URC CEO MARTIN Anayi says the league’s provinces and clubs would need to be fully behind any plans to stage matches in the USA.
His words come after a report suggesting that moves have been made to bring a Leinster v Munster clash to the States.
The URC has had the chance to stage games in the US before but Anayi said the competition organisers had chosen not to take up those options.
Yesterday, The Times in the UK reported that the Fenway Sports Group, which owns Liverpool, has approached the URC about bringing games to the US, with a particular interest in the derby between Munster and Leinster.
Anayi pointed out that the Irish provinces would need to be the ones driving any such venture and said a change in the format of the URC might also be required, while also suggesting that the Champions Cup might be a better competition to explore the opportunity.
“These derby games are the lifeblood of the Irish clubs, as they are all of our teams,” said Anayi at the URC launch in London yesterday.
“If you don’t play those games at home, your attendance numbers fall off in a season.
“The crown jewel for the clubs is those Christmas derby games, played at home in front of full, sellout crowds.
“To take any of those games away from traditional slots, number one – the clubs have got to really want to do it and I wonder whether it also needs to be outside of the scope of the regular season. We only have 18 regular season matches. We did that for the purpose of every single game being of a higher quality.
“It’s a bit of a struggle to see us, in the current format, taking a regular season derby match to the US.
“But, again, is that something for the Champions Cup to do – to become more expansive? If we added more rounds back into URC, perhaps that gives us an opportunity to take games further afield. But, as it stands, the mantra we have is quality over quantity.”
The reality, of course, is that money will be a huge factor in any decision to take a game to the US. It remains to be seen whether the latest suggestion of the URC going Stateside leads to any concrete plans.
What is certain for the season ahead is that the URC final will be hosted by the top-ranked team involved in the decider.
The URC has had ‘destination finals’ in the past, whereby a venue is announced some time in advance, but last season the competition reverted to the team with the highest ranking from the regular season table hosting the final.
The Stormers enjoyed home advantage for their win over the Bulls in the 2022 decider.
“When I first started over seven years ago, we’d just started the destination final,” said Anayi.
“The reality is that there was always an Irish team in our destination final and the destination hasn’t moved that far away from Ireland.
“Now, you have a situation where you could and did have two South African clubs in [the final]… if that had been a destination final in and around Ireland we would have had a real struggle.
“I don’t mean that in a derogatory way to the URC – we’re new and we’re growing – but I look at that and I think that it was less beneficial financially to have it as a home final, but way more beneficial to see… capacity-wise we could have sold out twice over, it was restricted sale.
“What it did for Cape Town, what it did for the Stormers, that far outweighed any revenue you’re going to get.
“So, we’re going to stick with a home final route and make the most of that in the market we’re in.
“I just love the buzz, we went into Cape Town two or three days before the final and everyone was talking about it. Maybe you lose that if you’re a destination final and you don’t have local interest.”
