Newlands remains WP Rugby’s home

Western Province and the Stormers will continue to play their rugby at Newlands, says Western Province Rugby Union President Tobie Titus.

Len Kaplan – Rugby365

This is not merely a sentimental decison by the clubs which constitute the Western Province (WP) Union, based on emotion or tradition, but makes sound financial sense.

There has some been speculation amongst the public that WP may be tempted to move to the new Cape Town Stadium, but less discussion among the actual decision-makers.

“At the moment the clubs are quite happy for the rugby to stay at Newlands,” said Titus.

Titus was supported in this view by the Union’s Chairman of Finance, Zelt Marais, at a media briefing on Monday to release and discuss the Union’s annual financial statements. Marais said it would not make commercial sense for the Union to move to the new stadium.

There would be more seating for the public at the new Cape Town Stadium, but WP and the Stormers would have to pay rent for use of the stadium and there would be a major problem with suites if major rugby matches were to be played there. There are 343 suites at Newlands but only 78 at the Cape Town Stadium and all the Newlands suite-holders have contracts with the Union.

Marais reported that the Union’s finances had come a long way since the R16m loss in 2006. This had been reduced to a loss of just over R8m in 2007, and the profit of R8m in 2008 was largely a result of the part-sale of the Brookside property owned by the Union.

This year the loss for the Group had been “a book loss of R88,000″ but this was after depreciation and the cash profit had been about R3m.

Marais said WP finances had been stabilised, there were “positive cash flows for the first time in four years [of R1.8m]” and the guaranteed income augured well for the future. The figures for 2009 were better than the Union had forecast at the end of the last financial year.

The WP and Emerging Springbok games against the British and Irish Lions had yielded a profit of R10m. The terms imposed on Unions holding a Lions Test match “were not acceptable to us”, said Titus, and when approached to host a Test on these terms, he had told them that “Newlands is not prepared to sell their soul for a one-off thing”.

Marais said the organisers of the Lions tour wanted the “prime seats” plus the use of suites and “we wouldn’t compromise our loyal suite-holders and our public”.

He said WP had made more money from the two Lions games at Newlands than the profit yielded by other Unions which had accepted the terms and hosted a Test match.

“We did better [financially] than the other Unions that staged a Test,” said Titus.

He was proud that “Newlands is still one of the best-supported stadiums, not only in South Africa, but in the world.”

Titus said statistics showed that in terms of both the Super 14 and the Currie Cup, Newlands was the best attended stadium.

If the Stormers host a Super 14 final this year and WP host a Currie Cup final, the projected profit  for the two games would be a total of R20m-R25m. Losing the semi-final of the Currie Cup last October had cost the Union about R10m – the projected profit from hosting the final.

The Union would not consider moving a Super 14 or Currie Cup final to the Cape Town Stadium to accommodate a few thousand more spectators because of contractual obligations to suite-holders and to season-ticket holders. Moving the game away from Newlands could lead to suite-holders suing the Union for breach of contract.

“Short-term greed is a recipe for disaster,” said Marais.

Tags: Newlands, Stormers Rugby, WP Rugby