International Rugby Experience unable to turn a profit, sources say

The rugby experience has attracted roughly 60,000 visitors to its city centre location since it opened. However, it is understood that initial expectations for the concept were that in excess of 100,000 people would visit the centre each year. Picture: Paul Lehane

Limerick City Council failed to agree a deal to take over the International Rugby Experience in the city after coming to the conclusion that the attraction could not turn a profit.

The experience, which has been operational for just under 18 months, delivered an announcement on Thursday that it will close in December with the loss of roughly 50 jobs.

Both the company behind the attraction, which is owned by billionaire JP McManus, and the council have remained tight-lipped as to the reasons for the closure.

However, the Irish Examiner has now learned that the council had obtained a report which suggested that the financial footing of the experience was unsound while considerable VAT and stamp duty liabilities would become due should the council move to repurpose the building in the future.

The rugby experience has attracted roughly 60,000 visitors to its city centre location since it opened. However, it is understood that initial expectations for the concept were that in excess of 100,000 people would visit the centre each year.

Neither the council nor the International Rugby Experience would offer further comment regarding the pending closure.

A council source confirmed that the building is not owned by the council, nor will that be the case following the closure of the attraction on December 23.

The source said that the consultant’s report which had led to the breakdown in the relationship between the two entities “will see the light of day”, but it cannot be made public at present as it was delivered to the council privately.

“It’s very complicated, it isn’t a financial success,” a separate council source said. 

Local government is stretched financially as it is, and it’s a loss-making venture. It needs to be reconfigured beyond just rugby.

Local Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea said there is “huge disappointment” in the city at the impending closure, with some councillors of the view that the decision was “an executive decision” that the council does not fully agree with.

Mr O’Dea said that “every effort” would be made to save the experience.

“Rugby is hugely important to Limerick. Bill Shankly said football is more important than life and death, well you could say the same thing for rugby here,” he said.

“We’ll make every effort to save it, whether we can or not is another thing,” he added.

Sinn Fein representative for the city Maurice Quinlivan said he was “not shocked” that the experience was to close its doors so soon after first going live.

“The council weren’t doing any briefings or looking for support so the signs were there,” he said.

“They were concerned about the running of it, and about repurposing it,” he said, adding that the experience was somewhat lacking in that it focused purely on “a sporting experience as opposed to a cultural one”. 

“People liked it but they couldn’t get the numbers.”

“What’s been lost here even more is the potential for the project. It’s a fantastic building and looks really well, the opportunity was there to link with Thomond Park 15 minutes away. I just don’t want it to end up derelict.

International Rugby Experience was first launched in May 2023 to great fanfare with a myriad of rugby stars in attendance.

The space was first built with the help of a €30m gift from Mr McManus.

That deal would have seen the six-storey red brick building gifted to the council, together with a further gift donation of €1.2m, with the authority then free to repurpose the building as it saw fit from 2028.

Council sources, however, complained that the experience’s pricing - €17.50 for adults and €12.50 for children under 18 – is “very much dear for kids kicking a few rugby balls about”.

“JP was offering the building, but the council could never dispose of it with the huge financial risks hanging over it,” one said.

Mayor John Moran said that he was not surprised by the news, although he was “particularly sad” as he is a “big supporter of people who want to try out new things and have ambition for Limerick”.

On Friday evening, Mr Moran was questioned on RTÉ’s Drivetime on whether or not Limerick City and County Council could find a way to make the gift of the IRE’s building work.

“If you could gift to the State a very nice hospital in the morning, but you don’t have the money to actually have nurses and doctors working in that hospital, the gift of the hospital isn’t any use you,” Mr Moran said.

He went on to say: “What has happened here was an act of supreme generosity by the McManus Foundation – which of course has done great things for Limerick, not just this year but in many other years – on a concept that unfortunately we all acknowledge is loss making.” A ‘special council meeting’ has been requested by several councillors and is due to take place on Tuesday to discuss the future of the IRE.