The report, launched in November at an event at London\u2019s Honourable Artillery Company, features a breakdown of all Premiership Rugby clubs\u2019 financial results from 2014-15 to 2023-24.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0findings show\u00a0that\u00a0despite encouraging signs of growth in matchday and commercial revenues at several clubs,\u00a0no team\u00a0made a profit\u00a0for\u00a0a third successive year,\u00a0with\u00a0the ten teams making a combined loss of \u00a334m\u00a0in 2023-24.<\/p>\n
Over the ten-year period assessed in the report, the cumulative losses of Premiership Rugby clubs now stand at \u00a3176.9m.<\/p>\n
In\u00a02023-24, clubs lost \u00a33.4m on average, equivalent to around \u00a3283,000 per month and roughly \u00a371,000 per week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The figures also reveal that total debt in 2023-24 for the ten current clubs\u00a0amounted to \u00a3342.5m,\u00a0up from \u00a3329.8m in 2022-23\u00a0for the same set of clubs.<\/p>\n
For 2023-24, six clubs\u00a0were balance sheet insolvent,\u00a0meaning they were reliant on financial support from their owners, as they were also loss-making.\u00a0That compares with seven clubs for\u00a02022-23,\u00a0although\u00a0the change came from\u00a0Saracens\u2019 capitalisation of loans due to the club\u2019s parent company.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Rugby-graph.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The report also assesses a possible\u00a0franchise model\u00a0for Premiership Rugby and\u00a0concludes\u00a0clubs could save\u00a0between\u00a0\u00a31.1m and \u00a31.9m from shared services, combined with centralised governance, but warns a\u00a0wage to revenue ratio limit of 70% may be needed\u00a0initially.<\/p>\n
Professor Rob Wilson said about the report: \u201cEnglish professional rugby has now had a decade of structural financial fragility, and our report shows that this is still present systemically today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe priority now must be building durable recurring\u00a0revenue;\u00a0disciplined cost control linked to key central financial metrics and genuine alignment between sporting ambition and sustainable wage spend. That is what real long-run financial health looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u00a0added: \u201cThe franchise debate is ultimately a financial sustainability debate. Fragmented incentives and volatility have cost the game enormously, both competitively and reputationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the sport wants to attract serious capital back in at scale,\u00a0whether through institutional capital, private capital or new strategic partners, it\u00a0must\u00a0demonstrate a credible long-run route to stable cashflow and return on investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever the governance model ultimately becomes, the market will reward clubs and the league for predictability in revenues (not match results\u00a0\u2013\u00a0they must remain unpredictable), transparency, cost discipline and high-quality revenue growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf English rugby can execute those fundamentals, this sport can genuinely move itself into a position where growth is funded by profit,\u00a0not benefactors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the report looked into the women\u2019s game, more specifically the potential impact on Premiership Women\u2019s Rugby\u00a0(PWR)\u00a0of the Red Roses\u2019 victory on home soil in\u00a0this year\u2019s\u00a0Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
Read the report in its entirety<\/a> and see the full insight into the analysis into the game at professional level.<\/p>\n You can also learn more about our executive education courses<\/a>, run alongside VSI Executive Education<\/a>, which include MSc Sports Directorship<\/a> and CEO of a Sports Organisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n View a UCFB prospectus<\/a> too to find out about our other courses at undergraduate<\/a> and postgraduate<\/a> level, all tailored to the global sports industry, whether it be sports media, business or coaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A UCFB academic has played an integral part in the writing of a recent report into the finances…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-356026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}