to take the tournament forward and build on its success to date. The arrival of CVC is a strong expression of confidence in rugby and one which will directly benefit the wider game in Scotland in years to come.’ In an interview with Sportsmail before the deal was finalised, SRU chief executive Mark Dodson described the cash coming in as ‘transformational’. It comes on top of the £30m the SRU received from CVC’s investment in the Pro14 as well as £15m worth of grants and £5m in a low-interest loan from the Scottish Government. ‘We have to be very careful about how the money is spent,’ said Dodson at the time. ‘It has to be spent on things that will future-proof the game. The money will be spent across the whole business, like the community game and BT Murrayfield itself. ‘The stadium will cost a lot of money and always needs to be improved. It you look at Twickenham, the Principality, the Aviva, the Stade de France, these are terrific stadiums. ‘So are some of the football stadiums that have been built as well, so we’ve got some catching up to do. How we spend it will be something we speak to a large range of people about.’ Although the wide expectation is that — under the deal with CVC — the major games in next year’s Six Nations will go behind the paywall, Dodson insists that is not a foregone conclusion. ‘I’m optimistic and I don’t necessarily think that going behind a paywall is the favoured option,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘We have to look at how not only the money comes through but also what coverage looks like and how accessible it is.’
SCOTTISH Championship clubs have rejected a request by lowerleague chairmen to extend their disrupted season by two weeks. And it means some League One and Two sides now face playing four games a week when play restarts on March 20 in order to complete a 22-game season before the play-offs in May. Representatives of the third and fourth tiers were locked in crunch talks with the SPFL last night over a return to action next weekend. With their season having been halted by a Covid spike on January 12, the lower-league clubs now accept that meeting the original 27-game schedule is unrealistic. Fearful of further delays caused by the pandemic, league chiefs would prefer both divisions to cut the season off after 18 games. But some clubs are concerned that would leave them too few games to fight their way into the promotion reckoning or escape relegation, so a compromise was agreed to have a 22-game season with a split for the final four fixtures. And any fixture imbalance caused by coronavirus outbreaks will be settled by calculating average points per game. Following talks last night that remained the main sticking point, with further discussions planned for today. With the Championship play-offs due to kick off on May 5, League One and Two teams have little time to play out the remaining fixtures. A proposed delay to the play-offs remains the key sticking point, with Championship clubs concerned that their ninth-placed team will be left waiting too long to face their opponents. An appeal to extend Leagues One and Two by up to two weeks has now been scuppered, with Championship chairmen agreeing to grant them another four days only.