If you won the Euromillions draw.....

I was bored on the bus going home from work tonight but when the bus was going past Murrayfield my mind wandered to the messy finances of the SRU. I then wondered if I won one of the really big rollovers (the £80/90m ones) would I pay of the SRU debt and if, so, what conditions would I put on the board.
On balance, i decided that I probably would pay off the £12/13m as the money problems are not this board's making, it dates from long back when the powers that be were too arrogant to get the additional lottery funding that woud have helped with the final phases of the development. The liftimng of the capital and interest payments woud then free up enouigh cash to get proper academies going with, hopefully, when there were enouigh good players, setting up a third region.
If you were rich/stupid enough, would you pay off your own union's debt and, if so, what conditions would you impose? Let's keep the last bit real as they aren't going to let you pick your pal to play stand-off in the 6N opener etc.

I'd buy my home town rugby league club (Workington Town), develop the ground, entice all of the homegrown players that have been forced to leave home and apply for super-league status. Not that much to ask is it?

IYA, good question, and one that faces every sugardaddy, whether it's Nigel Wray at Sarries, Roman Abramovich at Chelski or Bruce Craug at Bath - I can totally understand that these entrepreneurs (perhaps just the wrong side of crooked in the odd case, but let's not go there) feel the need/desire to have a fair old say in recruitment, tactics and selection, when actually theyd be better served leaving to the professionals that they've appointed in the first place. So when I win the Euromillions, pay off Scotland's debt, rebuild a Borders and/or a Caledonian team(s), with sufficient funding for their first 5 years, I'd appoint someone that knows a damn sight more about rugby than I do, and have them look after my interests in a non-exec capacity, with no rightof veto, but a conviction in what they are saying that willcarry the day - and back in the real world ....

Would I pay off the WRU debt NO WAY they are money grabbing bar stewrads to don't give one iota about us fans.

I would invest in the Dragons though but as an Ebbw boy there would be a few conditions

1 They would be known as Gwent Dragons (drop Newport)

2 They would play a fair amount of their games around Gwent (not just Newport)

3 They can redevlop (again) but must keep the close knit atmosphere that is great about Dave

Interesting couple of answers so far. Does this indicate Scottish fans don't really have a grudge the SRU but the Welsh do? No Irish or English (union) fans on yet....
Bedford, out of interest what is it that WRU have done that upsets you that much?
Cumbrian, is that just blind loyalty that woud make you do that and does it mean that club rugby (of either code) is more important than internationals?

I'm very happy with the way Ulster are being run right now. The finances are in the black and the CEO seems to be particularly adept at attracting sponsors/investors.

So adept that if he caught wind of a season ticket holder winning the Euromillions, he might be on the phone to me

The IRFU is likewise in a fairly strong financial position right now, they've had to make cuts to the wage bill but nowhere near as bad as some others.

IYA,

They have messed our game up for donkeys yrs now the Regions were set up all wrong they have messed about with the Premiership and they messed about with the leagues before Regionalism.

When Carling described the RFU as 57 old farts he could have been talking about the WRU.

When we were used as guinea pigs for the Friday night games Pickering said it would be great for fans etc what he forgot to mention was that they were getting more of the TV money to be used as a trial.

He didn't give a damn whether you or me could get out of Cardiff on a Friday night with 80000 people tryingto do the same. He hoped that it meant more people would stay in the ground and put money into their coffers.

Marketing - BaaBaas game - Rather than reduce tickets and get a fuller stadium there were tickets still on sale at £40 a pop the dya before. Henson as poster boy REALLY.

NO A TEAM

SHall I stop now lol

I'd build a brand new stadium with state of the art training and medical facilities for Leinster. It's a shame that such a great team with such a big fan base has to rent a ground to play matches in.

I'd also invest in the very best coaches to train local players at all age levels. New Zealand franchises don't need foreign mercenary players. I'd like to see a day when Iris provinces doesn't either.

bedfordwelsh wrote:IYA,

They have messed our game up for donkeys yrs now the Regions were set up all wrong they have messed about with the Premiership and they messed about with the leagues before Regionalism.

When Carling described the RFU as 57 old farts he could have been talking about the WRU.

When we were used as guinea pigs for the Friday night games Pickering said it would be great for fans etc what he forgot to mention was that they were getting more of the TV money to be used as a trial.

He didn't give a damn whether you or me could get out of Cardiff on a Friday night with 80000 people tryingto do the same. He hoped that it meant more people would stay in the ground and put money into their coffers.

Marketing - BaaBaas game - Rather than reduce tickets and get a fuller stadium there were tickets still on sale at £40 a pop the dya before. Henson as poster boy REALLY.

NO A TEAM

SHall I stop now lol

Probably best to before you explode/break the keyboard. Apart from those thoughts, though, you have no strong feelings one way or another?

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Interesting couple of answers so far. Does this indicate Scottish fans don't really have a grudge the SRU but the Welsh do? No Irish or English (union) fans on yet....
Bedford, out of interest what is it that WRU have done that upsets you that much?
Cumbrian, is that just blind loyalty that woud make you do that and does it mean that club rugby (of either code) is more important than internationals?

To be honest, I think the RFU and England are fairly well off and the Northern RL miscreant in me would hate to give the old fart brigade more money for their port and cigars.

International RL is a bit of a nonentity to be honest, it is England/GB vs. Australia or Australia in disguise. It really irks me that the rugby league authorities are willing to give leeway to teams in Wales or the south of France, but not one of the traditional hotbeds of the game.

Bit of blind loyalty too, it'd be great to put one over on the jam-eaters (A Cumbrian 'in joke' there).

LOL other than that no they fine lol

Notch wrote:The IRFU is likewise in a fairly strong financial position right now, they've had to make cuts to the wage bill but nowhere near as bad as some others.

. Notch, just a thought, but for how long do you think sports in general and rugby in particular will stay immune from the wider economic problems that Ireland currently faces? I mean when they put a hold on real meaningful infrastrusture development for x years, is sport also not likely to face some pretty severe cuts, or is there a willingness to protect what contributes positively to the national psyche?

That's a really hard question to answer. I think we've seen that the IRFU has had it's fingers burnt over ticket prices; they badly miscalculated what people were willing to pay in a recession. It was a PR disaster, economic woe on the front page and reports of 100 Euro tickets on the back page. They're going to have to take those down. So that's one stream of revenue that has taken a hit. Nevertheless there's still plenty of well to do middle class men between the ages of 30 and 60 who have been untouched by the recession in the likes of North Down or South Dublin willing to pay.

In terms of infrastructure, I actually think we are okay. We don't need new investment right now, but to recoup the money spent in recent years on the AVIVA Stadium and Thomond Park. Ravenhill is getting some significant Government money put in (that's from the UK block grant, being outside the ROI) to bring it up to a higher standard.

I think Irish people will always spend money on sport, whether the government does or not. It's part of the national psyche. And, in truth, I think Irish Rugbys traditional fans (or at least, fans who spend the big money on the team etc.) are from those middle class enclaves where a recession means you keep last years BMW

It depends on how long this goes on. If Ireland ever gets back on its feet, out of debt. The interest rate on those bailouts is pretty nasty. Rugby has ridden it out well so far, but like everything else in Ireland; the future is uncertain. It will take quite a long time for lack of investment in infrastructure to become a problem in the South and we are having some decent government spending on facilities in the North.

If i won that amount of money i would want to get rid of most of it as quickly as possible. I dont think its normal for anyone to have that much money and i would worry about how it would change me (which it inevitbaly would). I always had an idea that if that happened i would finance the redevelopment of Ravenhill (in some part) but as that is ongoing its kind of needless. I would maybe offer to finance a new training facility or some such thing, something lasting as opposed to just bankrolling big name players or something. I would love to be able to do something meaningful in that way for the province but i suspect renewing me season ticket etc is all we can currently do. Alas I suspect i shall never have the dilemma.

