IRFU cut Player & Management Costs by €27m from 2021

The IRFU published its 2022/23 Annual Report last Friday. With a new Chief Financial Officer in place - Thelma O'Sullivan - and a new Hon Treasurer, Patrick Kennedy, and a new CEO, Kevin Potts, some of the ancien guard have now departed from Irish rugby HQ in the last couple of years. The IRFU also used the occasion to announce the appointment of four new members of the IRFU Committee - all women - as part of their plan to achieve 40% gender balance by end of year - a further 3 women will be co-opted at their December meeting.

On the financial results front, the union reported a loss of just under a million euro, a substantial improvement on their forecasted €7m loss for the year. Grand Slam prize money, and improvements in match revenues helped improve the picture, along with better performance from the provinces to pay all of their player re-charges back to IRFU in contrast to only 50% of them last season.

Player and Management Costs rose to over €65m during the height of the pandemic which stopped provincial stadium gates revenue, and meant IRFU having to foot most of the salary bill using govt grants, reserves, and CVC URC investment monies.

Last year, this P&M cost for both the national team and provincial contributions had returned to normal levels at €38.6m - broadly in line with 2017-2018 costs. Whilst the IRFU don't provide a specific figure for the national team, an educated guess would allow for all of the coaching team and support staff, player and management performance bonuses, and possibly the cost of the 13 central contract players that are not included in the provinces' budgets each year. That might add up to €7m in total, meaning the provinces contribution was about €31m. The branches were re-charged for the balance of approx €12-13m for their contribution to the salary bills.

IRFU uses Competition Income from the URC/EPCR to pay some of the player/management costs and this totalled €10.1m last year which they pass on to the provinces as part of the contribution figure. So the net cost to IRFU is around €21/22m that they have to pay from other income sources - mainly test match income.

Munster had problems with paying some of their operational costs, and the new IRFU CFO negotiated a deal with the Branch that converted the €4.2m debt into a long-term loan adding to their existing Thomond Park loan. As part of the new agreement to service the now €10m+ loan, Munster will pay back €200k per annum on a low interest rate of 1%, along with 50% of any future debenture season tickets sales, events, and possible Thomond Park naming rights.

CEO, Kevin Potts, in his remarks to media said that the costs of RWC preparation had come to €15m last year, offset by a RWC grant of €5m. He said that IRFU expected to run another, greater loss next year, but were planning to return to a more positive outcome in the following years. This forecast was predicated on the new broadcasting deal for 6 Nations increasing revenues, and hopefully a better TV/Broadcast/Social Media deal for the URC/EPCR comps as they come up for re-negotiation in the next 12-24 months. The union has already received a tranche of CVC investment income for its stake in the Six Nations, and the union's reserves are healthy enough with €90m plus in the bank.