THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

Burgess submits new pro-team plan
DAVID FERGUSON
GRAHAM Burgess has re-ignited his efforts to help Scottish rugby by lodging a new business plan with the Scottish Rugby Union to take over control of the Borders team, but in a move that would re-launch the side in Stirling.

Burgess was in talks with the SRU in 2005 and 2006 over the possibility of taking Glasgow to Forthbank Stadium, a stadium he determined would offer the best chance of making a success of a pro team. Gordon McKie and the SRU board turned down Burgess' plans, despite it featuring the combined financial muscle of the Aberdonian oilman and Roy Carver, a US businessman with a passion for rugby and a business recently sold for about £800m.

Burgess recently admitted he had six investors backing this latest bid with Carver believed to be one. The Aberdonian, who once played for Leith Accies, is understood to have met with the SRU at Murrayfield yesterday, but he declined to comment and an SRU spokesperson said: "There has been communication between Mr Burgess and Mr McKie and I have no doubt there will be meetings."

The SRU has confirmed, however, that there are two offers to buy Scottish professional teams on the table - one from a London-based consortium which features Glasgow businessmen, to take over the running of Glasgow, in Glasgow, and the second from Burgess. A third was due from a Borders action group, expected to include a budget of around £1.5m, to be with the SRU before today's meeting of the executive board. McKie stated last week that he was seeking a minimum of £2m of private investment, and that the SRU would the consider adding to that from the pot of £2.7m of ERC and Magners League participation monies the union receives. The London-based consortium and Burgess' offers are understood to be close to that figure, and even the Borders group plan - which would run the team on a comparable level to Connacht in Ireland - would, on the surface, appear to offer a better solution than making redundant about 20 players, losing a third of the competition revenue and handing over up to £750,000 to buy out an agreement to play at Netherdale.

Andy Irvine, the SRU president, admitted recently that the union had made a mess of running professional rugby and insisted that had Edinburgh been 'sold' to Brian Kennedy, now the Sale Sharks owner, when he first made a offer more than seven years ago, the picture now would have been much brighter.

The union did last summer sell Edinburgh to the Carruthers brothers, and if they were to do likewise with the Borders and Glasgow, even if the Borders team was to find itself relocated to Stirling - where Burgess hopes to link up with newly- promoted Stirling County RFC, Stirling University and the Scottish Institute of Sport - the savings could be in the region of £4m.

This article was posted on 26-Apr-2007, 07:41 by Hugh Barrow.