-Credit:Gareth Everett/Huw Evans Agency
The chief executive of the United Rugby Championship has called making the Welsh clubs competitive the “missing ingredient” for the league.
Martin Anayi also played down the chances of a merger between the URC and Gallagher Premiership.
Welsh clubs have struggled in recent years, amid a lack of resources and other off-field issues. A general apathy amongst a large number of supporters for the league – which has gone through several different guises over the years – hasn’t helped either.
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Last year, the Ospreys reached the URC play-offs by finishing in the top eight. However, on the whole success in recent years has been sparse – with the Scarlets the last Welsh team to win the league in 2017.
Despite that, Anayi is hopeful of strengthening the perception of the league in Wales, starting with raising attendances – something he describes as “the heart and soul of any league or any sport”.
“What we want to see, especially in Wales, is attendances going up in double digits percentage-wise each year over the next two or three years,” Anayi told the URC website.
“If we get that, then we will be in a good spot and not just relying on a big game to bump the numbers, but rather week-in, week-out attendance. That’s probably the one thing over the next two years. If that goes up, I think we are doing a good job.
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“For example, Cardiff played Connacht at the Arms Park last season and it was a sell out. So it’s possible for non-derby games, it’s doable. We just need it more often across the competition.”
On improving the situation in Wales in general, Anayi added: “There is a new CEO and chair at the WRU, there is a new impetus and they have got a new funding model coming in.
“We support that massively. That will mean the Welsh clubs being competitive in the URC which is probably the missing ingredient we need for this league to really kick on.”
Part of the apathy around the URC in Wales tends to revolve around a desire for an Anglo-Welsh competition. There have been high-level negotiations, but – with a new TV deal for the league set to be announced soon – Anayi played down any merger between the two competitions.
“It’s not a frustration,” he said. “People may not know this, but we sit in the same office as Premiership Rugby in London. We have the same co-owner and minority investor in CVC.
“We do a lot together. We are shareholder partners on EPCR. We are incredibly close to them. That’s probably where it comes from most of the time.
“We are always talking. Most of the time that means looking at how do you do better TV deals together or how do we improve the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup.
“We want to make sure we are running the best competitions we possibly can. Occasionally, we talk about whether there is more we can do together.
“At this stage, not, but whenever it comes up for review we never just block it off. We always give it due credence.
“But, at the same time, things are working really well for BKT URC from a lot of metrics and in a lot of ways. BKT URC has set a really high standard and we don’t want to do anything that’s detrimental to that.
“We sit in the same office as PRL, we see each other every day, we talk to each other about loads of stuff and occasionally we try and explore slightly more format based initiatives, but we both individually love what makes us special.
“It would make sense to do more together in the future, but that may not necessarily mean merging the leagues, it might just mean being more commercially aligned or working on initiatives that grow the fan base.”