United Rugby Championship

[blockhead]

I, for one, welcome our new Indian overlords

Your jokes never get tyred DC.

[riocard911]

"Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare..."

[Flash Gordon]

I don't have any definitive evidence of this but I'm utterly convinced that the attendances up to and including the 2014/15 season were based on tickets sold (and thus including all season ticket holders) while since then it's based on who's actually showed up. It's only since 2015/16 where we've had attendances below the total number of season ticket holders.

There were more than a few games before that season where the attendance announced seemed to bare little relation to the numbers actually there.

I believe that's correct.

But I don't think it's that relevant.

For me the issue here isn't necessarily a downwards trendline in crowds since 2015, it's the lack of any discernible upwards trend line in a decade of success.

I really hope a renovated RDS with proper facilities is coming.

A lot of that is down to the facilities. We've been consistently selling our full season ticket allocation. So you're talking about the ad hoc sales for growth. We have been consistently the best supported club in the URC/Pro14 and in the Champions Cup but you're right, there isn't a lot of growth. For me the facilities have a part to play - if you want to come you're in an uncovered stand in a country where it does rain quite a lot. We need a bigger ground with better facilities, we know that.

The other issue in my view is the lack of competitiveness. Us sending out our 2nds/3rds to put 50 points on a disinterested Welsh team is exhibition stuff not competitive rugby. Even in Europe that can happen. The match against Montpellier was an absolute disgrace as a competition.

Hopefully the Saffers coming in will dial up the quality of the league but it's hard to see what some teams add to the league from a quality point of view.

[RoboProp]

The United Rugby Championship is proud to announce that BKT, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tires for agricultural, industrial and construction machines, has become the league’s northern-hemisphere title sponsor until 2025.

https://www.unitedrugby.com/latest/news ... le-sponsor

I can't see myself rushing out to buy a tractor tire just because they're sponsoring the league.

They'll be all the rage in Safferland and Shelbyville

[Flash Gordon]

From the Examiner.


Qatar could use World Cup stadia to host URC games
New sponsorship deal could be first step to matches played in Doha
Qatar could use World Cup stadia to host URC games
PARTNERSHIP: His Excellency Mr Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive (to left of centre) and Engr Badr Mohammed Al Meer (Hamad International Airport Chief Operating Officer) are joined (from left by) Sam Grove-White (URC match official), Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors scrum-half), Martin Anayi, CEO of the United Rugby Championship, Mark Alexander (President of SA Rugby), Anthony Lepage (CEO of EPCR), Johan Goosen (Vodacom Bulls full-back) and Qatar Airways cabin staff to mark the new season partnership between the airline and the three rugby properties

Eight weeks out from a landmark FIFA World Cup in Qatar, United Rugby Championship boss Martin Anayi has signalled the strong possibility that the one-time Celtic League could be set to showcase its talents on the Arabian peninsula.

The prospect of Ireland’s four provinces and their rivals from South Africa, Scotland, Wales and Italy playing in the gas-rich nation state on the shores of the Persian Gulf took a considerable step forward on Sunday when URC chief executive Anayi announced a deal believed to be worth millions of dollars for Qatar Airways to become its official airline partner.

The announcement came two days after the URC added a new title sponsor for the Northern Hemisphere in Indian agricultural tyre company BKT with both deals notable for bringing new entries to the rugby sponsorship family from non-rugby territories.

And Anayi acknowledged the outward-looking approach could also extend to games being played far from traditional rugby heartlands.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Akbar Al Baker suggested as much when made a brief address to rubber stamp the new partnership, which will also see his company become official South African airline partner to Champions Cup organisers EPCR ahead of that country’s quartet of URC clubs joining the formerly European club competition this season.

“We hope to have games here one day,” Mr Al Baker said to an audience at Doha International Airport that also included EPCR CEO Anthony Lepage and South African Rugby Union president Mark Alexander.

On a summer day when temperatures in Doha reached 39C, Anayi suggested the first steps towards that happening may come in the guise of a new pre-season tournament for URC clubs in one of the air-conditioned stadiums set to be used in November and December for football’s global showcase. Airline officials suggested temperatures drop to the early to mid-20s during winter months and Anayi said: “It was explained to us that the stadiums that are being built for the FIFA World Cup, a few of them are being deconstructed and moved abroad and then three or four are being reduced in size, so still ‘indoors’ and air-conditioned but reduced in size to 20,000, 30,000,” the URC CEO said.

“So something myself and Mark Alexander talked about was could you do something pre-season, could you create a tournament, like they do in the US with pre-season tournaments?


“And one thing Mark was telling me was that, for instance, Jean de Villiers has done rehab here, so there’s a pretty serious medical facility here, training facility. So definitely warm-weather training, very warm-weather training, during the (Northern Hemisphere) winter months and I think with the guys actually travelling through Qatar, Doha, it’s a place they don’t mind being in and they get looked after very well.

“The games are something we’d need to build up to. You would probably start with a new competition, like I said, a new pre-season tournament, something like that, and if it goes well can we build something on top?

“I think we always have to be, and we always try to be outward looking so we’d never close anything off. At the same time we want players to play less competition but of a higher quality so we’ve got to balance that up with new territories. So I think pre-season, definitely we could see something.

“The World Sevens Series is reducing its fixtures so is there room for a club sevens competition? You could imagine with some slightly novel thinking, innovative thinking, something like that could work well.”

The most visible part of the three-year deal initially will be the Qatar Airways logo emblazoned across the chests of BKT URC referees when the new season kicks off in 10 days when Munster will be the first Irish team to begin their campaign with an away trip to Cardiff on Friday, September 16. Yet games in Qatar are very much front and centre in the airline’s thoughts as their vice president of sales for Africa Hendrik du Preez explained.

