'Commercially, it has been a disappointment... lots of reasons for that'
Simon Halliday has admitted that the European tournaments run by EPCR haven’t been the soaraway commercial success people envisaged they would be.
The Swiss-based organisation fully took over from the Dublin-based ERC in 2015/16 following a 2014 civil war that resulted in English and French clubs breaking up the old set-up in the hope of generating additional finances.
A shared title sponsorship model was at the forefront of plans to increase revenues, but that ambition didn’t work out and the Champions Cup – which this season begins on Friday night with Gloucester hosting Toulouse at Kingsholm – reverted last term to a single title sponsor Heineken, who used to be the single title sponsor of the old ERC European Cup.
Heading into his fifth season as chairman, former England international Halliday told RugbyPass: “Onfield, we have made a lot of good improvements. We have hosted good finals, we have changed one of the criteria so Benetton qualified by right this season, we developed free-to-air where there wasn’t any and brought it to more people.
“Commercially, it has been a disappointment. Lots of reasons for that. The rebranding takes time.
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“Secondly, a lot of sponsors have gone from being global into being pan-Europe, even local, so the way they allocate their money has changed, the way people look at traditional sponsorship has changed. Look what happened with Six Nations, for example.
“And our domestic, I keep saying to people our domestic stakeholders [the clubs] are much stronger now than they were five years ago, so people can get exposure to rugby through our stakeholders as much as they can through us.”
With the 2015 World Cup hosted in England, the 2015/16 Champions Cup took quite a while to arouse much interest. However, Halliday doesn’t believe there will be any spectator fatigue heading into 2019/20 due to the latest World Cup being played in Japan.
How will English clubs fare in Europe this season, a Champions Cup campaign that starts with Gloucester hosting French champions Toulouse on Friday night? https://t.co/n4tMsbUs3h
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 15, 2019
“You’d like to think so. Not just because a lot of northern hemisphere stars will be playing but a lot of the southern hemisphere stars play in Europe so once they are recovered from their rest periods, you would like to think that they will get involved and we will continue with that momentum.
“After the last World Cup the tournament took a while to get going because there was only so much that people could take on board, but I think the tournament is vastly improved from where it was four years ago in its format and the teams are very, very strong so yeah, there is real excitement still.”
WATCH: Former Saracens player Jim Hamilton discusses the salary cap scandal surrounding his old club
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments