South Africa Dominates URC Rugby Revenue What's Behind Their Success?

[@MrRugbylane]

60 million people in South Africa - the scale of the place is ginormous. I was on an amazing holiday recently to Cape Town and the Garden Route out to P.E. (fantastic!) Its only a tiny bit of SA but its the size of Ireland! The human energy there is amazing, the potential almost unlimited.

[@thegunshow25]

As an ireland fan, we love the SA teams being in the URC.

[@liamferreira8912]

I cannot reiterate as a South African how wonderful it is to be able to watch SA teams playing pretty much throughout the year! And as a rugby fan, the deeper insights into northern hemisphere rugby I have gained through being in a competition that involves our Europe-based URC contemporaries, and additionally the Champions/Challenge cup!

[@thrillerwriter2087]

SARU currently pays a participation fee to URC for its four teams. That is part of the income for URC Rugby company that receives all the TV, sponsorship, participation fees. After all of the operational costs have been paid, and CVC takes their 28% cut, the balance is transferred to Celtic Rugby DAC which has four equal shareholders at 25% each - WRU, IRFU, FIR and SRU. Both URC and EPCR monies flow into this company. With SARU becoming a shareholder, each of the 5 unions will receive 20% of the net receipts, plus any gate income from knockout rounds in EPCR. If the TV/Sponsor income doesn't increase, then the shared monies will decrease further. For example, in Y/E 23-24, WRU received £7.8m as a 25% shareholder in Celtic Rugby.

[@ritchiebirnie6124]

We love having you guys in URC

[@Bobbydyland]

Loving the URC. I'm as excited for it as I was for the old super 12. The Euro cups need a change tho. They need moving to the end of the season so all teams involved can focus on one comp at a time.

[@MrRugbylane]

YES !!!!!!

[@thenomad47]

The Europeans would do good to remember what happened to NZ and Super Rugby when South Africa pulled out. South Africa is a country with a surprising amount of money to throw around, especially when it comes to Rugby, and, in fact, has a larger GDP than most of the URC countries, barring only Italy, but that's balanced out by the fact that Italy isn't as Rugby-mad as South Africa is. South Africa has a HUGE amount of money for any Rugby Comp we participate in, and not to mention the sheer Rugby Skill and Talent that we bring as well. They'd do well to not make the same mistakes as Super Rugby and the NZRU.

[@JackN13_]

just like history africa continues to do all the hard work with little reward

[@vahorgan]

Love the URC, I now know the Scots, Welsh, Italian and Irish teams and their players and their story just makes for a better community. Don't care about the European cup, maybe down the line when we can go at it properly?

[@mungoboomdecker9711]

European(Heineken)Cup went into decline when the English and French clubs decided to take control and move HQ from Dublin to Switzerland. The management since of the tournament has regressed the tournament. The English media giving out about weak South African teams is overblown. Some of the French teams never try in Europe. Toulon, Toulouse, Clermont, La Rochelle all get Europe, the rest want to avoid relegation.

[@sweetfragment]

I think on URC we’re doing well even in challenge cup. We hosted 3 finals. Bulls played 2 finals. Stormers played 2 finals. Sharks won challenge cup. We’re still lagging for Investec cup.

[@Geezweez788]

We(South Africa) have empty stadiums though, how do we improve on that.

[@davidwalker2402]

@@Geezweez788 put you star players on the pitch respect your fans, its not a coincidence that a tiny country like Ireland where rugby is 4th favorite sport can fill stadiums of all their rugby teams. As 4 times World Cup champions and the best team in the world your domestic teams should be the best supported teams in the world.

[@viwekenneth6028]

Its summer South Africans are out n about. Rugby is new in summer here in SA and Kings Park was sold out last weekend so

[@davidwalker2402]

@ kings park for game against Exeter was 10,000 it holds 50,000 not sold out.

[@viwekenneth6028]

@@davidwalker2402 i ment to say the game between Sharks and Stomers was sold out which was on the other weekend . Until February stadiums will continue being empty thats just how summer is in South Africa its only been a few years we play rugby and next year we will be full-time partners of URC we will afford more players and deeper squads

[@denershan]

Play in smaller venues

[@iamnutty8471]

investing money to be included, eg buying your way in dont care as long as it improves the game! funny how flying to EU is such a big deal but flying to OZ, NZ and argentina was apparently not a problem?? whats next complaining about lack of bullet trains between joberg and cape town? this was an issue they knew about way before they joined and accepted is part of the sacrifice of playing in someone else competition!i agree synching games to keep 1 team in 1 place longer seems to make sense eg leinster play all teams in SA in a 4 week stretch etc in sync with EPRC calender

[@TheFiki14]

Flying to nz and Australia was a problem for SA teams, it’s one of the biggest reasons they didn’t have a lot of success in the super rugby competition. And also one of the reasons why they left.

[@davidwalker2402]

While you’re bringing new sponsorship, that is simply because this is new for the URC, continuing to bring down tournaments like the investec championship will not help any rugby. SA needs to get around that . Yes they have been good for the URC , but many countries fans annoyed at the way SAs are treating what was the biggest club tournament in the world.

[@ForeverSports]

“They are also providing more value to EPCR, via Investec’s sponsorship of the Champions Cup. It is a huge part of the rugby economy for Europe.” Martin Anayi

[@davidwalker2402]

@ I agree investec are onboard because of SA inclusion in the champions cup, but if SA teams denigrate or demean this championship then sponsors will not be happy. I know it’s not all down to SA teams , but what was the best club tournament in the world has now dipped with the inclusion of SA teams. Remember investec replaced one of the biggest sponsors rugby ever had Heineken and that is a big loss to European rugby. Let’s see if they can change the format and bring this championship to a place it should be in rugby.

[@spanspeksquarepants]

​@@davidwalker2402 How is Champions cup elite when the 3rd last team in the Premiership can qualify for it? Also where was the outrage when French, English, Irish, Scottish sides send 2nd or 3rd string teams to away games before SA joined?

[@zwet4269]

French teams do the same

[@davidwalker2402]

@ you’ll find that this format is new and was designed to include SA teams. You first need to go back and see just how big the champions cup has been in European history, as soon as SA teams join it loses a lot of it prestige so the big losers are the fans. No countries sent 3rd string teams to old format of champions league, except 1 maybe 2 French teams. The champions cup was a much more prestigious trophy to win than any league in Europe and it was respected for that. I think if we just look back at what happened last week we see the total disrespect SA teams have for their own fans let alone fans in Europe . This is also creeping into the URC . So unless a suitable format is found I believe that in Europe a new competition with a super premier league and a super champions cup may be the only answer . I believe just like super rugby SA teams will get fed up with the travel and continue to send rubbish teams more and more if they don’t believe they can win. But the biggest losers are the fans just like they were in super rugby, apart from the Bulls the other SA teams failed to show up all the time. You may not like it but the champions cup was a much greater competition before SA teams joined .