Where's The Cash Coming From Mr Dodson?

  The artist's impression of Edinburgh's new home, as it appears on the Edinburgh website

THE news, released last week, of a new “mini-Murrayfield”, to be constructed on the back pitches within the Murrayfield complex, as a home for Edinburgh Rugby, was generally welcomed by the Scottish Rugby community.

Old curmudgeon that I am, even I joined in the celebrations – it's own dedicated home is something Edinburgh has long lacked and needed, and I welcome the move. However, given the shite being hurled at the Ayatollah and his minions over Stupid-6 and Agenda-3, from here and elsewhere, I detected a hint of: “Look, a squirrel,” about the whole presentation.

Because, as I ask at the head of this post – who's going to pay for what will be a costly if nevertheless welcome addition to the Murrayfield landscape? New stadia do not come cheap, and while the new ground might lack the sheer scale and architectural splendour of recent new grounds, such as the still unopened £400 million 'New White Hart Lane' ground for Spurs, building it will still be an expensive undertaking.

My press colleagues were unable to prise a ballpark figure for the new ground, which we hear will have a capacity of 7,800, from either Jon Petrie or Dom McKay at the announcement last week, but, I can make a calculated guess.

The last new football ground to be opened in Scotland was St Mirren's Paisley 2021 Stadium. I was there for the first game back in 2009, when it cost £8 million, or £997 for each of the 8023 seats. That £8 million 2009 figure is today, with inflation, a figure of £10.16 million, which means each seat now costs £1266. This means, on paper, it will cost the SRU just under £10 million to build their 7800-seat ground.

And, I should add, this is not a figure I plucked from thin air. Some years back, doing another story about sports grounds, I consulted a former school class-mate, whose day job was as a cost accountant with Barr Construction, the firm, run by former Ayr Chairman Bill Barr, which built, or refurbished stands and complete grounds for just about every Scottish club – plus a few in England – except old Bill's own beloved Honest Men.

So, my mate's day job was to have such details to hand and he reckoned £1000 per seat was a fair ballpark figure for a new stadium.

Could There Be Significant Cost-Cutting?

But, maybe some costs-saving can be achieved; for a start, the SRU already owns the land on which the new stadium will be built, so that's a cost which they do not have to worry about – simply acquiring the ground. However, that will only enable them to make a partial dent in the overall cost. I have seen estimates of £3 or £4 million as a possible cost – I would suggest, these are on the low side and the final bill could easily double those estimates.

After all, a state-of-the-art 3G pitch is not cheap, about £750,000 for that is the normally-accepted ballpark figure, which can easily be doubled for floodlighting good enough to allow live TV coverage of the PRO14 games. So, that's at least £1.5 million, before you have put-in a single seat.

I accept, it might be possible for Edinburgh to do their corporate entertaining before and after the game across in Murrayfield itself, but, what about the consumption of the half-time pies? Then we have the specialist requirements of those pests from the press – among others - to contend with.

So, a one-off cost of getting towards £8 million, plus, from 2019 until 2024 an additional £800,000 each to the six Stupid-6 franchises – a further £4 million over the period. Has the SRU come into money?

An additional £2 million per year to find over each of the next six years, to continue to feed the voracious appetite for cash of the performance side of Scottish Rugby. This could mean cuts elsewhere – which given the mantra of “fewer but stronger” could be bad news for some clubs – there may well have to be cuts and it will be less-bother for the “suits” if they can make these cuts well away from their own door steps, and if the Councillors can “sell” the message of: “economies are needed, we are all in this together, and even, it will not affect the pound in your club's pocket. Aye right.

THERE is now added pressure on Gregor Townsend and the national squad for the coming weekend's international against Canada in Edmonton. Scottish rugby definitely requires a morale-booster after the disappointment of the weekend just passed.

Losing to Argentina was another disappointment for Brian Redpath and the Under-20s, Callum McLelland's outstanding solo try notwithstanding. Our boys were simply blown away by the young Pumas' power.

Callum McLelland - a glorious try against Argentina

An it does not get any easier, with England to come on Thursday. OK, we turned over a perhaps over-confident Saxons side in the Six Nations, but, forewarned and forearmed, a stronger English side will be another huge challenge for the kids, and, given, when we beat England at any level, in any sport, they usually like to come back at us, very hard and very quickly: forrit tho Ah canna see, Ah guess and fear.

Then, when it comes to our Sevens squad, in London. Least said, soonest mended – after back-to-back wins on the cabbage patch, the squad's uneven form over the previous tournaments on the Word Rugby HSBC circuit saw them drawn in a “Group of Death” and duly put to death, before failing to unduly trouble the scorers on Day Two, when we were down among the dead men.

Sure, we beat the French, but, from a Scottish perspective, perhaps the peak moment from the Twickenham tournament was the outstanding team try by the USA, finished-off by former Glasgow Warriors and Ayr winger Carlin Isles, which is rapidly becoming a You Tube staple.

Scottish sport – roller-coaster rides a national speciality, it was ever thus.