South Africa forced to go cap in hand to World Rugby
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit rugby in South Africa so badly that SA Rugby was forced into knocking on World Rugby’s door to ask for financial support. According to information from the Rapport all the large unions and even some of the smaller ones were forced into requesting an advance on the annual contributions made to them by SA Rugby.
In effect, SA Rugby has gone to World Rugby and asked them for next year’s stipend now and added that to whatever savings they currently have in order to help the unions survive.
A top rugby administrator told Rapport that this is not unusual as virtually every year there are countries that request an advance.
“It’s dead normal. I think SA Rugby also did it in 2016. Some countries do it every year”
SA Rugby has been helping the unions with advances since March 2020 to ensure there are no fears about them being able to pay salaries.
Despite the advances the insecurities of when the unions will be allowed to open their gates to the paying public again are still there. Terrible pressure is still on the rugby bosses as to when they will be able to normalize their cash flow again.
Unfortunately, no rugby administrator that spoke to Rapport could give a firm date when the stadiums will be allowed to open their gates to the suite holders, season ticket holders and public again.
Rugby bosses are hoping that President Cyril Ramaphosa will provide them with this information soon however the expectation is that this won’t occur before early next year.
The income from their suites is the third-largest source of income for the larger unions.
“The larger unions have watched the income from their suites fall over the last five years and unions are losing millions of Rands” said another administrator
“They’re struggling to find companies that are prepared to rent the suites for the prices they used to get but even if it’s 100 suites at R200,000 each it’s still R20 million that’s at risk for the larger unions”
Unions can still hold their suite leaseholder to contractual terms as they have a binding agreement in place and the lessee is still bound to honour the terms of the contacts in place.
However, if they do this, they run the risk of alienating those lessee’s and losing them the following year as they simply won’t lease the suite again.
It has officially been one year since South Africa were crowned World Cup Champions ?
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— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 2, 2020
On top of the risk that the unions carry with the loss of income from the reduction in the amount of games they’ve been able to stage they also have the problem where COVID-19 has caused devastation in the economy to the point where some of the suite holders can’t even afford their current payments.
The first item on the unions budget is now entertainment in order to bring in some much-needed income.
“The only trump card the larger unions have is the upcoming B&I Lions tour where people will renew their contracts for 2021 to be able to watch this but what happens after 2021 is anybody’s guess”
Large unions are only managing to bring in about a third of what their income should be according to another administrator.
Things nearly turned very ugly in France. https://t.co/O4pcGl4PGH
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 23, 2020
Large unions income remains critical according to a third rugby administrator. “What makes it even more difficult is that we don’t want to make empty promises regarding 2021 to our suite holders, sponsors and season ticket holders.”
“I think it’s going to take three to five years for the unions to recover from what COVID-19 has done to them this year.”
A fourth rugby administrator told Rapport that the large unions will only be able to recover from this year’s financial setbacks if they’re able to open their gates immediately in March 2021 for the start of the Pro16 series.
“The next few months are going to be critical for us” he said.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments