Encouraging signs for The Champ

It's never a good sign when Google thinks you're searching for something else; so to be confronted with the accusation "Did you mean: the championship rugby?" when searching for news on The Champ rugby, was a tad disappointing. They may as well have followed on with you idiot ....

That said there has been some encouraging news regarding the future of English rugby's undervalued, unloved and underfunded second tier over the last week or so. These seem to have gone a little under-the-radar in the mainstream media so I thought them worth reporting on:

RFU invest in the growth of the English second tier

Perhaps chief amongst the heartening news has been the upcoming investment in the management of the new league by the RFU. England Rugby has advertised four key full-time roles committed to growing The Champ over fixed three year contracts. Neither is the proposed investment insignificant, with over £200k pa spread over the four jobs.

The pick of the roles is the Head of Champ Rugby attracting an £80k annual salary plus performance-related bonuses (and we all know how lucrative they can be at HQ). The background to the creation of the job is recorded as follows:

"The role holder will be joining a newly formed group of passionate individuals who want to play an instrumental role in the growth of English rugby’s second tier, and to see the league and its clubs thrive in the years ahead. The Champ Rugby team will be led by the Head of Champ Rugby, who reports directly into Tier 2’s Board Chair, and the team will also include a Marketing & Communications Manager, a Community Engagement Manager, and a Content Editor."

Top key responsibilities are to:

• "Provide overall leadership for the delivery of the Champ Rugby Growth Plan, with a focus on marketing, commercial value, and long-term sustainability.

• Lead and manage the Champ Rugby central team (Marketing, Community, Content roles).

• Maintain strong relationships with all Champ Rugby clubs, supporting their alignment to standards and their ability to grow commercial and community impact."

The Head of Champ Rugby will report directly to the Champ Rugby Independent Chair Simon Gillham who, as you know, has a wealth of experience in the administration of French domestic rugby, including the negotiation of a combined TV deal for the Top14 and Pro D2 on Canal Plus.

Possible TV deal for The Champ

This brings us on nicely to the second piece of good news for the English second Tier. Although not yet confirmed, it is reported that Premier Sports has shown new interest in televising The Champ - in particular the end of season play-off games but also some regular season matches. Premier Sports already has a strong rugby portfolio, broadcasting the European Champions and Challenge Cups, the URC and Top 14 as well as Japanese and US domestic leagues. Business newspaper City AM journalist, Matt Hughes reported the following this week:

"Premier Sports are planning to increase their rugby union coverage next season with bids expected for live rights for matches in both the English and French second divisions.

A rebranded second tier called Champ Rugby, a league featuring 14 clubs culminating in top six play-offs to determine the champions who will then play the bottom side in the Gallagher Premiership for the right to replace them, will launch this summer.

Premier are understood to be interested in showing some regular season games and the play-offs, as well as France’s Rugby ProD2, as they seek to become the UK’s biggest rugby broadcaster."

Should this come to pass, it would be an excellent starting point towards attempting to emulate the success of Pro-D2. Simon Gillham acknowledged when speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast a few weeks ago that it had taken 10 years of hard work and negotiation for French domestic rugby to become the envy of the rugby world; let's hope that the new momentum built by the rebranding of the English Championship can pay similar dividends, not only to The Champ but also to The Premiership and the England national team.

The Worcester Effect

Many newspapers and rugby commentators have spoken of the importance of the return of Worcester Warriors to the second division of elite-level rugby. Up until now, WWST has somewhat shied away from over-egging the potential benefit to The Champ's other clubs. Largely this has been out of respect for those clubs but also for the people who believe our return is unfair. However it is now abundantly clear that Worcester Warriors ability to attract spectators, whether at home or away, can only be a good thing for the new league.

Season Ticket sales have often been a closely guarded secret at Sixways, largely because they have rarely hit the ambitious targets that the club's owners have aspired to. Sales this year however have far exceeded the expectations of even the most loyal supporters and are well on target to surpass the club record. More season tickets were sold on the first day of sales than ever before and total sales already far exceed 3000; remember the season doesn't start for 4 months!

In The Championship 2023/24 only Coventry and Bedford managed to bring in average attendances of over 3000 across the season (3450 & 3048 respectively). None of the other nine clubs had an average crowd of more than 2000. Only twice in that year did a Championship game attract a crowd of more than 5000 spectators.

The numbers would suggest that Sixways should attract an average crowd of well over 5000 in 2025/26 and it would be a surprise if the other Champ grounds were not sold out for our visits. It would also be a surprise if Sixways didn't have more than a few sell-out games, particularly if we manage to make the promotion play-offs.

A barometer of pre-sales will be whether or not the club can legitimise opening the South Stand. It's an expensive stand to open if there are rows of empty seats elsewhere and, as supporters of both the club and the owners' insistence on remaining sustainable, we should defer to their judgement on such matters.

CLICK THE PIC TO BUY YOUR TICKETS

Welcomes all round

Since my last blog-post, which greeted the arrival of Matt Everard and Matt Kvesic, we have had a plethora of announcements. We have set up a new web-page so you can follow the squad development with us but it has been such an exciting time I can't help but list them all again here:

Bienvenido a Worcester:

Juan Gonzale

Dynnargh dhe Worster:

Will Trewin

Welcome To Worcester:

Tim Anstee, Tim Hoyt, Billy Keast, Archie Vanes, Josh Bassett, Tiff Eden, Tom Cruse, Will Cusack, Fraser Balmain

Bula mai Worcista:

Livai Natave

Croeso y Caerwrangon:

Lloyd Williams, Will Reed

Communication

On a final note, I have been known for banging on about the importance of communication. I'd like to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank the club for a great effort in keeping us all informed about the happenings at Sixways. The Social Media links are working really well and hopefully attracting more younger supporters to come and watch our team play come October.

The weekly newsletters, the fans' forum and the new look website have all been most welcome. It's very early days in the life of Worcester Warriors Mark 2 but the signs are encouraging for the club and The Champ season ahead.