I would invest in my home-town team. Nothing like the scale of Rugby Lions, I wouldn't be looking to build a 30,000 seater, not just yet anyway! But I wouldn't be looking at spending millions and millions on rugby. The jackpot is something silly like £160 million at the moment and I would do the boring stuff like invest it wisely and borrow against the equity, build up an investment portfolio etc. Basically I wouldn't splurge it.

Beleive me I have thought about this long and hard.

I would pay of the SRU's debt with more than a few conditions.

Firstly I would gather a select few of Scottish Supporters, most of the Scottish Regs here would be welcome, I'm not naming names in fear of leaving someone out.

I would clear the SRU's debts and keep 50-60 Million for a number of things. (this is under the impression the Jackpot is £160M)

ONE
An SRU youth training academy where the best young players will be brought to be trained by the best people the SRU has to offer. I would set this up somwhere like Stirling, or somewhere else in central Scotland. This Academy will work closely with the 3 pro teams and players will be assigned Pro Mentor's who they will keep in regular contact with.

TWO
3 New 15,000 Seater Stadiums designed for expansion if required. One at the back of Murrayfield, one in a central Area of Glasgow, and one in Aberdeen. All with state of the art gyms/offices/facilities. Gyms will be open to the public as well as the players, a good way to allow fans closer to the players and build up a chemisty between them, also a good source of revenue (gym membership discount for season ticket holders)

Each stadium with a Proper Pub/Club house where Fans after the games can congregate. These Pubs/Clubhouses will be open 24/7 as sports bars so fans can come for a Pint and watch rugby and any other sport they fancy on days that are not match days.

THREE
Third Pro team set up, as I said earlier an Aberdeen / Highland team would probabably work best. They will play 75% of their home games at the new Stadium and 25% in Inverness at the Cally Stadium.

FOUR
To populate the third pro team Exiled players should be enticed back to try play in Scotland and contribute to the health of the Game here in Scotland

FIVE
A massive marketing campeign to raise the profile of all the Pro Teams. Targeting Students and young people dissatisfied with Scottish Football.

SIX
Non pro clubs to act as better Feeders for the Pro Teams. Employ Scouts to watch club games and junior games and ensure all talented youngsters get a chance to attend the training academy. More development officers going to Schools to raise interest in the game. Raise the appeal by demonstrating the honour, skill courage and power needed to play the game of rugby.



All this would require a massive investment, however if the Standard of Scottish rugby improves hopefully there will be returns made. If it fails at least I could say I had a go!

I'd buy a World Class scrummaging and backs coach for Munster. We get those two its all good. Maybe try to use the cash to subsidise ticket prices.

red_stag wrote:I'd buy a World Class scrummaging and backs coach for Munster. We get those two its all good. Maybe try to use the cash to subsidise ticket prices.

How nice it must be to have such few problems

Its true to be fair Radge, though Connacht have plenty of problems. THe IRFU have done a super job though I think in terms of promoting the provinces, national team and rugby as a sport in Ireland.

Personally - go to world cup for full duration of Ireland in the tournament - first class with Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airlines all the way, stopping off in HK for preparation; 10-year ticket for Aviva

Agree with earlier poster, build a new stadium for Leinster that would be called the Brennomac Oval (joke!), ccovered all the way around - I've got soaked too many times in the north and south stands. Pay Schmidt, Gibbs, Feek etc enough to make sure that they aren't poached by any fat cat French club; invest in a genetic mutation programme that will make sure that in 20 years time that we produce scrum-halves who can pass, kick, tackle, break - not just do one or two of these; invest in a cloning programme for BOD, Sexton, SOB and Heaslip

I'd approach the WRU about making a North Wales (Wrexham) region and creating 3 Semi professional provinces in Gwynedd (Bangor), Clwyd (Colwyn Bay) and Powys (Newtown) to play in the Welsh Premiership.

