How in practical terms could we play a commercially viable Pro12 region rugby match at a secondary club venue, if we sensibly treated Welsh rugby as a national strategic project?

“I am not naïve enough to think that everyone in this gathering is in favour of coaching. You are not certain what it involves and regard change with great caution. My job will be to convince you that coaching is in the best interests of the game – I can assure you I shall pursue that task with great vigour! My great advantage is that although some of you may not be 100% for coaching, all of you are 100% for rugby football – this is the base from which I shall work.” – Ray Williams, former WRU National Coaching Organiser (and later WRU secretary), speaking upon appointment to the 1967 WRU AGM (link)

“Let’s face it. Wales are rubbish. They are the village idiots of rugby union. They have fans who live for the game, administrators who’ve killed it and players who lie down for the cause.” – Chris Rattue, New Zealand Herald rugby correspondent (link)

“Rugby is staying here, I’ve not done all of this for the last 15 or 20 years to let rugby disappear. That’s a priority. We built the Bisley Stand for the Dragons and Newport RFC. It’s a Gwent team and should stay and play here. Where else are they going to play?” – Martyn Hazell, Dragons Chairman (link)

“The move to the Cardiff City stadium was done for all the right reasons. But having listened to supporters, sponsors and reviewed the financial position of the business, the board and I believe the Cardiff Blues should be playing back at the Arms Park. I would like to thank the board of Cardiff City Football Club for their friendliness and openness during our negotiation over the release from the Cardiff City lease. We will still have the option of playing games at the Cardiff City stadium when demand for tickets dictates.” – Richard Holland, Cardiff Blues CEO (link)

Welsh rugby is very conservative, resistant to change and distinctly uncomfortable with innovative or lateral thinking.

Even in any era where forward strategic thinking did suddenly break out, such as the coaching revolution under Ray Williams in the late-1960s and getting ahead of the curve and obtaining an edge in the 1970s, the era is still equally remembered for other successful coaches remaining firmly outside of the WRU fold.  From Carwyn James at Llanelli RFC, still the only coach of a British Lions series win in New Zealand, to Ray Prosser and his old school NZ rugby model at Pontypool RFC.

Perhaps nowhere in Welsh rugby do we currently come across this divide between creative thinking and tired thinking than in relation to regional stadia issues.  Having regularly entertained clients at a corporate box at White Hart Lane in years gone by, this tunnel vision induced thinking is a particular bugbear of mine.

We have previously seen how stadium ownership, or at least operational/commercial control for none of the Welsh regions own their own stadium, has become an important facet of professional rugby union in the northern hemisphere.  Due to “the high revenue, but very high cost base” business models adopted by some countries by omission and including by Wales in the late-1990s (link).

It is domestically a tale of 3 regions versus 2 regions.

We have seen the initial transformation of Parc Eirias in Colwyn Bay, EU regional development funding matched by Welsh Government funding and added to by other public sector funding sources.  We have seen the Liberty Stadium development in Swansea, the land sale and retail development funded £27 million state aid project in Morfa and with the Ospreys now sharing the facility with the city’s soccer club and firmly plugged into shared corporate hospitality income streams at the venue.

And Parc y Scarlets in Pemberton, state aid on a truly magnificent scale.  No soccer co-tenant on this project.  “Project Carmarthenshire”.  If only Welsh rugby could be run as such a strategic project.  Council land free of charge, a £10.2 million stadium grant (primarily through a hotel/fast food outlet), £5.6m of redeveloper S.106 Town & Country Planning Act 1990 legal agreement monies redirected from Stradey Park to Parc y Scarlets, a £2.4 million commercial loan from the council (repayable in 2023, at least in theory!), Stradey Park itself sold and redeveloped on what was supposedly recreational land and also, according to the Environment Agency, on a flood plain so that the Scarlets could afford their own £7.5m up front 150 year exclusive lease purchase at the new stadium.

And then the other 2 regions.  The Dragons, an elderly city centre ground in a city where the regeneration focus has firmly been the city centre itself.  No chance of plugging into any new out of town retail park development through a new stadium.  A partisan historic club ground, but now with the Bisley Stand with required corporate facilities built out of their own resources.

And the Blues.  The Blues, always the damned Blues.  A botched move in 2009 to the soccer stadium as a tenant.  A move unaccompanied by any of the basic follow-up business action to fund such an arms length tenancy on full commercial terms, albeit the timing in relation to the global financial crisis was unfortunate.  Nothing on brand modernisation.  Nothing on Arms Park redevelopment to provide the required non-match day income sources beyond limited commuter parking and the tired old stadium suites/boxes.  Nothing on relocating Cardiff RFC out to Pontcanna Fields to make way for a convention centre to secure the financial futures of the Blues, Cardiff RFC and the Athletic Club.  The 2012 retreat to a tired old partisan club ground, now plans for a sub-optimal convention centre that retains a rugby pitch with a small 15,000 capacity.  If there is allegedly a white elephant in Llanelli, this feels more like a good old fashioned mess.

