SCOTTISH RUGBY ACTS TO STEM DEBT
Posted: 28/Apr/06
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The Executive Board of the Scottish Rugby Union has agreed a series of
budgetary measures aimed at stemming the sport’s core debt of £23
million and better integrating the development of its young players.

On the eve of the SRU’s new financial year, the Board recognised the
sport can no longer afford to remain involved in all its current
activities if its debt is to be reduced, and greater support and
integration must be targeted at its National Academies.

Meeting at Murrayfield yesterday, the Board accepted recommendations
proposed by the SRU Chief Executive, Gordon McKie, to prioritise funding
into young player development by extending the National Academy
structure and to reduce, or in some cases cut, specific rugby
activities.

With the up to date budget presented to them for the first time, the
Board were facing a potential, projected, loss of £2-3 million, which
would give rise to additional debt on top of the existing £23 million,
if no action was taken.

Consequently the Board agreed a series of measures to redirect the key
priorities of the governing body.

Scottish Rugby will therefore seek to enter into joint venture
partnerships with external investors over one, or perhaps more, of its
three professional teams. The governing body remains open minded about
which professional team or teams such joint ventures would involve and
where the team or teams would be located.

As a matter of priority, agreement would be sought with partners, over
areas such as the selection of key positional players and Scotland
national squad player access.

Gordon McKie confirmed one of the aims of the proposed joint ventures
was to retain as many professional players in Scotland as possible.

“That is one of our goals and we hope this can be achieved for the
benefit of high performance rugby in Scotland. We’ll be approaching
this with an open mind and will be prepared to talk to all interested
strategic investors.

“However, if suitable terms cannot be agreed and opportunities
don’t materialise, we will sadly have no alternative but to further
reduce our investment in pro-team rugby between now and the start of
next season.”

The pressures on the budget have resulted in the governing body
prioritising areas it believes are absolutely essential to develop
players who might one day reach the Scotland national squad and play for
their country.

The Scottish Rugby Board also considered all aspects of involvement in
Sevens rugby and has decided to carefully assess what level of
participation on the international sevens circuit Scotland can afford in
the future.
It was decided that future participation in the abbreviated game could
be selected from the extended National Academy structure but a separate
7s squad would no longer need to be maintained.

However the importance of Sevens was fully recognised by the Board,
including the positive part rugby can play in Glasgow’s important bid
to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Moreover, consideration was given to the recent invitation to the SRU
by the International Rugby Board to discuss its proposal to stage one of
the final legs in their world sevens circuit at Melrose, the Borders
town of its birth. The Board called for an examination of the commercial
merits of the idea and the Chief Executive plans to discuss its
viability with the IRB as early as next week.

As well as 7s, Scottish Rugby is currently involved in all
representative age groups from U17s, U18s, U18a, U19s and U21s, through
to Scotland A, just below the senior squad.

At a time when international rugby in the northern hemisphere is
considering changing Under 19s and Under 21s competitions and possibly
introducing Under 20s instead, the SRU Board has now closely examined
all its representative responsibilities and agreed it could no longer
continue its involvement with them all.

Consequently, it is proposed that Scotland’s Under18s team will
continue but an Under 18a team will no longer exist.

There will be no further involvement at Under 19 level, with the
possible exception of the 2007 IRB U19 World Cup in Belfast.

Due to international rugby’s consideration of a possible U20s
competition, the SRU Executive Board has decided there will be no future
Scottish involvement at U21s level, except for the U21s World
Championship in France in June. Possible involvement in the U20s age
group will be examined.

The Board recognised the importance of continued involvement in the
women’s game. However financial commitment to the international game
is likely to be reduced and a Women’s sponsor would be warmly
welcomed.

Investment in the community game, where talent is identified and
nurtured, will be increased overall. The Board recognised the importance
of increasing the player base in Scotland’s clubs.

The SRU Chief Executive, Gordon McKie, has been in post for eight
months and is charged with turning around Scottish Rugby’s £23 million
debt. He commented,
“Scottish Rugby has lost over £20 million in nine of the last eleven
years, so it’s no surprise that our budget priorities now dictate this
long overdue action by the Board.

“The changes to our representative teams are much needed.
Historically there has been a serious lack of proper preparation and
intensity of competition, which resulted in a consistent inability to
compete meaningfully at underage rugby.

“Going forward we will introduce properly structured player
development programmes, which will allow more of these young players the
opportunity to make the grade within high performance rugby.

“We’ve been over ambitious in all that we have taken on at the
elite end of the sport. This is a business after all and we can only do
what we can afford to do.”
There will also need to be savings in every departmental budget at
Murrayfield and the day to day running of the SRU will be tightened up
across the board. McKie added,
“Since joining the SRU last August I have found some of its practices
unnecessarily cumbersome. For example there were as many as nine
financial ledgers in existence. That cannot be allowed to continue and
as from next week there will be one ledger and greater accountability
across all areas.

“The Board has also passed a recommendation to allow an agreed number
of corporate hospitality packages to be sold to sponsors and Scotland
supporters, to attend our formal dinners after Murrayfield international
matches. This will bring in much needed new money and offer some lucky
people a very special experience in the company of both of the
international teams on the night.”
The Chief Executive concluded, “We have ambitions to grow the game at
both ends of the sport, to offer more young people from all sorts of
communities the opportunity to take up rugby from an early age, find it
great fun and stay involved through clubs and schools.

“Success for the Scotland national team is also an absolute priority.
But to succeed in our goals, we need to attract greater funding through
many sources. In the meantime, our priority today is to recognise where
we are in these objectives and to cut our cloth to fit our resources.
The Board’s decisions today are an essential start.”

This article was posted on 28-Apr-2006, 12:14 by Hugh Barrow.