Forum Topic

The problem is that English professional rugby needs to bring in more outside investment promotion and relegation significantly increases the risk of putting money into the sport. A perfectly drafted business plan can be ruined by a couple of injuries to key players and top teams already have a handicap of having to give up players for international teams. Whether you agree with the policy of not the game's administrators have already decided that you can't get into the Premiership unless you bring a reasonable amount of revenue to the table and the bar has been set at a five figure ground capacity. To be reasonably competitive a squad's salary bill need to be £2-3million and to get close to the top French, South African and Irish teams you start at £6-7million. Not all of this can come from TV revenues and sponsorship and only Sarries, Leicester and Northampton are anywhere near this level. Give the strength of grass roots and the level of participation, England should be dominant in world rugby yet they are consistently being beaten by Ireland and Scotland who have comparitively tiny player bases.  The problems of the club game are only going to get worse. About 10% of the player pool in the Gallagher Premiership is South African but with sides from that country now in the URC and Champions Cup, the income disparity is reducing. A few marquee signings continue but it is going to be increasingly difficult to fill squads with good quality and cheap Saffas. Combine that with top English talent going to play in the Pro14 and a reduced potential for recruitment through residency due to the better players opting for the French league or the URC, there is a danger that England gets locked into that 6-8 world ranking and clubs from other countries reap most of the financial benefit of the Champions Cup. Key to reversing this trend would be more financially sustainable professional teams and that is why London Irish restarting was such good news. However, this has gone very quiet and all the initial optimism has evaporated. It looks increasingly likely that it is never happening, let alone happening in Brentford.

Andrew OSullivan ● 14d

Ian may be right and much of what I have said on this thread may be claptrap although the same could be said for him. For instance on his second point he when he says the restructuring of the company is nothing to do with new investment, he needs to read the statement from the club which says the restructuring is to do with new investment. https://www.brentfordfc.com/en/news/article/club-news-brentford-fc-bees-united-joint-statement I was at the Gtech on Saturday and as ever it is a brilliant experience, the fans managed to generate a great atmosphere at what was quite a low intensity game for the most part. Chatting to Bees fans during and after there was agreement that Mbeumo and Wissa were relatively ineffective as they often can be against teams that sit back whereas Ollie Watkins reminded us of what we were missing by making hay at the other end. The problem that this gives to Brentford is that these two strikers will be primarily attractive to counter attacking teams and none of the Premiership sides likely to pay big money pay that way. A possible scenario is Watkins goes to Arsenal and Villa takes one of the two Brentford strikers. A big pay day is coming for Brentford in the current financial year due to Toney money but after that the picture is less clear. There are big question marks over Thiago and Carvalho and so it may not be practical to sell existing strikers. All I am saying that, given this uncertainty, a bit of extra cash from other sources would be useful.

Andrew OSullivan ● 53d

Ian, can you explain why we should listen to you rather than Andrew, who does seem to have good knowledge of the technicalities here if not inside on the club? While not ruling out you do know stuff about this we don't, there is always the possibility that your strident response is down to what you are not liking what he is telling you. On 1) Plough Lane is too small to qualify for admittance to the rugby premiership and London Broncos have a long term lease to use the ground. I think we can all agree your list of potential alternative grounds in west London is comprehensive therefore it either has to be one of them or the London Irish proposal is all smoke and mirrors. Possible if Jordan wanted to get his hands on the brand on the cheap but, if not, they must have sounded out at least one of the ground owners before going public on their plans. The brand is obviously worth a fraction of what it would be if it was associated with a professional team. On 2) I think Andrew is undoubtedly right here. Matthew Benham may be saying that it is down to estate planning but he is a relatively young man so the timing has to have something to do with creating a structure to broaden the shareholder base even if this is a secondary reason. Brentford are not hiding the fact that they intend to bring new investors. The BBC's reporter seems to think this also the reason for the changes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cgl0nle98xjo On 3) there are obviously no events scheduled but, as I pointed out earlier, the ground has been configured to allow this to happen. The question must be, if you are right that the Bees will never take advantage of this potential extra source of revenue, then why not?

Francis Rowe ● 54d

I didn't look at the bad debt situation in the Brentford accounts but they booked £2.9million from revenue gained from non-Brentford FC facilities at the ground. I assume they would have qualified the figure if there was going to be a significant write off associated with it. Brentford could make Irish make good any missed payments as a condition of a new tenancy. If ground rent for Irish was £600,000 then conservatively they were bringing in £1.5million from other sources related to the deal. Perhaps there is a share of ticket sales but most of this must come from food and beverage at the ground. I didn't normally linger at the stadium after Irish games but once, as the Covid lockdown was just being lifted, I went to have a drink at one of the bars in the stadium. It was so rammed you could barely get through the door. I have been to the bars after football matches and they were relatively quiet. The confidence with which you assert that this deal isn't going to happen suggests you are talking to people in the know, so I am going to have to live with my hopes of an Irish return being dashed. However, it is frustrating because the arrangement seems to have been in the interest of both parties. Brentford's salary plus amortisation bill is currently the lowest in the Premier League and under a quarter of what Chelsea's is at the moment. This is testament to brilliant management and player recruitment but, as I said before, this is a tight rope. It takes just one serious injury or one player failing to settle in England for the system's weaknesses to be revealed. One or both of Wissa and Mbuemo have to go this year and they have to be replaced by players that are both cheap to buy and aren't asking for a high salary. Brentford are not the only club looking for this sort of player.


Andrew OSullivan ● 71d

There are a lot of very confident pronouncements in this thread but I don't think anybody, even those closely associated with the clubs would be able to say exactly what is going to happen here. Firstly, the idea that the money that Irish would bring into Brentford is immaterial needs more thought. PSR rules put a premium on internally generated revenue and this will become more so when the new Squad Cost rules come in. Brentford is an exceptionally well run club but the regulations work against them because they scrapped their academy therefore don't have revenue to book from home developed players. I don't know how comfortable they are within the required ceilings but extra cash from renting the ground out will help. As for Irish going into the URC, it is hard to see that as anything other than a negotiating tactic. The IRFU is already facing complaints about the way funds are distributed among the provinces and Irish rugby, although strong, doesn't have the depth to support five teams. As England probably won't pick URC players even if they are based in England, then London Irish wouldn't benefit from the salary offset of having either English or Irish internationals. On the other hand, if they do secure a stadium with a decent capacity such as the Gtech, the English Premiership will welcome them with open arms. The professional sport in this country is desperately short of cash and Irish are a unique proposition guaranteeing large crowds.  At this stage I would say there is a better than even chance of them coming to Brentford as a Gallagher Premiership team given that it suits everybody's interests and Eddie Jordan has the skills and funds to make it happen.

Andrew OSullivan ● 77d