Rugby Union’s over-reliance on brewing and financial services sponsors, were among several topics discussed at the final day of the inaugural Rugby Expo conference.
Three panels sat to consider rugby sponsorship, development of rugby in emerging nations, and building brands in rugby. Speakers included Mark Evans, Chief Executive of Guinness Premiership team Harlequins; Mark Egan, Head of Development and Performance at the IRB; Nigel Melville, Chief Executive of USA Rugby; David Butler, Marketing Director at Honda F1 racing team; and sports marketing consultant Edward Freedman.
Mark Evans said that “rugby’s challenge” was attracting big, consumer-facing sponsors, which was not happening at the moment due to the relatively small size of the sport, and was contributing to an over-reliance on sponsors from the brewing and financial services sectors. “You could argue that we are in the wrong markets,” he said. “We have got no real prominence in South Asia…We haven’t really got any penetration yet into China, and if you compare us to…cricket, the great advantage they have got is that they are absolutely huge in one of the big, emerging markets in the world (India)…” Even in its big markets, Evans added, rugby needed to work “very, very hard” to increase the scale of its fanbase, so that English and French clubs could offer sponsors greater reach.
The developing rugby nations’ representatives called for a variety of approaches to develop the game in emerging markets. Howard Thomas of Russia Rugby said his Union needed expert assistance in governance and commercial activities. Mark Egan said the IRB recognized this as a “key” need, admitting that “a Premiership club in the UK would have far more facilities, commercial programmes than a top Union” in some of the countries it was working with.
Nigel Melville said that USA Rugby’s current dependence on hand-outs from the IRB was “unsustainable”. More and regular international fixtures were required to make the US team competitive, he said, success in which would open up sponsorship opportunities. He said that at present USA Rugby was telephoning Unions around the world to arrange international friendlies itself.
Melville was one of several voices on the panels and in the audience who said that more television coverage was crucial if the game was to grow in the developing markets. “One of the things that we need is ESPN in America to put rugby on on a regular basis,” he said. “That would grow the game massively.” He said that if ESPN were offered content, such as Rugby World Cup rights, it would put it on “at the drop of a hat”. The IRB’s Mark Egan said that it was foregoing license fees and giving away content such as the IRB 7’s in new markets, but admitted that, as it did not own the rights for the World Cup, Six Nations or Tri-Nations, it could only “facilitate discussions” between the rights-holders and the markets that were seeking the content.