Then I'd see about putting all the clubs in those provinces into 3 leagues. Basically scrapping SWALEC 1,2,3, North and putting the clubs into leagues based on their towns location.
Something like this:

Powys Panthers: - Province to play in the Welsh Premiership, based in NewTown.
Or each club in the region could rotate in hosting home games for the Province.

Powys Province League:
1 Brecon
2 Bulith Wells
3 Llandrindod Wells
4 Llanidloes
5 Newtown
6 Welshpool
7 Machynlleth
8 Caereinion
9 Rhayader
10 Aberystwyth - (not actually in Powys but near it)
11 Oswestry - (town on English / Welsh border, but they run 4 teams so could put a team in)
12 Gwernyfed
13 Ystradgynlais - (in Powys but on Dyfed border)



Clwyd Cobras: - Province to play in the Welsh Premiership, based in Colwyn Bay (RGC1404 stadium).
Or each club in the region could rotate in hosting home games for the Province.

Clwyd Province League:
1 Mold
2 Wrexham
3 Colwyn Bay
4 Ruthin -
5 Llandudno
6 Rhyl
7 Nant Conwy
8 Abergele
9 Denbigh
10 Flint
11 Llangollen
12 Rhosllannerchrugog
13 Shotton Steel




Gwynedd Giants: - Province to play in the Welsh Premiership, based in Bangor.
Or each club in the region could rotate in hosting home games for the Province.

Gwynedd Province League:
1 Pwlheli
2 Llangefni
3 Dolgellau
4 Holyhead
5 Bala
6 Bangor
7 Bro Ffestiniog
8 Caernarfon
9 Bethesda
10 Llangoed
11 Benllech
12 Harlech
13 Menai Bridge

1) Each club assigned a development officer, with every Primary and Secondary school being divided up amongst the clubs in a League. the development officer would contact the school and encourage the school to ask it's pupils to go to one of the clubs Province to learn rugby.

I'd stop working now and start travelling. Stop over for the WC and get to 100 countries before and after, waiting for the cruises to Antarctica to start in the southern summer.

Would invest in making the Cake Tin bigger and building a 12000 seat arena on Queens Wharf as well.

Make sure you pay off Suzie and Wayne Barnes

I like that route brennomac - I would go for, full WC and Lions tours (1st class). 10 yr ticket at HQ, and a lifetime box at Quins (+fully stocked bar and food for every match). Maybe a few of the IRB sevens tournaments.

With the premiership teams all operating to a salary cap there isnt much point being a sugar daddy for quins - maybe sponsor the odd marquee signing.

Would certainly bankrole my own local club - sponsorship and playing tour for the boys. If I offered them free drinks I dont think 156Million would last long!

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:
SIX
Non pro clubs to act as better Feeders for the Pro Teams. Employ Scouts to watch club games and junior games and ensure all talented youngsters get a chance to attend the training academy. More development officers going to Schools to raise interest in the game. Raise the appeal by demonstrating the honour, skill courage and power needed to play the game of rugby.

Radge, loving your enthusiasm, buddy

Under the old district set up, we'd have had:
North & Midlands: Prem 1 - Aberdeen GSFP, Dundee HSFP, Stirling County; Prem 2 - Falkirk; Prem 3 - Morgan Accies, Howe of Fife, Perthshire
Glasgow: Prem 1 - Ayr, Hawks; Prem 2 - Hillhead/Jordanhill, Biggar, Hamilton, West, Whitecraigs; Prem 3 - Ardrossan, GHA, Greenock, Cartha QP, Dalziel,
Edinburgh: Prem 1 - Edin Accies, Currie, Heriots, Boroughmuir; Prem 2 - Watsonians, Stew Mel; Prem 3 - Haddington, Kirkaldy, Lasswade
South: Prem 1 - Melrose, Gala, Hawick; Prem 2 - Kelso, Selkirk, Jedforest, Peebles; Prem 3 - Dumfries

I'd invest in the Dragons, definitely. The only investment I'd do in the WRU is buy a debenture at the Millennium Stadium. I might offer them money to turn off the big screen during matches - if you want to wave at yourself, stay at home in front of the mirror and let a genuine rugby fan have your ticket! - but I doubt they'd take it.

