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'A triumph to still be in business': SA Rugby reports just a £400,000 loss despite 45 per cent drop in revenue
South Africa Rugby have hailed their strict austerity measures which ensured they only posted a modest loss of only R7.9million in 2020 (£400,000) – despite enduring a 45 per cent decline in revenues caused by the global pandemic.
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Group revenues declined to R710million (compared to R1.29billion the previous year) in a year in which the 2019 World Cup-winning Springboks didn’t play a match. The fall was caused by broadcast and sponsorship income cuts, the cancellation of the Test programme and the HSBC Cape Town Sevens.
This decline in revenue was matched by reductions in expenditure achieved through rugby-wide collaboration between SA Rugby, the South African Rugby Employers’ Organisation (SAREO – representing the provincial unions), MyPlayers (the players’ representative organisation) and Sport Employees’ Unite (employees’ trade union).
The SA Rugby industry mitigation plan had focused on a worst-case scenario of cutting up to R1.2bn from rugby’s global budget by reducing expenditure (49.7 per cent of savings), cuts in other operational budgets (37.3 per cent) and in salary reductions (13 per cent).
The plan led to cuts amounting to 25 per cent of total remuneration across the industry and annual financial statements were approved at Tuesday’s SA Rugby AGM. “By the end of the year it was a triumph to still be in business,” said Jurie Roux, SA Rugby CEO.
With Gatland's Lions squad announced, attention has turned to the identity of the Springboks they will be facing #LionsRugby #Lions2021
https://t.co/Qacrf1S5qt— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 11, 2021
“SA Rugby did not have the reserves to ride out the storm without any impact, nor were government bailouts available. It took a unique collaboration across the industry to arrive at a drastic cost-cutting plan to keep the sport afloat. We have managed to avoid widespread job losses or racking up the losses of some of our international peers, but it requires ongoing austerity and extreme financial vigilance to maintain what is a precarious position.
“I’d like to thank all the stakeholders for their collaboration in 2020 once again. It has been said many times but extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures, without which we could not have survived the year. We were able to collaborate with our broadcasters and sponsors on finding mitigation strategies and equitable reductions, while we were also very grateful to be able to access World Rugby loans to support our member unions and ensure that we still have 14 unions in 2021.
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“Unfortunately, the austerity measures will have to continue. The unforgiving truth at the elite end of the sport is that we are in the entertainment business and our product is rugby matches and the 365-day-year story that surrounds them. Without matches and an audience we have little or no income and until we return to a situation where venues are allowed 100 per cent capacity we will remain under extreme financial pressure.
“We have weathered Covid’s first storm and the return of our national teams and the arrival of the British and Irish Lions will be a great psychological boost. However, I cannot stress enough, we remain on a financial tightrope which will require careful management and financial restraint to survive.”
Business has picked up in SA ??? #Springboks #BritishAndIrishLions pic.twitter.com/ExazYs5gW2
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 11, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
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