THE HERALD REPORTS

Edinburgh Gunners' new owners are drawing huge encouragement from the growing evidence that professional rugby can be profitable.
Their great adventure gets under way in earnest today, a day after Leicester Tigers' announced that, in spite of failing to win a trophy, they made record profits over the past year.
"Clearly, clubs like Leicester are at least three to five years ahead of us in terms of developing their business. However, it shows what is achievable, particularly for a side based in a rugby capital," said Alex Carruthers, the Gunners' executive chairman, ahead of tonight's meeting with Leeds Tykes (kick-off 7.30).
"Given our late entry into this, it would be foolish to say we will smash all records this season, but the general feeling I am getting from the good-luck messages we are receiving is that our timing in getting involved is right."
While professional rugby's first decade was bound to be a painful experience as harsh lessons were learned, encouraging signs are emerging that administrators are getting the balance right between providing a product which the public wants and keeping control of costs.
The Tigers' figures follow on from Neath-Swansea Ospreys' announcement earlier this summer that they had become the first Celtic provincial team to make a profit. The Irish Rugby Football Union, which owns its four provincial teams, subsequently announced its first profit for several years.
Even the troubled Scottish Rugby Union announced last week that getting rid of the out-dated committee-run system has finally allowed it to stop the rot with what had been an escalating bank debt kept to the same £23m as a year ago.
Interestingly the Leicester and Ospreys success stories, not to mention those of the Irish provinces, are at organisations which are run not under entrepreneurial owners, but by clubs with management boards.
The Gunners' new owners can take heart that they are not necessarily throwing their money into a black hole, and those considering investing in a new Glasgow Warriors set-up should take particular note.
The plan envisaged by Brian Simmers and David Mackay, who are currently talking to Glasgow businesses about contributing to their bid to take on the running of the organisation, is very much on that basis.
Central to the successes elsewhere, however, is that the teams all enjoy much bigger attendances than the Scottish sides. Leicester have already sold all their tickets for this season's European and English Premiership matches at their 15,000-capacity Welford Road home, while Celtic League records were repeatedly broken at the Ospreys and the Irish provinces last season.

This article was posted on 18-Aug-2006, 07:22 by Hugh Barrow.