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Rugby union authorities in England and France are considering a radical change which would see the club season moved to the summer.
Former England rugby union star Paul Ackford writes in the Sunday Telegraph that a consortium of major clubs on both sides of the channel have discussed the move, which would see both the Premiership and Top 14 begin in March and conclude in November.
Clubs are reportedly weary of the constant disruptions to their seasons caused by players going off for international duty. With the Six Nations and regular autumn internationals, top players usually miss several months of club rugby
"It was an idea which received support," a Premiership club chairman told the paper.
"The clubs stated that they never wanted to play important domestic fixtures during a World Cup again because, without their star performers, it was too damaging in terms of results and attendances.
"Some went further than that and included the Six Nations as a concern. Summer rugby was seen as a possible solution to the problem."
Mark McCafferty, chief executive of Premier Rugby - the association that represents England's top flight clubs - confirmed that the move was under consideration, but added that a switch to the summer would bring its own problems.
"It opens up the possibility of the better weather, a different type of rugby and the ability to expand the crowds. But we need everybody to participate in the debate because you’ve got the June internationals and Lions tours which occur in that period," he said.
"These things do take several years in their gestation, but there will come a point when an opportunity presents itself and you’ve got to be ready for that.”
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/111220...ve-summer.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rug...he-summer.html
it would take such a big push to get this through, it would cost $millions to the competitions due to the season disruption it would cause in transition
I'm sure they've done the sums on it - they wouldn't take a financial hit like that without a long term payoff.
I see the bigger issue being trying to move the whole thing around and still fit in with the international calendar. I notice the article doesn't say anything about the Celtic League, so what does that mean for the Heineken Cup? Rugby league did it successfully over there but they didn't have all those outside factors.
The other issue, and I'm not sure how rugby league dealt with it, is that the game will still be a winter sport at the lower levels so how far down do you make the switch?
University's hopes for back to back premierships would be buggered if this came to pass ...
its merely preliminary discussions.. they will build a business a case on the concept from there and that will further detail the financial impact..
The issue been the season transitions... the current season runs from Sep - May... A summer season would presumably run from Feb - Oct..
Player agreements would probably preclude the clubs from rolling from season into the next, so straight up you are going to have to either shorten one season or skip the season altogether. This is where the financial impact will come from, the clubs will be playing less rugby over the 18 month transition period which impacts on tv rights, sponsorship and ticket sales.
Might be simpler to move the Internationals a bit...
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