Melrose Sevens marketing blitz highlights paucity of SRU's efforts in selling pro rugby to public
DAVID FERGUSON
WHAT the Borders would give tonight for a crowd similar to the 10,000-plus expected to roll up at the Greenyards tomorrow. What a Scottish professional team would give for the marketing nous of those at Melrose to be matched by those inside Murrayfield.

Infinitely more people are aware of Melrose's world-famous sevens tournament taking place on Saturday afternoon than have had knowledge of the appearance of many of European rugby's greatest stars at Netherdale this season. In fact, had there not been great efforts made by the Borders Supporters Club and local agencies and individuals to whip up publicity for tonight's game, it is doubtful as many as 10,000 people would even have an inkling that the reigning Magners League champions Ulster are in town to face a team with 11 Scotland internationalists either in the starting line-up or on the bench.

And that is what has been fuelling much of the frustration around the Borders at the decision by the SRU to cut the professional team for a second time in ten years. If everything had been done to make the Borders work, few could have argued about the team being closed, putting it down perhaps to the local club loyalties proving too strong to transfer to a new team. But in fact, we know too well that the SRU's low level of importance attached to the marketing of professional rugby has left a vacuum where there should have been vibrancy.

An army of volunteers at Melrose, many of whom have been doing the job for decades, have gained experience in building and attracting a crowd. They have established links with unions, amateur and professional sides, and keep the tournament fresh with new ideas each year, all designed to make the small Borders town - population 3,000 - the venue for one of the biggest draws in the Scottish rugby calendar.

Market research continues, with supporters at the Melrose Sevens asked annually why they come, and how their experience could be improved. Did the SRU indulge in such basic marketing around the Borders or Glasgow during their recent review of pro rugby? In fact, have they ever? The unsatisfactory response from some has been that the Borders, as a rugby stronghold, should not need a blur of publicity to sell top-level professional games.

A glance at the media this week tells the story of two very different approaches to selling rugby to the public. Melrose are advertising the sevens in regional and national media - no reader of this newspaper's sports pages could have missed the fact that the sevens take place tomorrow. Meanwhile the SRU has spent a fraction of the amount on small adverts in the local media, and this during a season when the Borders and Glasgow were asked to double their attendances.

Cynics who say that there is no point throwing good money after bad if the team is to close are missing the point. The same level of marketing of pro team rugby - or lack of it - has been going on all season. It is an issue The Scotsman has highlighted before, when the example of privately-owned Edinburgh's fresh approach to promoting a match attracted a record crowd to Murrayfield for a Heineken Cup tie featuring a Scottish team.

The Melrose club has an annual turnover of around £250,000; the SRU a turnover of about £25m. Melrose spend £1,500 on advertising their sevens, and are doubling the budget to promote the 125th anniversary next year. While the SRU would not share their marketing expenditure with us yesterday, their inability - or unwillingness - to match Melrose's reach is staggering.

One of the most sought-after figures in the first decade of pro rugby in England was the late Peter Deakin. Such a success did he make of growing crowds at Bradford Bulls in league and Saracens in union that the marketing man was made chief executive by Brian Kennedy at Sale. He employed a wealth of ideas, from the obvious to the original, aimed at turning rugby matches into events and giving clubs a foothold in previously sceptical communities. He also did much of it on a shoestring budget as clubs fought debts.

The SRU have had one such individual in the past ten years, Phil Anderton, and even he did not have the time to find out what made Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Borders tick at professional level before he was forced out in the overthrow of the current office-bearers' predecessors. The SRU have had no marketing director for more than a year, never mind one at each pro team, and, showing great naivety, blame poor crowds on either poor results or intransigent rugby followers.

Yes, the Borders public is culpable for failing to show enough interest in the professional team over the past five years, but the SRU is just as guilty over its lack of effort to create interest in the asset it is about to shut down.

The two events this weekend, just four miles apart, provide a clear illustration of how rugby stands a real chance of success in the Borders if the will is there to make it work.

This article was posted on 13-Apr-2007, 07:04 by Hugh Barrow.