Lockdown a major threat to Premiership rugby clubs, says Bristol’s Pat Lam
Premiership rugby clubs would struggle to survive another lockdown, the Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam has warned, after tighter restrictions on sporting events in Wales and Scotland put officials on red alert.
Matches in Wales will go behind closed doors from Boxing Day while crowds in Scotland will be capped at just 500 people for three weeks from 26 December.
Lam has voiced his concerns should restrictions in England tighten while Six Nations organisers will also be paying close attention given Scotland are due to host England on the first day of next year’s competition on 5 February and considering there is no current end date to the new measures in Wales.
Some Premiership clubs were driven to the brink of bankruptcy when the league was put on hold between March and August last year before last season was played out in largely empty stadiums. Compounding matters, central funding from the Rugby Football Union took a swingeing cut with some clubs losing around £1m a month before full crowds returned this season.
On Tuesday the prime minister, Boris Johnson, did not rule out further restrictions being introduced after Christmas to combat the spread of the Omicron variant, which could in turn affect sporting events.
Harlequins, who are hopeful of a crowd in excess of 70,000 for the Big Game at Twickenham next Monday, are now facing an anxious wait in the coming days.
In the longer term, when asked if the Premiership could survive in the event of another lockdown, Lam, who revealed last week that Bristol’s cancelled match against the Scarlets cost the club £300,000, said: “I don’t think so. People look at us and think, ‘They have got [owner] Steve Lansdown, a billionaire,’ but what people tend to forget is we don’t have what Steve is worth. Steve has put in his time here close to £80m of his own money into Bristol rugby, and that is a lot of money.
“We have a fantastic product. Professional rugby is a great game, but the reality is there are a lot of wealthy people who are losing money. I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom, but this is not as cosy as people think. I am pretty sure PRL [Premiership Rugby Limited] will be talking to the government. The decision by the Premier League to keep going was an important one for rugby as well.”