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What a London home game would actually be worth to Gloucester

By Robert Rees
Twickenham stadium

As Premiership teams look to invest more and generate higher commercial income, sides are increasingly looking to the larger London stadiums – such as Twickenham or the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – as potential stages for domestic season games.

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Gloucester are no different, and may well be the next Premiership side to host a home game away from their home base.

According to one source from within the club who spoke to RugbyPass, the Cherry and Whites could earn approximately £50,000 extra by hosting a game away from Kingsholm in one of the capital’s giant stadiums.

Whilst it hasn’t been confirmed that they will be hosting a tie away from Kingsholm,  RugbyPass was told that the club would consider the move, but not just for the increased profit.

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“£50k is a lot,” said the source, but “it also puts us in the spotlight as a national and international club.”

Most club’s view is that the game isn’t necessarily about the bottom line and that fan experience will be taken into account. The publicity generated from larger crowds and media attention make such fixtures hard to turn down.

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Recent games away from Premiership sides’ regular grounds have been successful, most notably with over 80,000 supporters turning up for Harlequins versus Saracens at Twickenham.

Gloucester’s strong fan base could well help them gain a similar crowd despite being a club that sits far outside of the capital.

The Cherry and Whites are yet to play away from their natural home in the city centre, but with money being tight around the clubs it could offer a helpful if relatively modest windfall.

Fellow West Country sides Bristol and Bath have played each other at Twickenham and made it commercially successful, with over 60,000 in attendance at English rugby’s headquarters.

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With the right amount of media attention, publicity and ticket sale pushes, Gloucester moving to the big city could well be the move that well and truly puts them on a map Europe-wide.

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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