Prem Rugby Big Match Bonanza test of sport’s commercial aims
This weekend will go far in helping onlookers assess how much progress Prem Rugby has made in recent years.
Because on Saturday the first match since Australia beat Uruguay in the 2015 Rugby World Cup will take place at Villa Park in Birmingham.
The geography is a little bit iffy given the home team – Gloucester – are further away from, and a longer drive to, Villa Park than away team Leicester Tigers. But it is one of three back-to-back-to-back matches at major stadia on Saturday.
Following the Slater Cup clash at Villa Park, Harlequins will travel to Cardiff’s Principality Stadium to take on Bristol Bears before Saracens host Northampton Saints at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The major perk of this is its proximity to the Six Nations, just two weeks after the action concluded in Paris. This builds momentum; fans are able to recognise the big names and can get a big-game feeling without forking out £200 to watch England lose to Ireland.
The three games – albeit all southern-ish – are spread across regions of the UK and that, too, is helpful. Combine that with the marketing Newcastle Red Bulls have done for their match on Friday, dubbed the “Big Night Oot”, and it could be quite a bumper weekend.
But here are the problems. Its very selling point, being close to the Six Nations, is also a drawback, because clubs are forced to rest their internationals for one week within the three matchweeks following on from the championship.
All teams except Gloucester progressed through to the Round of 16 in one of the two European competitions, meaning that everyone but the Cherry and Whites have three games in the three weeks after the Six Nations.
Prem Rugby reality
If Quins are to target their European bid next week they’ll need to rest the likes of Marcus Smith because he played last week. Likewise for Leicester’s big boys. Bristol’s internationals were forced to watch their side lose last week in order to play this weekend in their big “home game”. You get the picture, and it’s not ideal.
The other problem: is anybody turning up? The Gloucester game is billed to have “sold” just over 20,000 tickets. That’s smaller than the capacity of opponents Leicester’s Mattioli Woods Welford Road, and only a couple of thousand above their own Kingsholm Stadium – and they’ll be given favourable optics by the forced closure of one stand for redevelopment works.
Saracens could see 15,000-20,000 empty seats at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium by the time Saturday comes around, and the local Overground isn’t working so you can already predict the incoming hell that is getting back to the home counties.
The outlier is Bristol, who look to be on course for over 50,000 at the 74,000 Principality – a huge feat for the West Country team.
Prem Rugby says these matches count fully as home matches, so the three host teams will foot the bill for stadium rent.
That’s a lot of money being shelled out for a half (or so) full stadium. Work to do it seems.
It is great to see Prem Rugby capitalising on opportunities to grow the game but something feels a little bit off about it – probably the swathes of empty seats.
The rugby, however, will undoubtedly be worth watching. So there’s that.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11