But we instantly see that playing at secondary venues is primarily an option to be considered by the South and East regions based in Cardiff and Newport, with inferior smaller club partisan primary stadia and with more divisive branding.  In theory the bigger two pro regions, in (“super” club) practice the smaller two pro regions.

If, sorry when, RGC1404 become a pro region, more work will be required to further upgrade Parc Eirias.  That is still a few years off.  Do the Ospreys need to play anywhere else in Ospreylia, given their regional identity and brand?  I am not sure they do.  It might be prudent to permanently base the Anglo-Welsh Cup and British + Irish Cup teams in Bridgend, to try and engage more with the eastern fringe, but beyond that?  As for the Scarlets, they were always the only big or 1st class club in Dyfed.  They were a regional club.  Being a stand alone “region” just meant putting a line through the “al club” bit.

The structural problem for the Ospreys and the Scarlets will always be that duplication in the Port Talbot-Neath-Llanelli triangle, even with the Ospreys in 2004 having spread eastwards into Bridgend and into some of the adjacent eastern Glamorgan valleys.  2 pro teams where there should commercially only be 1 pro team.  2 EPCR teams for Greater London, 2 EPCR teams for Greater Swansea.  Market forces will catch-up with this duplication, sooner or later.  The market solution or correction will be more divisive and more brutal than any pre-emptive strategic decision to consolidate resources.

So, what are the practical problems in East Glamorgan and in Gwent in playing a Pro12 region match at a club venue other than at the Arms Park or at Rodney Parade?  The reality is that most issues are de minimis, from safety certificate capacities to medical facilities to stewarding to changing rooms.  Nothing remotely insurmountable there.  The two current hurdles, and I mean hurdles for that is what they are rather than the old Becher’s Brook or the Chair at Aintree, are seating capacity and corporate hospitality facilities.

Even the seating capacity is not that much of an obstacle, at least as a 1 or 2 match event each season.  The equivalent of the Chiefs annually playing 1 or 2 Super Rugby matches away from Hamilton at the Yarrow Stadium in New Plymouth in the Taranaki (below).

And regional identity issues were resolved in New Zealand in 2000, with the complete break with the historic provincial past.  The short 4 year association of the new Chiefs brand with Waikato rugby brutally severed without any sentimentality.  The Waikato Mooloos and the Taranaki Bulls in provincial rugby, both now within the Chiefs regional franchise of Super Rugby.  Each 11.55% shareholders in their region franchise/licence.

Or the (NZ) Blues at Albany, or the Highlanders at Invercargill, or the Hurricanes at Palmerston North or Napier.  You get the picture.

When all said and done, people are coming to watch 30 men (at any one time) play with a rugby ball.  Not the equivalent of flying in luxury 1st class long-haul to Asia with Emirates or Singapore Airlines and suddenly finding themselves at the back of the plane.  At worse, seated customers at the primary venue may/will have to stand at the secondary venue.

The only real problematic issue with secondary venues is the corporate hospitality market, which is a very important income stream in professional rugby, and this is where the debate on social media at times can become positively surreal.  With tunnel vision, the debate moves straight to a rigid comparison of Sardis Road with the Arms Park, or of Eugene Cross Park or Pontypool Park with Rodney Parade.

Before you know it, you are being challenged into analysing the practicalities of upgrading Eugene Cross Park, from the cricket pitch at the north end to the redevelopment of the club house inclusive of a bank of corporate boxes at the south end.  Similar with Sardis Road, a sudden need for corporate boxes at the western (Rhondda) end.  Leading into surreal debates over EU Objective 1 regional funding, Brexit implications and any UK replacement regional funding packages, Welsh Government match funding issues, stressed local government finances in an era of fiscal austerity, and the viability/sustainability of the boxes/suites for the rest of the season even if somebody funds the capital costs!

People automatically jumping into exactly replicating the Arms Park or Rodney Parade experience a few miles away, when the rationale would be to simply bolt-on the Sardis Road or the Eugene Cross Park (or Pontypool Park) experience to the existing experience.  “Rodney Parade plus”, not “Rodney Parade instead of”.  A double header, inclusive of the usual primary stadium.  A novelty value for many clients of box holders and lounge/suite rugby customers, finally a reason to attend for others who would normally politely decline such invitations to the Arms Park or to Rodney Parade on grounds of branding/affinity.

Close geographical proximity has hampered the development of regional rugby in Wales, but this is one instance where it can positively help.  It is a simple exercise, if you wish to save your brand from potential monetarisation death within your own region.

