Fitzgerald: Thomond spectacular will boost profile and profits

MUNSTER chief executive, Garrett Fitzgerald, believes Munster could benefit long-term off the back of Tuesday’s hugely successful Zurich Challenge between the Heineken Cup champions and the All Blacks.

Munster’s heroic display captured the imagination of the country and the event is expected to be deemed a commercial success when the final figures are totted up by the province’s money-men.

Munster Rugby is expected to yield a “six-figure profit”.

But Mr Fitzgerald said the long-term benefits including future sponsorship, TV rights and attracting the world’s top players to the province could be other spin-offs from the game.

“There are obviously many benefits,” said Mr Fitzgerald last night. “Some are financial, and some are long term. The long-term benefits will be evident hopefully in future sponsorship deals, in player recruitment and in the promotion of the whole (Munster) brand itself. The TV coverage it will get worldwide is also something that we can work on.

“When we set out to organise the fixture, one of the things that we all agreed was that, regardless of the nostalgia associated with the game, we wouldn’t hold the fixture unless we could make some money from it. We budgeted for a six-figure profit. There are lots of things we need to wrap up in the next few weeks but I think we’ll have achieved that at least.”

IRB President Bernard Lapasset has already stated his wish for a return to midweek fixtures between clubs/provinces and touring international sides during the summer and autumn international windows. Although Munster and the All Blacks weren’t at full strength, the game proved a resounding hit with fans.

“Firstly we need to be realistic,” said Fitzgerald. “We know how busy the IRB international calendar is relative to what it was in the past. Nowadays we have a full Magners League, Guinness Premiership, Top 14 programmes as well as a Heineken Cup and a full international programme as well. There are only a set number of weeks in the year where something can take place so what happened previously isn’t possible. I still believe there is a window for similar fixtures in the autumn international window. Obviously they may not be part of the IRB tour but I think there’s a window there for it. It would be a huge bonus for the continued promotion of the game both for the rugby side of it and commercial side of it, which is important.”

Meanwhile, RTÉ Two’s live coverage of Munster’s clash with the All Blacks drew massive viewership, scoring a place in the top 10 rated programmes of the year so far. The audience peaked at 1.03 million at 9.16pm, while an average of 794,000 tuned in for the entire match equating to a 47% share of the available TV audience.

“We were delighted to bring this truly historic game to viewers in addition to our coverage of the Autumn International series,” said Glen Killane, RTE Group Head of Sport.

“It was one of those occasions that lived up to and in fact exceeded expectations.”