According to Jake White ‘Money alone won’t bring Springboks back to South Africa’
Bulls boss Jake White has again insisted that SA Rugby will need a ‘policy’ to be enforced to bring top players back to South Africa.
SA Rugby is on the verge of completing a private equity partnership with American company Ackerley Sports Group (ASG) that will apparently result in a reported R1.42 billion ($75 million) investment.
Local franchises have, however, questioned and opposed several aspects of the agreements, and a major concern has been how it will affect the local game and whether it will be beneficial overall.
For example, Bulls manager Jake White has questioned if it would actually be beneficial to attract top players and Springboks who are now playing abroad back to South Africa.
Before Saturday’s URC derby between the Bulls and the Lions at Ellis Park, the director of rugby for the Bulls stated, “I’m not sure that, even if we have all the money in the world, it’s going to mean the top players come back in droves.”“It has to be a policy. It’s been broadcasted quite widely by Rassie Erasmus that having overseas-based players coached by overseas coaches, and having those rich foreign clubs pay their salaries, is a model that works for us. “Money [locally] isn’t going to change that.”
That conversation is incomplete, and any agreement that may ultimately be reached, requires the approval of the 14 member unions of SA Rugby before it could be signed.
But there has been much speculation, misdirection and misunderstanding of what the purpose and practicalities of such an agreement involve. Let me put the record straight.
If you take only one thing from this letter, let it be this: The Springboks are not being sold – not now and not ever.
If the private equity deal is approved, it will entail a company investing in a minority shareholding in the commercial rights to SA Rugby’s activities in a newly created Commercial Rights Company (CRC). SA Rugby will remain the majority shareholder.
The CRC will not be responsible for the management or selection of any national teams nor for the management of competitions. It will be based in South Africa and have an operational staff transferred from the existing structures, augmented by international expertise and consultants. It will be SA Rugby’s commercial arm, a subsidiary to the mother body.
What it means in short is that SA Rugby’s commercial activities of selling broadcast and sponsorship rights and running events will continue as before, only in partnership with a company with international experience who believe that our revenues are capable of meaningful increase. This is a good thing.
That is the “what” is happening, but just as important in answering the question, “why are we doing it”?
It’s straightforward: although the Springboks have won the world cup twice in a row, rugby’s financial viability off the field is far from exceptional.
The sport in this country had to take drastic measures to survive the COVID pandemic, but we have no reserves, and a comparable financial catastrophe would mean the end of the sport as we know it.
Comparably, we perform worse in international commercial markets than our contemporaries do, and we have long needed a step change in our company to produce the revenue necessary to keep the Springboks at the top and, among many other things, support our women in winning the World Cup.
HELP NEEDED
We can’t produce that step change alone and from the foot of Africa, so we have actively sought a partnership with an organisation possessing the platforms, networks, and relationships to enhance our commercial value.
We believe we have found potential partners with those attributes who will join us in the CRC, which will be dedicated only to organically elevating our commercial presence.
I hope I have made it clear that this process is not about a quick cash injection; it is about securing the long-term rugby’s financial viability in South Africa to enable our international teams to play on an even playing field.
It will give us reserves to weather storms in the future and the money to invest in plans that will raise our performance both on and off the field to the level of worldwide best practices.
In order to offer the Springboks (and the rest of rugby) the financial resources to make sure that the notion of a three-peat is not simply a pipe dream, we are not selling the team or giving up any rights; rather, we are creating a new business with a minority stakeholder.
We will be stronger when we collaborate with the appropriate business partners.
