SUNDAY TIMES REPORTS
Glasgow is attracting interest from outside investors but they are a long way from concluding any deal with Murrayfield to save the ailing team. By Mark Palmer


SCOTLAND’S three professional teams are no nearer to finding a saviour with only six weeks left to prevent one of them being closed. Agreement with external investors, required to cover the £1m cut in central funding outlined last month by Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, still seems a distant prospect as three parties tracking Glasgow Warriors and Border Reivers have confirmed to The Sunday Times that they are still a long way off concluding a deal to take at least partial control.
McKie originally said an arrangement would have to be in place by August, less than a month before the Celtic League resumes, but later admitted that the end of June was a more realistic timescale given the upheaval of potentially moving a team to a new location and making alterations to the playing and coaching staff at the investor’s behest before the start of the new season.



The middle of next month, however, will see the draws for the pool stages of next year’s Heineken Cup and Challenge Cup competitions, in which Scotland have a combined three places. Withdrawing a team from the latter tournament after fixtures have already been allocated would cause considerable organisational problems for ERC, European rugby’s rulers, who last night would not be drawn on the possible ramifications for the Scottish game of such a move.

The Dublin-based governing body have yet to receive any official notice from Murrayfield as to whether Scotland will fill all its allocated slots, quite probably because the SRU themselves do not know if this will be possible. While they have received several declarations of interest in the pro teams, these have yet to harden into formal negotiations.

The partnership between Roy Carver, an American tyre tycoon, and Graham Burgess, an Aberdeen oil businessman, fronted by Kenny Logan, still seems the most likely to thrash out an agreement for Glasgow, but it is believed the group have serious concerns about the amount of money they would be expected to invest. McKie estimates the annual cost of running a team at £2m, to be split roughly equally between the SRU and the third party, but Carver and Burgess put the figure at nearer £3m once administration and marketing, provided by Murrayfield at present, are taken into account.

Moving the team to Stirling, the town where Logan came to rugby prominence, is at the forefront of their plans, a source close to the group has confirmed.

Raising sufficient capital is the main stumbling block faced by another would-be Glasgow backer. Brian Simmers, honorary president of Glasgow Hawks, the hugely successful club side he helped form in 1997, has offered himself as a conduit between the union and potential investors in the city, but as yet has not received any concrete offers of support.

Several major players in the Borders business community will this week meet in a desperate attempt to stave off the closure of the Reivers. Some 16 individuals will discuss the possibility of forming a consortium in a move spearheaded by Alastair Cranston, a previous chief executive of the Borders pro team.

This article was posted on 14-May-2006, 07:39 by Hugh Barrow.