If the Dragons feel the brand needs to play a regular season match at Eugene Cross Park, which would inextricably be linked with the ditching of the divisive “Newport Gwent” or a complete re-brand, the practical requirement is a double header.

Not to spend millions senselessly upgrading Eugene Cross Park to the standards of the Bisley Stand at Rodney Parade.  The need to have Newport RFC v Ebbw Vale RFC for a WRU Premiership 2.30pm kick-off at Rodney Parade.  The normal corporate boxes and suites experience.  And then the Dragons playing at home at Eugene Cross Park at 7.35pm in the Saturday evening slot of S4C.  The cost base suddenly plummeting from millions in Blaenau Gwent redevelopment costs to additional (corporate/non-corporate) beverage provision expenses and a fleet of coaches to relocate the corporate hospitality market to/from Ebbw Vale for the second match.

The legal obstacles?  No more than a liberty to do this in all contracts for an upcoming season.  The administrative obstacle?  No more than working with the host club and the WRU and Pro12 over coordinating fixture lists across pyramidal tiers, something which should be done anyway in a strategic pyramid.

Subject to the current pitch drainage issues at Rodney Parade, it would make sense to do similar double headers albeit without the relocation for the second match.  Newport RFC v Bedwas RFC or Newport RFC v Cross Keys RFC followed by a Dragons region match, as Bridge Field and Pandy Park are too small to host a Pro12 match.  These are commercial basics, within an integrated WRU pyramid and with joined-up commercial thinking over fixture lists.  Not each doing their own, without reference to anybody else.

The same considerations apply in East Glamorgan.  Cardiff RFC v Pontypridd RFC at 2.30pm at the Arms Park, a Blues region match at Sardis Road at the 7.35pm S4C slot.  One suspects that there is an even greater need for reconciliation and a fresh start in East Glamorgan than there is in Gwent and the Rhymney Valley.  At least, if we are desperately clutching at straws amongst the regional wreckage, the Blues smallest official crowds are still above The Wern’s current capacity in Merthyr.

These practicalities are a separate issue to whether the Blues and the Dragons should do this, for the various branding problems in Welsh rugby will be addressed at a later date to provide some light relief between some of the inevitable heavy going financial analysis essays.  But there are no insurmountable practical obstacles.

Although, ironically, the Dragons may be forced into doing this by a fixture clash entirely beyond their control.  The 6 May 2017 clash with the soccer club tenant of Newport RFC and who have promised the Football League in England that they have primacy of tenure.  A regional SOS to Ebbw Vales RFC or to Pontypool RFC (albeit there are enclosed venue issues with the latter) potentially looming, which would probably also be accompanied, if any rugby is even allowed before a soccer match, by a request to the WRU to borrow Mark Williams to manage the logistical relocation (particularly of corporates from the Bisley Stand) required with military precision and with the existing Rodney Parade staff fully tied up in hurriedly turning around that stadium for the soccer match.  Not driven by any voluntary brand monetarisation affinity missionary work in outlying areas of their region.

The region possibly needing to seek permission for Newport RFC v Cross Keys RFC (itself the last round of Tier 2 of the WRU Premiership, to add further complication if these matches are all expected to be played simultaneously) to kick-off at lunchtime, the rugby corporates then shipped off mid afternoon to another Gwent ground and kept occupied until watching the region play the Blues in the Pro12 at 5.15pm whilst Rodney Parade, particularly the suites/boxes in the Bisley Stand, is hurriedly turned around for the soccer club’s corporate clientele and their end of regular season 5.30pm match that evening against Notts County and probably followed by (not commenced by) their dining.

We can all envisage the outcry, from other teams potentially impacted by the Dragons v Blues result at the end of the season in terms of European qualification, if the fixture is reversed to Cardiff Arms Park (even in return for both Pro12 matches between the teams being played at Rodney Parade next season, to make the pill easier to swallow) or even if transferred to the Principality Stadium or to the Cardiff City Stadium.  This match will have to be played within the Dragons region, for Pro12 competition platform integrity.

Hence we conclude with another central theme of this blog, that all rugby fixture lists should be prepared and agreed in the totality.  Not in isolation from one another.  Welsh rugby as a national strategic project, not a disjointed free for all.

The debate has never really been about central control versus independence in Welsh rugby, despite some wrongfully framing the debate in those erroneous terms of a false narrative, but rather about ensuring good governance, sufficient devolution and 2-way communication under an inevitable central control model for everybody to optimally go about their own demarcated business at either the central or the devolved level.

Alignment, not stifling from above.  Look no further than the Super Rugby regions of New Zealand rugby.  All 5 regions with private investment, each with a different franchisee ownership structure.