London Irish - To stay or not to stay at Reading?

By BrianC and Loobs
April 12 2004

In this penultimate part of the From Sunbury to Reading series of articles we take a look at perhaps the biggest question facing London Irish in the next decade. Do we remain as tennents at the Madejski or look elsewhere?

To stay or not to stay at Reading?

That is the question that must be at the back of the minds of the senior commercial management of the club. The club is three seasons into  the 7-year lease arrangement. For the purposes of this debate we will avoid any mention of the ‘R’ word and assume that this will run it’s full course with ourselves as a ZP team.

Four years may seem a long time ahead, in terms of a matter such as stadium location however it is not. At this time we will basically have three options. Stay where we are, move to another existing venue, develop a new stadium perhaps in conjunction with another club.

The debate about developing a new venue has been around a long time, probably for at least ten years. Each time this has been looked at there has just not been the money to launch such a venture. Given the current cash strapped position of London Irish, indeed club rugby in general, this is unlikely to have changed.

What has happened that we know of? Irish have put a shed load of money into the coffers of whichever (all?) of the Madejski Companies involved with the stadium both directly through rent for games, investment in the Desso pitch system, revenue from the catering and merchandising sales and indirectly through the consumption of copious amounts of Rose, Champagne and Guinness in the Hotel bar/eateries. That is aside from the amount of room lets that the travelling Irish and away support brings to the party. This simply does not happen in the footie arena. It also makes the reported difficulties with Reading FC all the more difficult either to understand or to take. In this day and age, the customer is king and what a customer London Irish is!

The negotiators of the next deal will have a stack of ammo akin to George Dubya when it comes to playing hard ball. There will be a business model to take forward, with the London Irish brand becoming ever more popular because of (or in spite of?) the marketing. The bums on seats approach seems to be working although it would appear that the heavy discounts are a thing of the past given the bold pricing announcements made in the last few weeks. Will we see a return to this aggressive form of marketing if crowd numbers start to fall?

There are still those who hanker for the bygone days of Sunbury and an equal number of those of the Sunbury era who, like some Russians, still haven’t made the transgression. One thing is sure; a return to Sunbury for the Professional arm of the Club is not commercially viable whilst the team is in the Premiership.

The Premiership audience is growing, beyond the improvement capability of the so-called traditional rugby grounds. We may get supporters from the likes of Northampton looking down their noses and mouthing the same old ‘you don’t own the ground, we own ours’ routine and the like, but even with all of the improvements at FG, there is still only a 12,000-ish capacity. This will not be enough next season is my prediction, let alone into the future.

Maybe we don’t own the ground, what does this mean? For a start, there isn’t a huge debt. It could be argued that we are paying a rent per game, but we are starting to hit the quoted average attendance of 9K to make it break even. Despite all the criticisms, the bottle green shirt colour has been an unmitigated success story, with record sales achieved. With the advent of Canterbury and their brand awareness expect next season’s sales to continue at least at the same rate.

It’s not London. Where is London exactly? The boundaries of the congestion charge are pretty close to a concept of London. Is Sunbury London?

What about the punter? Well, I like a comfy seat, not queuing for a crabby old loo, a fantastic view and meeting up with folk from all over the country both Irish and away supporters. I suspect a lot of others do too. Will any catering ever come close to expectations? This is an area to address, sooner rather than later.

Major promotional events like the St. Patrick’s games are a must for growth and all sorts of pressure must be brought to bear on Premier Rugby to ensure that we are at home that weekend.

So, we won’t see Heineken Cup rugby at the Madejski next season, so no chance of an Irish Province coming to fill the stadium. What will become of the sponsors banners when that day arrives as it surely must? What we will see is the new Parker Pen thingy, whatever it will be called next season. We will see some of the minnows of Europe in the pool games, enjoy the company, see how much they have improved and go and Irish up their towns across Europe.

Whichever way it is looked at, the arguments for now staying in the Thames Valley are compelling. After 3 seasons, the brand is now established and growing, the crowds are growing, and the infrastructure is as good as anywhere. Where else can you step off at a mainline station and for two quid get a return bus to the gates of the ground? The nearest I can think of is Kingston Park and the almost adjacent Metro station.

The club is not in a position yet to look at building its own stadium.

There are no better venues around than the Madejski.

We just need to kick some ass on the next deal.