SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
MARTIN HANNAN

THE survival of professional rugby in Glasgow hangs by a thread today as the Scottish Rugby Union board prepare to debate the future of the Warriors.

At a closed-doors meeting with top players tomorrow, SRU chief executive Gordon McKie is expected to outline the way ahead for the three pro-teams. It is a meeting that will be particularly keenly anticipated by Glasgow's players.


The Warriors are the team most likely to be franchised, with two sets of potential investors keen to run the side. However, this paper understands that neither bid is likely to proceed this season.

Although the SRU appears ill-equipped to fund all three pro teams unless another as yet unpublicised investor or a radical stop-gap solution emerges - such as the mooted sale and leaseback of Murrayfield stadium - the noises coming out of Murrayfield suggest that the teams will be given a final one-year stay of execution.

With the three pro-teams costing nearly £6m a year to run, that is as much as Glasgow and Borders, the two under-threat pro-teams, can hope for, especially given reports that the SRU's £23m debt has expanded by a further £3m over the last year.

The hottest topic at tomorrow's meeting is sure to be the progress of the search for investors. At the moment, two rival consortiums are bidding to franchise the Warriors, a move which would save the SRU £500,000 to £1m a year.

One group, led by Aberdonian Graham Burgess and former internationalist Kenny Logan, have money in the bank. The other, led by former SRU chairman David Mackay and Brian Simmers, who created the club juggernaut known as Glasgow Hawks, have the promise of long-term investment.

There is also a third long-term alternative. If he is not satisfied with either plan, McKie could decide that the Warriors do not have a divine right to exist and pull the plug on them. Alternatively, he could choose the Borders for closure.

If McKie does indeed announce a stay of execution for all three pro-teams tomorrow, that will even up a fight that is, as it stands, very uneven. McKie is an accountant who deals in hard figures and were the decision to be made today he would surely plump for Burgess and Logan, as they can put money on the table.

Mackay and Simmers, on the other hand, admit that they are offering a decade-long plan to revitalise rugby in the west, which would not aid SRU finances in the next few months.

But then Burgess and Logan have said that they may move the Warriors to Stirling or Perth, anathema to Glasgow-based members of the SRU board and council. And while Mackay and Simmers have yet to see interested parties commit to funding, they have received substantial backing from Glasgow City Council.

Indeed, Burgess and Logan had been hot favourites to win control of the Warriors, but yesterday Mackay and Simmers played a trump card with the announcement that Glasgow council were backing a £12m development at Scotstoun that would help to guarantee the future of pro rugby in the city.

If successful, Mackay and Simmers would eventually move the Warriors to become anchor tenants of the new stadium, but Simmers was anxious to emphasise that the plan involved a lot more than keeping the professional team in the city.

"This is not just about the existence of a pro-team in Glasgow, vital though that is," he said. "It's about a long-term plan to totally revitalise the game in Glasgow and the surrounding areas, building a community-based operation that works in schools and in the 120 local clubs who overwhelmingly back our plan. We just need more time to round things out."

At a series of meetings, figures in the game in Glasgow agreed to back their scheme despite the lack of the reported £1m initial investment required by the SRU. "We are confident that will come soon," said Mackay. "It's a case of getting a first commitment from a sponsor or investor, which in turn will trigger others to come in."

The SRU recently rejected basing the Warriors at Scotstoun because the new stadium will not be ready until 2009. Mackay does not see that as a problem. "We can play at the existing venues [Hughenden or Firhill] before the move to Scotstoun," said Mackay. "The backing we have had from the city council is terrific, and I would point out that there is a bigger picture here, as Glasgow's bid for the Commonwealth Games might suffer if there is any downgrading of commitment to rugby [sevens is an integral part of the bid] in the city."

Meanwhile, Burgess and Logan have put their case to the SRU, and it is reportedly a strong one. Either way, these are worrying times for the Warriors, especially as Burgess and Logan might be persuaded to buy the Borders. But moving the Reivers to Stirling appears a non-starter because of the SRU's long-term lease on Netherdale.

If, as anticipated, the Warriors survive this week, they seem likely to be the first franchised team. In what form, and whether they play in the city or Stirling, will depend on whether the formidable duo of Mackay and Simmers get backing for their bid. Glasgow awaits the verdict.

This article was originally posted on 9-Jul-2006, 09:05 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 9-Jul-2006, 09:05.