Show Us The Money - Or Lack Of It

ON THE WHOLE, the readers of this blog are wonderfully supportive and encouraging. Sure, I get the odd: “You are talking shite ya fanny” comment – generally I find from a Murrayfield Minion.

I got a cracker this morning, from a very-interested supporter of Scottish rugby – the father of a Scottish internationalist, who wanted some sort of guidance as to the potential cost implications of the S6 franchises. Basically,he wanted to know how much it might cost to run one of the six francheses.

Here is my reply:

"The answer to your question is the perennial QI one – nobody knows; there is so-much rumour and conjecture around it.

For instance, the club widely-regarded as the lowest payers in the current Premiership offers players what they call a 50/50 deal: (£50 per week to train + £50 if you are in the match-day squad).

At the other end of the line, there is the legend of one of the alleged “big spender's” efforts to entice one Premiership star to switch from his current club to them – on the basis he would save at least an awful lot of travelling time each week, since the club hoping to recruit him was closer to his home. Legend has it, they gave up at £400 per week, which was still not enough.

When Stupid-6 was first mooted, £12,000 per season per player, was supposed to be the maximum wage. If we take a season as including pre-season training, we have a 44 week commitment - £273 per week, covering two training sessions, plus a match.

We are also, with these figures, overlooking the fact, rumour has it, a few clubs are paying some players a good bit more than £12,000 per season at present.

BUT, with semi-pro, the expectation is that it will entail three training sessions per week, plus a game. That's a minimum commitment of roughly ten hours per week: (three x two hours training + four hours match day).

If we assume, not every player will be on the supposed £12,000 per season maximum, then those not on that, will need to be on at least the national minimum wage of £7.83 per hour (for ten hours - £78.30 – call that £80 per week for simplicity).

So, you have a 35-man squad. At least 12 of these will be “established” or “elite” players – your Club XV internationalists, guys who have played a couple of seasons at Premiership level, perhaps former pros. They will cost you £144,000 per season in total. Of the other 23 guys – perhaps 10 are adults, on the national minimum wage – that's a further £35,200 onto the wage bill. Then there are your younger players, probably students, just up from the Under-18s. Let's say they are on £50 per week: That adds a further £28,600 or so to your season's wage bill – taking it up to £207,800.

Then you have your off-field staff: at least two assistant coaches, team manager, kit manager, a couple of physios, the honorarium to the club doctor, the club administrator, the requirement to have a qualified strength & conditioning coach - not forgetting your full-time Head Coach, for whom I have heard a minimum of £35,000 pa quoted.

I would reckon, with your ancillary staff, you will not have change out of £300,000 per season to run your S6 club.

However, again the rumour mill kicks in. We heard of a club, fallen on hard times on the field, but quite well-funded off it, who tried to get a former player who had moved up and played for several years in the Premiership, to return to them now he was married and thinking of retiring. Negotiations faltered at £1800 per month. He has a one hour each way commute to train and play home games with his current club.

There is the tale of another experienced Premiership player who has moved around a lot in his career. He apparently wishes a minimum retainer of £75 per week – whether or not he plays, on top of match and training fees etc.

Not all clubs have all their players living locally. Ayr, for instance, has several players who live in Glasgow, while others also live some distance from Ayr. Some of the Edinburgh clubs have attracted players from the Borders, while Melrose have one or two who live and work in Edinburgh. These players' travel expenses have to be factored-in."

Then there is a wee conundrum which was posed to me just this week by an official with a regional league club.

He said:

“These franchises are new entities – which will be attached-to, or associated with an existing “amateur” club. I understand most, if not all the franchises will be limited companies, while some of the core amateur clubs are seeking to convert themselves to charities – to protect themselves should the franchises fail.

Who gets what share of the bar takings on a Saturday – the franchise or the core club? What is the divide from the sponsors' lunches etc? Who pays for the grass-cutting, the stewards etc (it is one thing volunteering to steward for the club you have played for and supported for years, quite another to steward for an arm's length offshoot of the SRU's Performance Department).

Under OSCAR charity rules – a club which is a charity is required to set a true, economical rent to a professional body using or renting their facilities. How do they square that?

Add additional wear and tear on the ground and facilities – 35 more players, additional training sessions etc on the pitch – and the requirement for 3G pitches seems to have been quietly dropped, since sportscotland doesn't have the cash to fund their installation.”

Then there was the point made to me by a senior figure in one of the franchise-winning clubs:

“We work bloody hard at the moment getting good sponsors. Now, as everyone knows times are difficult in business at present. We could well see a good, long-standing sponsor, who is maybe finding trading conditions difficult saying to us: 'Why are you coming to me, at a time when I am fighting to keep my business going, looking for sponsorship, when you have just received £130,000 from the SRU? No, I cannot help you, and, in any case, you have just more than made-up for losing my sponsorship.' Don't tell me that cannot happen.”

Would any sane business go down a totally new route on the basis of so-much guesswork and uncertainty. I think not. With S6 nobody knows exactly what is involved. Not even the SRU – who are making it up as they, and we, go along.

Finally: there is also going the rounds, a wee league table based on the likelihood of franchise failure, this reads, in descending order of likelihood to go tits-up first:

1. Boroughmuir
2. Stirling County
3. Heriot's
4. Watsonians
5. Melrose
6. Ayr