“It’s definitely something we’ve tabled, if there was an opportunity. There might be great opportunities post (FIFA) World Cup. We’ve got great stadiums that have been built here and used during the World Cup,” du Preez said.

“It’ll be a great opportunity if we can host something in Doha, whatever format we might do – whether teams play warm-up matches here, north-south derbies. That would be great to put something together like that. There is a big ex-pat community, supporting rugby in the Middle East… I think there would be a big demand for that. It would be great.”

[riocard911]

Dunno bout the logistics etc., but those in the URC responsible for advertising and marketing are sure to be thinking in terms of the TV market of one billion persons approx. in India two to three hours behind Doha. If one even got a fraction of them and the quarter of a billion persons in Pakistan, even closer to Qatar, to tune into rugby on the gogglebox, that's a moneyspinner right there.

[paddyor]

Thinking about how much Qatar airways means to me and so many other people. lmao

https://www.the42.ie/urc-qatar-5858790- ... =shortlink

[paddyor]

Dunno bout the logistics etc., but those in the URC responsible for advertising and marketing are sure to be thinking in terms of the TV market of one billion persons approx. in India two to three hours behind Doha. If one even got a fraction of them and the quarter of a billion persons in Pakistan, even closer to Qatar, to tune into rugby on the gogglebox, that's a moneyspinner right there.

Seems like an idea for Worcester or Wasps tbh.

[riocard911]

Dunno bout the logistics etc., but those in the URC responsible for advertising and marketing are sure to be thinking in terms of the TV market of one billion persons approx. in India two to three hours behind Doha. If one even got a fraction of them and the quarter of a billion persons in Pakistan, even closer to Qatar, to tune into rugby on the gogglebox, that's a moneyspinner right there.

Seems like an idea for Worcester or Wasps tbh.

Touché!!!

[RoboProp]

Dunno bout the logistics etc., but those in the URC responsible for advertising and marketing are sure to be thinking in terms of the TV market of one billion persons approx. in India two to three hours behind Doha. If one even got a fraction of them and the quarter of a billion persons in Pakistan, even closer to Qatar, to tune into rugby on the gogglebox, that's a moneyspinner right there.

Seems like an idea for Worcester or Wasps tbh.

Bingo!
Playing in Qatar raises so many questions from the ethical, like their human rights violations to the innocuous, like why no "u" Qatar? Oh and the fracking heat too

[Oldschool]

Dunno bout the logistics etc., but those in the URC responsible for advertising and marketing are sure to be thinking in terms of the TV market of one billion persons approx. in India two to three hours behind Doha. If one even got a fraction of them and the quarter of a billion persons in Pakistan, even closer to Qatar, to tune into rugby on the gogglebox, that's a moneyspinner right there.

India are ranked 85th in the IRB rankings.
Pakistan are ranked 92nd.
Qatar are a wip.
Plenty of scope for development.

[Flash Gordon]

Only reasons to play in Qatar are sponsorship money and sportswashing the country's appalling human rights record. Games would be played in stadia literally built on blood. For a game like rugby which is built on ethics playing there would not be a good look.

[RoboProp]

Only reasons to play in Qatar are sponsorship money and sportswashing the country's appalling human rights record. Games would be played in stadia literally built on blood. For a game like rugby which is built on ethics playing there would not be a good look.

So much this!! Well said Flash

[ronk]

Only reasons to play in Qatar are sponsorship money and sportswashing the country's appalling human rights record. Games would be played in stadia literally built on blood. For a game like rugby which is built on ethics playing there would not be a good look.

Rugby was built on the British Empire.

[blockhead]

Only reasons to play in Qatar are sponsorship money and sportswashing the country's appalling human rights record. Games would be played in stadia literally built on blood. For a game like rugby which is built on ethics playing there would not be a good look.

Rugby was built on the British Empire.

Very true RonK, very true.
We haven't got a leg to stand on.

[ronk]

Qatar are hosting the soccer World Cup next month. They don't need URC rugby to sports wash. Qatar wasn't a place people didn't visit because of human rights, it was barely a place to visit. Now they have facilities and they need visitors.

It's a petrostate that's trying to diversify before the oil stops.

So is Saudi, though from a very different base. Saudi has a reputation that's in the toilet but they get a second chance because there's a newer bigger baddie. So it was a good time to sports wash. A lot of the PGA outrage is over the competition more than human rights, but it's convenient.

[Flash Gordon]

Only reasons to play in Qatar are sponsorship money and sportswashing the country's appalling human rights record. Games would be played in stadia literally built on blood. For a game like rugby which is built on ethics playing there would not be a good look.

Rugby was built on the British Empire.

The British empire hasn't existed for 100 years, building stadia in Qatar on slave labour is happening today.

[neill_m]

Unsure if already posted (apologies if so), but the highest ranked side will again have choice of hosting venue for the URC final this season with no destination venue.

[Dexter]

Unsure if already posted (apologies if so), but the highest ranked side will again have choice of hosting venue for the URC final this season with no destination venue.

I think it has to be that way from now on, due to the SA sides being involved.
Unless they decide to hold the final in Qatar or the US.....

[The Doc]

I think it has to be that way from now on, due to the SA sides being involved.
Unless they decide to hold the final in Qatar or the US.....

You might not be far off - 2024 final in Qatar. And you could see a sweetener like free flights for the teams and cheap packages for fans (or something like that)

Hmmm