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Is Premiership Rugby Unsustainable?

Since the Summer of 2022, Chelsea FC of the Premier League have spent over £900,000 on transfers for players, a sum which earned them 12th place in the 22/23 season and 10th at time of writing in the 23/24 season. In the same time frame, the Worcester Warriors of the Rugby Premiership won the Premiership Cup in May of 2022, and by September had entered administration. The Warriors are not alone, as they were joined in 2023 by the London Irish and the Wasps, who both fell afoul of the league for the same reason as the Warriors, inability to pay taxes.

After the Covid-19 Pandemic put a stop to in-person attendance at matches, where Rugby clubs made most of their money, there has been a league-wide need to recoup funds.

And even without a pandemic, Rugby has not been profitable for a while. Five of the fourteen clubs that have been in the Premiership in the last 15 years have since gone into administration: that's over one-third. But why is this the case?

One thing that makes the situation difficult is that the governing body of the English National Rugby team, the RFU, has limited crossover with the Premiership. Playing for England can often be a full-time commitment that conflicts with club Rugby. As a result, the best players for each team are often not available for big games, drawing viewers away from the grandstands. Another problem is the RFU rule that players who want to play for England must be playing in England. This has caused problems for the futures of players, like star man Henry Arundell, who scored five tries for his country in the World Cup against Chile, and who was once a member of London Irish before it went bust. He has been forced to move to France, placing his England future in jeopardy.

Professional Rugby, unlike the 135 year-old professional Football, is only 36 years old, and whilst the clubs have existed far longer, the concept of paying and promoting the players to this extent is looking untenable. Perhaps the jump to professionalism doesn't reflect any demand for in-stadium or television viewership that might support the costs of such an enterprise.

For Premiership Rugby, the cost base keeps growing whilst revenue streams such as ticket sales, broadcast deals, and commercial partners are not increasing so quickly. The Gallagher Premiership is not as global as its footballing counterpart, and that limits the level of grandiosity that clubs can afford in their professionalism.

I spoke with Kayde Sylvester, Lock for the Northampton Saints, about the feelings of Premiership players towards these financial troubles. He paints an unexpectedly optimistic picture despite the shocking recent news:

"I have started to get a little worried about our job. But with Rugby being such a big sport in the UK and how it’s been growing around the world like in Portugal, Chile, and Georgia, I’m confident it will pick up again."

Watching the recent World Cup, you can see where Kayde is coming from, as fervent support from around the world proved Rugby's popularity. Indeed, at the start of 2023, World Rugby released data showing that global Rugby participation had risen 11%, to a total of 8.46 million players.

However, you might think that the Premiership's sentiments are still less than optimistic, but Kayde reports a club-wide camaraderie: "spirits are still high around camp, coaches and managers higher up have been really good with staying in touch and keeping us updated on what’s going on at the club, which has been reassuring..."

It is certainly good to hear that the players and coaches are as optimistic as we are about the outstanding Rugby being produced in the Premiership. However, whilst global participation is rising, the sport of Rugby in the UK remains inextricable from the private education system. A 2019 report from the Sutton Trust found that 37% of Rugby internationals attended independent school, compared to just 5% of football players

This is something of which Kayde himself is keenly aware, saying "I think the biggest thing is making the sport more available to everyone, rather than its massive involvement in private schools just like football. Also making it appealing to the younger generation... Rugby's got a massive older fan base which I feel needs to adapt to the younger generation and be a little more accessible."

However, the aforementioned data released by World Rugby at the start of this year presents an encouraging picture with regard to both moving away from private education and encouraging youth participation, as it shows that 57% of Rugby players across the world are currently pre-teen.

As the sport of Professional Rugby distances itself from the losses suffered during the Covid era, and becomes more globalised through social media platforms like TikTok, we can hope to see the English Premiership revitalised and moving towards profitability. Professional Rugby is invaluable for developing England national players, and we should all get behind our clubs to ensure their futures.

Image: Adam Gumbs Photography