Committee weighs in behind IRFU

FREE-TO-AIR DEBATE: JOHNNY WATTERSONwatched as an Oireachtas committee backed a motion supporting the IRFU in the free-to-air debate

THE FIRST leg in the Shelbourne Hotel was sound and fury. The away leg yesterday in the Houses of the Oireachtas was a welcome few points bagged.

Summoned to explain themselves to the deputies and senators of the House, the IRFU put away the scatter gun and took up the scalpel. For that they left Kildare Street smiling after many pages of figures and a calibrated, snappy presentation that appealed more than raged.

While Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan’s proposal to make Heineken Cup and Six Nations Championship matches free to air is still alive and well, the union yesterday convinced many of the Oireachtas joint committee on sport that Von Ryan’s Express would be ruinous for the game.

Of course the IRFU produced convincing numbers while the Minister has, so far, forwarded none, which makes the task of IRFU chief executive Philip Browne and his cabinet more a case of winning hearts and minds than empirically proving that about €11 million or €12 million would be lost annually and with it successful rugby in Ireland.

“Is it not that we are talking about killing the golden goose that lays the golden egg,” asked Fianna Fáil’s former Minister for sport John O’Donoghue, adding: “I share the view of the IRFU.”

“If we hamstring them (the IRFU) and bring nothing to the table, it (Irish rugby’s success) could disappear overnight,” said Fine Gael’s Olivia Mitchell before introducing a little more bite. “To jeopardise it doesn’t appear to be well grounded. It seems to me a folly, an arrogance almost to follow a path (Ryan’s) that no one shares.”

While it was noted that the end decision will be political, there was little doubt where the weight of the committee lay as Tom Kitt (Fianna Fáil), the chairman of the joint committee, added his weight too. “As far as I’m concerned the IRFU have made a very compelling case,” said Mr Kitt in summing up. “This Committee is very impressed and we would ask the Minister (Ryan) to note that.”

The IRFU’s case was as it always has been. They are in a complex agreement with bigger European partners that earns them more money than if they were negotiating alone. The partnership between the unions isn’t always cosy. There are occasional fault lines and stresses and they compete fiercely with each other, but it holds because in unity there is strength and cash.

“When the market is corrupted and distorted, I have a problem,” said the Six Nations chief executive John Feehan. “This is corrupting and distorting.”

Oddly a foreign accent in all of this might have driven home the point that it was no parochial spat but a European issue. But the Irish success story in having two Irishmen, the Six Nations’ John Feehan and ERC’s Derek McGrath, as chief executives probably instilled more of a team ethic. There was no disharmony.

“The broadcasting revenues from Six Nations and ERC are split according to contribution on the pitch, not according to the size of the domestic TV market,” explained Browne. “The Irish TV market contributes €5 million a year to the central pot but the IRFU gets €16 million.”

That’s it in a nutshell. The Six Nations and European Cup provide €16 million from television. If the IRFU were told to paddle their own commercial canoe in an Irish market they would get €5 million.

Minister Ryan infers that the IRFU can make up the difference. The IRFU say they cannot. The joint committee – Green Party member Dan Boyle excepted – put on their commercial hats and rowed in with the IRFU, so they wouldn’t paddle alone so to speak.

In 1999 the Irish rugby team had a 32 per cent win-loss figure. Revenue that year was €10 million. In 2003 the win-loss figure was 64 per cent with revenues of €37 million. In 2007 the win-loss was 57 per cent and revenues were up to €54 million, while in the 2009 season the Irish team had a win-loss percentage of 100 and revenues of €57 million.

“The reality is that what drives it (revenue) is success,” said Browne raising the spectre of Irish rugby stars jetting abroad.

There was common concern that in three years the Six Nations event may be gobbled up by a satellite network. Maybe it will. But the cross-party consensus yesterday was that the threat of Sky was little reason to nobble the game now.