Will Nigel Wray buy the broadcast rights to the Championship?
Imagine spending a large proportion of your children’s inheritance on something as pointless as rugby? Now imagine that you had successfully created one of the greatest club teams in the history of that sport?
You would then imagine, if this was the case, there might be a large bronze statue of you outside Twickenham. Maybe even a hospitality suite. The absolute minimum you would expect is a car park!
However, Nigel Wray is about as likely to have the Twickenham car park named after him as Greta Thunberg. Instead, the ex-Saracens supremo is having to endure frosty atmospheres the young Swede could only dream.
Yet, while the rest of the rugby world pours scorn on Wray, one might imagine that the man himself might feel he has been a bit stitched up. Week after week new punishments are handed down, each seemingly less considered than the last.
One of the most remarkable things about this whole episode is the apparent lack of fight shown by Saracens, who truly believe they are being disproportionately punished for nothing more than great player welfare.
(Continue reading below…)
WATCH: The Rugby Pod sets the scene ahead of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations and reflects on yet more Saracens fallout
So where is the reaction?
Men of Wray’s predilection don’t really do defeat. They certainly don’t do humiliation, so maybe, just maybe, while Premiership Rugby Limited (PRL) are busy metaphorically setting fire to an already dead Saracens corpse, they have taken their eye off the ball.
The twelve rival club owners are busy fighting a battle whereas Wray is off to win a war. Thankfully for him, being lucky is just as valuable as being talented. By all accounts he is both.
I joked on last week’s Eggchasers podcast that rather than Saracens worrying about the PRL ringfencing the Premiership, PRL should be worried about Saracens ringfencing the Championship.
In an extraordinary turn of luck for Wray, the Championship’s broadcast and commercial rights happen to be up for tender. The traditionally unloved competition made out of pros, semi-pros and aspiring players trying to eke out a living from rugby will now be playing one of the greatest teams of all time.
Any commercial rights deal with the Championship will now include not just the likes of Steven Shingler at Ealing and Toby Flood at Newcastle, but also world rugby’s most marketable star Maro Itoje and the England captain himself Owen Farrell.
Wray knows exactly the value (sort of) of these players and might well look at the prospect of some organisation jumping on the Championship/Saracens bandwagon rather unfavourably. Might he decide to buy the rights himself?
EXCLUSIVE:
The behind the scenes story on the Chris Ashton property deal. https://t.co/bEYRgMogI1
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 29, 2020
It sounds mad on the face of it, but Saracens will be the focus of every game next year. Still a world-class outfit oozing talent, they will be in huge demand. Conversely, the club will just want to concentrate on rugby. If Wray buys the commercial rights, he can control the Saracens narrative. This might be worth it alone even if he needs to buy the rights to the other clubs in the process.
Once he has the rights to the Championship, then what? Sure, he gets to shield Saracens but we also have one of the brightest and most ambitious minds in all of rugby owning the Championship naming rights, IP, player and coaching appearances and critically, he could also decide who broadcasts the games.
When you have so much power in the Championship and your team is still the best in the country, operating outside of that pesky salary cap, you might be forgiven for thinking why bother going back to the Premiership at all?
Crisis club provide a helping hand https://t.co/b8LwdXR4eP
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 30, 2020
In particular, the broadcasting rights are of interest because when you take a step back and include recent speculation about Saracens trying to fill up the fixture list against international opposition and Super Rugby teams, combining these rights with the Championship might become very valuable indeed.
Saracens already have a link with CNBC, so why not send your boys on tour to China, USA and South Africa to make some real money?
What of the other two big players in all this though: the RFU and PRL? The RFU are in a very awkward position as it not only has to act in the best interest of its membership but also needs to consider its relationship with PRL and the England team.
Wray knows this, so expect the first price to be paid is the scrapping of the exceptional circumstances rule applying to the Championship. Secondly, international player release has always been a point of tension between the RFU and PRL. This friction simply won’t exist in the Championship as the owner of the league is the RFU.
Though to be fair Saracens will probably lay claim to more next season.
Jokes aside – a remarkable landmark for @HartpuryRFC https://t.co/UZGy4RAddN
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 29, 2020
The RFU could have two-tier access to England internationals, with Saracens players enjoying far more time with the elite set-up then their Premiership counterparts.
Perversely it might become more beneficial for a player not to play in the Premiership to avoid injury and the general grind of the league, but also because the England management like players they can spend more time with. It’s starting to sounds almost like a central contract!
The more the RFU enjoy the cosy arrangements with Saracens, the more likely they will consider a breakaway league – very Machiavellian I know.
Meanwhile, there might be some rather glum faces at PRL when the 2020/21 season starts. The land of milk and honey will be lacking at least eight England internationals that only months ago were starting in a World Cup final.
That’s a rather tough sell to any broadcaster when negotiating rights – particularly if there is no exceptional circumstances rule to protect the PRL from player drain and no prospect of one of the best teams on the planet returning. Add that to CVC’s 30 per cent slice of future revenues and it’s not looking too bright.
Who knows where this ends but it’s likely we have not seen the last of Mr Wray. Only very foolish people think we have.
WATCH: Damning report reveals the extent of the Saracens salary cap breaches in the last three seasons
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 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
3 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 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.
30 Go to comments