Prem Rugby: New logo, away ends and US matches in Premiership rebrand

Times

13 hours ago

Premiership Rugby will rebrand its league as Prem Rugby next month as part of a slate of innovations aimed at driving more interest in the English game.
The renaming is one of several plans to revamp the league, including:
• A trial of playing matches on Thursday nights;
• A push for more 'big games' at top-class stadiums, some of which could take place in the United States;
• More use of 'away ends', building on the two-match trial this season;
• Employing Deloitte and The Raine Group to draw up plans to restructure the top flight.
The name of the overriding organisation will remain Premiership Rugby, but from July 23 the league will be known as the Gallagher Prem. This aligns with the second-tier Championship, which has also shortened its name to Champ Rugby before next season.
The Premiership has been known as such since 1997, having been called the Courage League after the English rugby pyramid was established in 1987.
The leaders at Premiership Rugby first revealed they wanted to change the name of the league in May last year on The Ruck podcast from The Times.
After an extensive rebranding exercise that has taken two years and included consultation with players, including the Bath prop Beno Obano and the Northampton Saints full back George Furbank, Premiership Rugby has settled on its shortened name as it wants to 'talk how fans talk' and 'unashamedly celebrate intensity, physicality, grit and extreme athleticism' in the game. Its new logo will be coloured orange to signify 'intensity'.
Revealing the new name, Premiership Rugby's chief growth officer, Rob Calder, said: 'This is not formal, corporate or traditional. It's got grit, just like our competition. It's a physical contest that showcases power, pace and incredible skill under pressure, so we are unashamedly going to talk about physicality, intensity, extreme athleticism and the grit of top-flight rugby.
'This is about big hits, it's intense, it's full contact and its unflinching. We know this works as we've spoken to the players, and the things they've said in the process are: 'Promote the players. Show the game, the aggression, the gladiatorial nature of the game, and give the brand the intensity to match.' '
To help players build their personal brands, the league is creating a centralised social media app for them to share footage and pictures.
While the rebrand will be announced at Saturday's sold-out Premiership final at Twickenham between Bath and Leicester Tigers, both in the stadium and live on TNT Sports, the official switch will occur on July 23.
Next season's opening game will take place on Thursday, September 25, as a one-off trial. The Prem wants to avoid a clash with the Women's World Cup final, which is on Saturday, September 27 and is likely to feature England's Red Roses at Twickenham, so its opening round will have one match on the Thursday and the other four across Friday, September 26 and Sunday, September 28.
This season two 'away ends' were trialled, when Harlequins went to Leicester and Gloucester went to Saracens, and the league wants to facilitate more of those next year. Fans would not be segregated, but away supporters would have the option to sit together.
Premiership Rugby is also encouraging clubs to put on more 'big games' at larger stadiums. Harlequins play two of these, one at Christmas and the other in spring, both at Twickenham, while Saracens have their 'showdown' in March and Bristol Bears started their 'big day out' in Cardiff this May against Bath.
The Times understands that Sale Sharks have previously investigated using Bolton Wanderers' 29,000-seat Toughsheet Community Stadium for a league game.
It will not happen next season, but the league wants to take matches to the US in the build-up to the 2031 men's World Cup over there. Officials are confident that they can do so, having built the number of sell-outs over the past three seasons from 13 to 18 to 30 this term.
The Premiership previously played two ill-fated matches stateside in 2016 and 2017. In 2016 London Irish faced Saracens in New York, and then Saracens played Newcastle Falcons in Philadelphia the following year, but neither game was sold out.
'We've had US games before and they've been flash in the pans, in the wrong area, wrong stadiums with the wrong teams,' Premiership Rugby's chief executive, Simon Massie-Taylor, said. 'It needs to lead to something. It's about maxing out what we've got domestically first, which is why sell-outs are so important. That needs to continue for these big games to exist, and then you start moving beyond your shores.'
In terms of the league's structure, the Prem will remain a ten-team league next season, but executives are looking to add 'expansion' teams.
To investigate what the league could look like in future, Premiership Rugby has employed both the New York-based bank Raine and the consultancy firm Deloitte. Their remit is to look only at the structure of the league within England, though, rather than trying to start an Anglo-Welsh or British and Irish domestic league. Ultimately they will take recommendations to the Premiership Rugby board by the summer, which should lead to the franchising of the top flight and an official end to promotion and relegation, as The Times has reported.
Raine and Deloitte helped the ECB with the sale of the Hundred franchises, which is set to earn £520million for English cricket.
There is confidence at Premiership Rugby that the bottom side in 2024-25, Newcastle Falcons, will be taken over by Red Bull this summer, so they will be able to compete in next season's league. If they are, the Falcons are likely to incorporate the Red Bull brand in their name — for example, renaming themselves Red Bull Newcastle.
TNT Sports, the league's broadcaster, which has a commitment to show the Prem until 2031, also wants to add more data and technology to its coverage, including showing player heartrates and the pressure exerted at scrums. It believes it has the technical ability to show fans that information already, but needs the buy-in of the clubs and players to do so.
Ultimately the Premiership believes that it is emerging from several lean years, in which Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish went bust, and the league has cut its cloth with fresh confidence.
Its chairman, Martyn Phillips, said: 'Three or four years ago we were in a hole, but we battened down the hatches to get the Premiership back on course. This feels like a significant day for us. We're in a good spot, but have by no means cracked it.' Jokingly, he added: 'We're out of intensive care, maybe even out of hospital, and we're not keen to go back there.'