THE SCOTTISH Rugby Union yesterday celebrated bringing the Heineken Cup final back to Edinburgh on a glorious day at the castle, and then admitted that it was a financial gamble.
The final was first played at Murrayfield in 2005 and was estimated to have injected around £15million into the local economy with over 51,000 supporters descending on the national stadium for what turned out to be an all-French clash, between Toulou
se and Stade Francais.
Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, explained how the bid to bring the final back to Scotland had a much wider brief than purely financial, by generating interest in and growing the sport across the country. When pressed on how much it may also help the SRU's bank balance, he said: "There may be a reward, but there is a risk as well because we have had to guarantee ERC (European Rugby Cup] a minimum sum.
"We have to pay all the costs of hosting the event – the stadium costs, the marketing and promotion etc – so it's very difficult to say at this stage what net return we will have. When it was staged here in 2005, the SRU was in freefall with Phil Anderton and David Mackay having left and with the nine ledgers about the place it was hard to tell how well or not they did from the final.
"When you don't know who will be in the final, then there's a bit of a risk there, but there is a reward if it goes well. And this is all part of our bid to put professional rugby in Scotland on the map. The pro teams we have are doing better now and we are working in various ways to grow the game, and we hope that by bringing the European final here the sport will move further into Scottish communities."
In truth, there was not a lot of competition for next year's final, to be held on the weekend of 23/24 May. Back-to-back finals in Wales were unlikely, the Irish and Italian unions did not bid, the English RFU considered it with the PRL clubs body but did not follow through, and France submitted a "partial bid" according to McKie. The SRU did, however, have to put forward a robust business case before ERC would give the go-ahead.
There may be a price to attracting the glitzy end of pro rugby, but with tickets going on sale to the general public tomorrow for the 2009 final – all 74,500 for this year's final in Cardiff, between Munster and Toulouse this weekend, were sold by February – there is a sense of speculating to accumulate in a level of the sport still to really grip the Scottish public, while exploiting Murrayfield's global attraction much better than previously.
McKie added: "In our recently published strategic plan, we listed a number of objectives and one of them was to bring an increasing number of sports and non-sports event to our Murrayfield Stadium.
"The Heineken Cup will generate massive PR as it's such a high-profile event and will demonstrate to the Rugby Football League and the NFL that if the ERC are prepared to look at Murrayfield then so should they. It's constantly going to be in the public eye that it is coming to Edinburgh.
"And it must surely give both our teams a bit of a lift to know that if they can go all the way, then they will be playing at Murrayfield. Not only are we proud in having secured this event, but we see it as a great opportunity to broaden the progress we have made in the last 12 months with our two professional teams."
This weekend the European showpiece clashes with the Scottish Cup final in football, but The Scotsman understands that the Hampden game is likely to be put back a week next season to the final weekend in May, thus averting any conflicts in 2009.
The Heineken Cup attraction is growing every year with crowds rising through the pool stages and even Twickenham's 81,076 seats all sold last season. Sean Lineen, the Glasgow coach, who was born and bred in New Zealand, revealed that he was also aware of growing envy from the southern hemisphere.
"All my friends and family down in New Zealand are so jealous of the Heineken Cup," he said. "I think the Super 14 teams are panicking a bit at the moment because crowds are down and TV audiences are down, so they are looking at ways of making it more exciting again.
"They look up here and see the Heineken Cup, which is full of colour, real local passions, intensity and has great support, and they are definitely jealous. The benefit we have is that we play different teams every year in this, and while it's pretty tough, there is always something different to excite players and fans.
"For Glasgow, the secret next season is about consistency, and if we can become more consistent in the Magners League we can take that into the Heineken Cup and really push for that quarter-final place Glasgow has never had. Then, who knows?
"It's certainly going to be inspiring for the guys up here to know the final is coming to Murrayfield, and hopefully supporters will savour the prospect of the Heineken Cup Final being on their doorstep."
The full article contains 911 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
