URC chief realistic about Croke Park crowd numbers in event Leinster make final

Irish Examiner

3 days ago

BKT URC boss Martin Anayi is 'being realistic' about a likely attendance at Croke Park in two weekend's time should Leinster overcome some concerning form and qualify for the league final against one of two South African opponents.
The choice of GAA headquarters was made last summer when the URC's teams were asked to pencil in potential dates for the calendar ahead. It appeared at that time as if the Aviva Stadium would not be available for a theoretical decider due to soccer commitments.
So it is that Leinster and one of the Sharks or Bulls would compete for the league title on the northside of the Irish capital in the event that Leo Cullen's side makes it that far. And that would create a challenge.
Leinster did draw a capacity 80,000-plus crowd to Croke Park for a regular season meeting with Munster back in early October, and for a Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton Saints 13 months ago.
More recent crowd figures at the Aviva Stadium give cause for concern while Munster's elimination at the last eight stage last weekend in Durban deprives competition organisers of a potential all-Irish clash that would have generated enormous interest.
Timing is another factor with ticket offices and marketing departments having just seven days to drum up sales, and early indications are that it would be a bridge too far to have Croke Park anywhere near half full.
'We've got a really good relationship with the GAA and the leadership there, working very closely with Leinster,' said Anayi. 'There's a lot of tickets to sell in a very short period of time, that one week.
'We're being realistic about what can happen, but it's exciting. We'd love to have that as a spectacle, which is one of the brilliant things that is happening in Ireland, that we're seeing rugby being played in GAA stadiums very successfully.'
The first three URC finals have all been played in South Africa with a figure of 31,000 in year one jumping into the fifties for the next two. Over 33,000 tickets have already been sold for the Bulls-Sharks semi-final at Loftus Versfeld.
Should Glasgow win this weekend, another final would go down south.
Ultimately, there is no sure way of ensuring high crowds given the vagaries across five competing nations and the compacted rugby schedule, but Anayi did confirm that there will be a week off between the final two rounds next year.
Now in his tenth year as CEO, the Englishman started off an hour-long media briefing by highlighting the journey taken by a league which has clearly improved from its days as the Celtic League, Magners League and PRO12 or 14.
Attendances, he claimed, are up 14% with an average of just under 12,000 per game, and broadcast figures are improving every year since the URC's inception with over 150 million viewers logged since 2021.
New TV deals through to 2029 were announced for the various territories earlier this year. Total earnings have supposedly shot up by 33% in the competition's new guise, with another 15-16% bump predicted by 2027.
The South African union (SARU) will become a full shareholder in the URC as of this summer, but then change is stitched into the DNA of this tournament and there may be more around the corner given the turbulence in Wales.
The Welsh union's contract with the URC commits them to four participating clubs. That is at risk with suggestions that one of the regions may go out of existence, although Anayi said the league would work with the WRU which is, again, one of its shareholders.
Whatever about losing a team or two, it doesn't look like the URC will be admitting any more for now regardless of speculation in the last year about the possibility of teams like Georgia's Black Lion or London Irish coming on board.
Anayi referenced player welfare, logistics and the league's current competitiveness as potential barriers and remarked that 'the bar is very high' for further expansion. Not that any such concerns stopped the establishment of a World Club Cup.
Due to start in 2028, it will replace the knockout stages of the Champions Cup that year, and again in 2032. The URC, as a stakeholder in the EPCR organisation that runs the European competitions, is fully on board.
'We've supported the EPCR and it is very much something that our partners in England and France feel strongly about it. It seems it could be quite intriguing … to see the likes of the Brumbies and Crusaders compete against the best teams in Europe, and South Africa.
'We have a couple of touch points in that, where Crusaders came up and played against Munster in Pairc Ui Chaoimh when Munster had won our league and Crusaders had won Super Rugby Pacific.
'That got a really good attendance, a sellout. That was one little nugget to say, 'okay, there is an interest in that'. That was one of the areas that we focused on.'