I'd be an utterly dreadful owner - there's absolutely no chance I'd be able to resist the urge to meddle in team matters, regardless of who I'd appointed as my head coach!

My pipe dream would be to bring professional rugby to the north of Scotland, probably Aberdeen but with an arrangement to play the odd games in Inverness and Perth. I'd start by repatriating as many exiles as possible, and then focus on poaching players either eligible now, or who may become eligible, to play for Scotland. My side would have a Fortress Scotland style policy to it, except without Matt Williams being involved.

Oh, and I'd sign Dougie Hall as well, and not play him.....

Develop a 20,000 seated stadium in Taipa, Doubtless bay, Northland so that the Northland and Blues would play a decent amount of games at the top of the country. Eastern United would have a decent ground then

I would also inject cash into a stadium in North Wales, my home city of Bangor I guess.

With the change I could buy the South island

funnyExiledScot wrote:Oh, and I'd sign Dougie Hall as well, and not play him.....

You could allow him to carry the water onto the pitch surely!?

Nope, just hold tackle bags and stand directly behind the scrummaging machine

Ha nice one Stag. Certainly wouldn't be paying for their flights to NZ

Would pay for a refresher course on safe food preparation for any restaurant feeding the ABs during the comp haha!

Could probably almost pay off NZ's Balance Of Payments deficit too-it would be Euro remember

Oh yeah and my student loan in case IRD is reading this...I will I promise! Actually not now I'll wait for the NZ peso to collapse again.

disneychilly wrote:
Could probably almost pay off NZ's Balance Of Payments deficit too-it would be Euro remember

Disney, have you seen the exchange rate lately? You don't even get 2 dollars for a pound any more, and one Yoyo only buys $NZ1.70-odd

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:Oh, and I'd sign Dougie Hall as well, and not play him.....

You could allow him to carry the water onto the pitch surely!?

He wouldn't be an ideal water carrier though. Lacks the pace to get the water on quickly, lacks the strength to carry very much and I wouldn't back him to chuck the bottles to players with any sort of accuracy - he'd probably end up injuring someone.

ASBO's idea is a better one. Put him in a supervisory capacity with nothing to supervise.

It may be a bit sad but of £120m I would split it:
12m into wasps training ground so that we can actually attract players based on our facitities.
20m into backroom staff, equipment and youth development.
35m given to the board but with stipulations based on performance and future success in europe re: pay me back if unachieved.
2m into arranging a rugby league vs rugby union match
2m into a heineken cup vs super 15 winners match
1m into my local club.

72m gone the rest would be spent on me in the form of cars, houses and shares

Oh and I would fund the development of a decent rugby video game that actually worked!

Notch wrote:I'm very happy with the way Ulster are being run right now. The finances are in the black and the CEO seems to be particularly adept at attracting sponsors/investors.

So adept that if he caught wind of a season ticket holder winning the Euromillions, he might be on the phone to me

Notch you dont need an investor to win the lotto, you just need rory to win another major

If he wins next week you can see a new marquee signing coming your way

Yeah Kiwireddevil I have. Will suck trying to pay it off here if countries have to be bailed out here all the time.

Just a crackup the Aussie dollar's worth more than the Yank.

Hookers, lots and lots of hookers.

Carpe Diem wrote:Hookers, lots and lots of hookers.

No props, locks, wings or half backs?

Juuust the hookers!

I would go halfs with Bedfordwelsh and buy the Gwent Dragons and then I use the rest to get him some anger management classes.

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Interesting couple of answers so far. Does this indicate Scottish fans don't really have a grudge the SRU but the Welsh do? No Irish or English (union) fans on yet....
Bedford, out of interest what is it that WRU have done that upsets you that much?
Cumbrian, is that just blind loyalty that woud make you do that and does it mean that club rugby (of either code) is more important than internationals?

