There are cheaper ways to give sport a boost, Minister

“Life is about timing,” said the American track and field star Carl Lewis — and he ought to know.

Nowhere is that more true than in the world of sport, so it was interesting to tune into Morning Ireland last Monday and hear Leo Varadkar tell the nation about the Cabinet meeting the following day when the bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup was subsequently rubber-stamped by the government.

The prospect of such an attempt had long since been flagged. Politicians and the IRFU had spoken openly about it and the GAA passed a resolution as long ago as last March when the association agreed in principal to the idea of the All Blacks, the Wallabies et al tearing it up in a number of their grounds across the country.

The decision to confirm the government’s intention to officially ‘back the bid’ early this week just happened to coincide with the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) first annual conference and exhibition which was held down the road from the RTÉ studios, in Ballsbridge, and where the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport headed as soon as his duties on air were done

His presence at the IRB’s gig ensured the bid received extensive media coverage across all platforms, both here and abroad, particularly in the UK where the possibility of a World Cup staged across the Irish Sea generated considerable coverage. No doubt the world’s global governing body will have taken note of the buzz that created and approved.

Hats off to the timing then, but the bid itself? Well...

New Zealand hosting the tournament two years ago has broadened the landscape for prospective bidders in the sense that it’s population of 4.4 million people and geographic isolation from the major rugby markets of England and France stood formidably against it but their party may, conversely, spoil Ireland’s hopes of holding their own.

The 2011 tournament made an operating profit of £90m (€108m) for the IRB, who generate 95% of their income from that one source, while a report commissioned late last year estimated that it injected NZ$1.4bn (€914m) into the local economy, attracted 133,000 people from 100 countries and drew a total TV audience of 3.9bn spread over 207 territories. Big figures, no doubt, and yet they represented a major hit for the IRB.

France posted a profit of over £122m (€146m) four years earlier and the conservative estimate for England in 2015 is that the event will easily clear £150m (€180m) for the global body. With another punt already taken on bringing the event to Japan and Asia for the first time in 2019, those responsible for these decisions may opt for a safe pair of hands for 2023.

That would be France, or maybe even South Africa.

The Minister would no doubt dismiss that. He made a remark last Monday about how “there will always be a few sceptics”, as if those who dare to say anything less than supportive about this whole process are just being negative for negativity’s sake, but the decision to make a formal offer some time in 2016 shouldn’t be made blind.

Rugby New Zealand 2011, the company set up to run the last tournament, made a loss of NZ$31.3m (€19m). The cost to the Kiwi taxpayers and the New Zealand Rugby Union was NZ$39m (€23.7m) and that didn’t include another NZ$26m (€15.8m) pumped in for the running of various add-on events and work on facilities. Oh, yes, and we should probably add that another $350m (€213m) was thrown in to upgrade stadiums.

All in all, it amounted to a cool NZ$400m-plus (€243m).

We are being told the costs involved in doing up grounds here would only be somewhere in the “double figures in terms of millions” but add to that the fact UK taxpayers had to stump up £25m (€30m) to guarantee the £80m (€96m) tournament fee for 2015 and the numbers really start to add up.

Minister Varadkar also mentioned on numerous occasions this week how hosting the event would boost participation numbers in sport — just over a month after his government slashed the current spend on the sector by 8% in a move which will adversely affect those same participation rates for years to come.

So, by all means, let’s do our best to bring the global rugby fraternity to these shores in a decade’s time. But if this government is really concerned about participation rates — and sport in general — it needs to re-think the squeeze on organisations whose jobs it is to do that in the here and now and who are desperate for every penny they can get.

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