Rugby Finances
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English Premiership get £110 million TV deal, still with BT Sports. Looks to be for 3 years.
The Times describes it as cut-price in the their header. Turned down 4 years at £40m, signed for 3 years at $37m.
A new four-year TV deal for the Gallagher Premiership was finally agreed yesterday when Premiership Rugby accepted an offer from BT Sport — almost a year after it had turned down an initial bid from the broadcaster that was worth £12 million more.
At the start of the year, BT Sport offered to match its previous valuation of the Premiership by bidding £40 million a year. The offer the Premiership accepted yesterday is believed to be about £37 million a year and allows BT Sport, which televised its first Premiership match in 2013, to remain the host broadcaster until 2024.
From Rugby Pass:
The Times report on Wednesday read: “BT Sport’s star rugby pundits have been warned by the broadcaster that it may lose the rights to the Gallagher Premiership next season after having a ‘final offer’ rejected. Premiership Rugby Ltd (PRL) has turned down an offer from BT Sport of a four-year extension to its existing deal for about the same £40m-a-year fee.
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https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/55160520
WRU chief executive Steve Phillips hopes for £30-£40m package by end of January
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New Zealand Rugby has received a $465 million offer from US technology investment giants Silver Lake for a 15 per cent share of commercial rights valued at $3.1 billion, the Herald can reveal. The deal, should it be signed off by New Zealand Rugby's provincial unions in the coming months, would be the biggest seachange since the game turned professional 25 years ago, and the largest transaction of this nature in NZ sports history. New Zealand Rugby and Silver Lake have been in talks for over nine months, with the Herald first revealing their shared interests last May. While Silver Lake's minority stake remains under negotiation and could be anywhere from 10 to 15 per cent, with terms yet to be finalised, the Herald understands they have tabled a $465 million offer for 15 per cent of a new, separate NZ Rugby entity.
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https://www.bbc.com/sport/wales/55768668
Welsh government unveils £17.7m rescue package for sport in Wales
The Welsh government has provided a £17.7m funding package to help spectator sports in Wales impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The funding of grants is allocated to the sports' national governing bodies.
Most of the money will go to Welsh rugby with a £13.5m grant, with Welsh football receiving £1.5m.
The rest is divided between horseracing (£1.2m), cricket (£1m), ice hockey (£200,000), rugby league (£200,000) and netball (£100,000).
With no immediate signs of crowds returning, the grants are to provide immediate financial support for spectator sports to help them through until September, with the figures proportionate to the losses suffered by each sport in Wales.
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@Rapido I didn't realise Wales had a government so checked to see if the had seceded from the United Kingdom. They haven't so I have learned something new today
Their Cabinet consists of 14 (all gender non specific but from photos it appears eight sit down to pee), twelve of whom represent Labour with the other two being Lib-Democrat and Independent. Netball obviously does not rate well with that mob.
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@Higgins said in Rugby Finances:
@Rapido I didn't realise Wales had a government so checked to see if the had seceded from the United Kingdom. They haven't so I have learned something new today
Their Cabinet consists of 14 (all gender non specific but from photos it appears eight sit down to pee), twelve of whom represent Labour with the other two being Lib-Democrat and Independent. Netball obviously does not rate well with that mob.
Yes, it's weird.
The UK government bailout covered English sports (RFU and the Premiership making out like bandits).
But sport for non-England comes under the devolution parliament for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
I wonder if it will all wash out even in the end, at the moment it is a bit too confusing, too devolved, for me to keep tabs.
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UK government with more public bailout money for Premiership.
Another £88m loan.
Premiership Rugby clubs will benefit of an £88million loan support from the Government in order to allow the 2020/21 season to be completed.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced on Saturday the latest tranche of funding from the winter phase of its Sport Survival Package aimed at helping sports, clubs and leagues hit by restrictions on fan attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic. It follows on from the £135m of government funding that rugby union received in November - with £44m going to the Rugby Football Union, £59m to Premiership Rugby clubs, £9m to clubs in the Championship and £23m to clubs below the Championship.
Earlier in March, the DCMS also pledged up to £5.5 million to support the launch of the men's Championship season and £40 million for grassroots clubs, making rugby union one of the main beneficiaries of government support.
Very rich mean must not be prevented from paying athletes more than they can afford or are worth and risk affecting the owner's egos or tax write offs.
It's disgusting.
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By Neil Fissler
Wasps have placed a freeze on recruitment despite Lee Blackett aiming to sign another two players before the new season kicks off at Gloucester next month.
The financially distressed outfit have already missed one deadline to repay the £35m retail bond they took to finance the purchase of their 35,000 seater ground in 2015. The bond, which was due to return 6.5 per cent interest, was suspended on the London Stock Exchange in May on the last day of trading before it was set to mature.
The club have had talks with HSBC about a refinancing deal defaulted on their repayment, and a new deadline of August 12 was set, but they are now going to miss that date as well.
Wasps will need to ask bondholders to agree to another extension to the redemption deadline, which would remove the default status and ease some of the pressure. Earlier this summer, Wasps applied to The West Midlands Combined Authority for £13m in public funds and hoped to have a couple more new signings in place.
Blackett has seen 11 players depart, including Malakai Fekitoa, Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, Thomas Young, and Jimmy Gopperth. He has only been able to recruit seven new signings, which have included Vincent Koch from Saracens and former Ireland prop John Ryan from Munster.
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Worcester Warriors hit by winding up petition
Premiership club says it has suffered ‘unavoidable delays’ in receiving funding that will ‘secure its long-term future’ -
So it looks like some clubs have already blown their share of the part sale of the Premiership that was supposed to secure their future about three and a bit years back.