The hatred within the WRU is a result of a lifetime of failure in running the game. It takes their far to long to adapt to modern times and always want to cling onto the old boys club. They have also priced out ordinary Welsh people from the game, out of greed. Ticket prices are a disgrace in the modern era for Wales. Tickets for the upcoming Wales V England friendly are up to £53 which is crazy, and it's turning many people off the game. The WRU could get away with these prices because we used to welcome the Tri Nations teams to Cardiff so rarely, but now they all come every November and South Africa can come in August to so their over exposed and it's not such a big deal to have them visit anymore.
There is often a lot of passion in Welsh rugby but at the moment people are annoyed by players behaviour and the fact that the WRU is intent of screwing everything they can out of the Welsh public. We are even at the point now where Welsh players are sitting in Tesco super markets in Wales trying to sell tickets for these games! Which probably says it all!

In fact if I won 120 million quid I would inject half of it in PI rugby hoping to match it with other investors.

I imagine things would change in certain rugby circles and wewould see a genuine reflectoin of how PI & NZ rugby would be like.

i would set up the north wales region PROPERLY then give a load to charity, give some to friends, buy a house, buy a car (even though i cant drive YET) and yeh that kind of stuff =D

offload wrote:I would go halfs with Bedfordwelsh and buy the Gwent Dragons and then I use the rest to get him some anger management classes.

Cheers Offload lol

I think that Schools rugby is what Wales is really missing. So if i won the lotto i guess i'd set up private schools in much the same way that the American college system works.

Gwent: Pontypool (Pontypool)
Cardiff (Any Where)
Vallies: (Just north of Ponty somewhere)
Bridgend Area (Just south of Bridgend)
Swansea/Neath (Pontardawe area)
Carmarthen/Llanelli (In Carmarthen)
Pembroke (H.West)
West/Mid (Buith Wells)
North West (Blaenau Ffest)
North East (Mold or Denbigh)

The Schools would run as highschools/colleges, so the pupils would be there from years 7-12(6th form). The idea would be to have them set up as live in schools where the pupils are there four days a week. With classes from 10-5, then rugby 5:30-8. They'd be on specialist diets formulated by dietitions and monitored gym programs. Home friday saturday sunday. Games on Wednesday (no classes) in a league against the other schools in the system. Pipe dream i guess, but in 15 years i think that Welsh rugby would see a huge benifit from highly competivie highschool rugby.

Three kids per position in each year, so six years of forty five players. Harsh reality of if you dont cut the mustard then its off to Llanrumney high for you lad.

Coleman wrote:I think that Schools rugby is what Wales is really missing. So if i won the lotto i guess i'd set up private schools in much the same way that the American college system works.

Gwent: Pontypool (Pontypool)
Cardiff (Any Where)
Vallies: (Just north of Ponty somewhere)
Bridgend Area (Just south of Bridgend)
Swansea/Neath (Pontardawe area)
Carmarthen/Llanelli (In Carmarthen)
Pembroke (H.West)
West/Mid (Buith Wells)
North West (Blaenau Ffest)
North East (Mold or Denbigh)

The Schools would run as highschools/colleges, so the pupils would be there from years 7-12(6th form). The idea would be to have them set up as live in schools where the pupils are there four days a week. With classes from 10-4, then rugby 5-8. They'd be on specialist diets formulated by dietitions and monitored gym programs. Home friday saturday sunday. Games on Wednesday in a league against the other schools in the system. Pipe dream i guess, but in 15 years i think that Welsh rugby would see a huge benifit from highly competivie highschool rugby.

Three kids per position in each year, so six years of forty five players. Harsh reality of if you dont cut the mustard then its off the Llanrumney high for you.

Or you would have a highly skilled private army... What's really going on here? What are you up to?

Trying to win Wales a RWC :P Or invade Ireland...