Murrayfield will not be sold to Edinburgh Council or anyone else, SRU chief executive Mark Dodson proclaimed yesterday in a spirited defence of the union’s performance in the last year.
Dodson accepted criticism of the national team’s performance under interim head coach Scott Johnson but said that they were still selling out Murrayfield and had the union in “its strongest financial position for a generation”.
Dodson was responding to a plan drawn up by management consultant Alasdair Gray, who drew up the Genesis report into Scottish Rugby’s operations a decade ago.
Gray slammed the SRU’s corporate performance and advocated selling Murrayfield to the city council and leasing it back, then using the proceeds to form a third professional team.
“It’s certainly not been on our agenda to sell the national rugby stadium,” said Dodson.
“It’s an interesting concept, let’s say. I’ve no idea if Edinburgh Council would be interested. I’d imagine it would come with a whole host of obstacles around it even if they wanted to buy. But why would we want to sell our national asset in the first place?”
The union had been saddled with a historical debt burden due to the reconstruction of the stadium, but this had been reduced to manageable levels, he added.
“The previous administration did a really good job in bringing the debt mountain down and we’ve continued that process to a manageable level of around £10-11 million,” he added.
“In the meantime we’re selling the stadium out on a regular basis, trying to work the stadium 365 days a year. We’ve doubled commercial income since I’ve been here, we’re in the strongest financial position the union’s been in for a generation.
“There’s no compelling reason to sell Murrayfield even if there was a buyer.”
A third pro team with private investment Martin Gilbert of Aberdeen Asset Management, probably Scotland’s foremost sponsor of sport, had expressed interest in backing an Aberdeen team would have no obstacles placed in its way by the SRU, continued Dodson, but there were plenty of others to overcome.
“It’ll cost £7 milion per year for four years to have a proper business model, so you’re talking £28 million,” said Dodson.
“Secondly you have to have a stadium for them to play in, and the constituent commercial activity around that, and thirdly you need to have a league for them to play in.
“There’s no clamour in the PRO12 for a 13th team. If it were in Aberdeen, do the football club want to be involved with us? Will they build a new stadium?
“I’ve spoken to Martin Gilbert, who showed interest in getting involved if anything did happen in Aberdeen and I’ll speak to him again soon to scope out the possibilities.”
Glasgow and Edinburgh, however, are not for sale, he said.
“We won’t be selling them at least until their business models are secure and they’re breaking even,” he stressed.
“I don’t think it’s wise for the union to relinquish control of the two existing pro teams.
“We need them as a base to provideplayers for the international team and to keep our place at the table involving European competitions.
“We’d like to have a third team ourselves but don’t have the funds to support it. If people opened a third franchise, they would have full control.
“If someone else wants to do it, we won’t get in their way.”