Twickenham

I am not sure if this has much that we have not heard before, but it shows how much work is needed, and how large a team that needs.

I believe that this is all dependent on Richmond council granting a licence for more non-rugby events.

The irony is they need more non rugby events because they are spending too much on rugby!

Really the RFU should sell a share of Twickenham and spin it off into its own company regardless.  As above, the RFU's role is not to be a stadium management company, the IRFU for instance owns a share of the Aviva but does not run it, and that seems much more successful as a model. 

Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity.

The stadium costs a huge amount to administer and will cost half a billion to redevelop.  They already contract out the catering so have to share the profits from corporate hosptality with Compass (or Centreplate or whatever they're called now).

Looking at the RFU figures you'll see that they actually have to spend more on "non-rugby" which is principally the stadium than Rugby in most years, it's only under Sweeny that we've had any years where rugby spending outstripped other costs.  Broadcasting & Sponsorship (pre-Allianz) would be unaffected which are the main drivers of profit margin, ticketing & banqueting drive a lot of revenue but often at poor margins.  Having Twickenham spun off would mean the stadium has to run properly and in its own best interests, with the share of the surplus then transparent and being able to put into the wider game whilst broadcasting & sponsorship produced solely in the pro game stays in the pro game.

Compared to our rivals we vastly under invest in professional rugby, and the complaints from the Championship are that we are underspending on pro rugby in their area too.  Perhaps if we spent more in the pro game we'd make our best players better and then get the results for England that seems to be the main complaint people really have? 

Absolutely.

There have been 700 walkovers this season alone. Apart from the loss of income to club bars, there is an incalculable loss of enthusiasm and participation. Which obviously becomes a vicious cycle.