Success, not survival
Gerry Kelly has been through thick and thin with Connacht Rugby, first as a supporter and now as its chief executive and he is as excited about Eric Elwood’s side making its bow on the highest stage in the European club game as anybody, particularly as the province was not so long ago on the verge of being wound up by the IRFU as a professional team.
It would be easy, then, to view Connacht’s elevation to the Heineken Cup and draw in a group alongside Harlequins, the English league leaders, Gloucester and four-time champions Toulouse as the pinnacle of their achievements.
Kelly disagrees and has already reset the clock to zero.
“I think any of us that would look at this as a reward or a final coming would be very short-sighted. Absolutely,” he said. “This should be the catalyst for something more.
“All clubs in Europe aspire to be in the Heineken Cup every year and you only have to look at the clubs who are not in it this year, such as Stade (Francais) and Toulon and Wasps, and you can look at the envy that’s there. So the challenge is to try and get back there every year and challenge our other Irish provinces for one of the top three automatic places or if not hope that one of the others win and we get in.
“Of course you want to be there every year but we’ve more experience that anyone of the Amlin Challenge Cup and we know the quality of the sides in that as well, but it doesn’t seem to have caught the public’s imagination as much as the Heineken Cup. The Heineken Cup is the place to be, like the Champions League in football.”
Fans and corporate backers would certainly seem to agree with season ticket sales having soared from 375 last year to more than 2,500 since Leinster’s final win last May ushered Connacht into this season’s competition. Furthermore, Kelly has inked a new shirt sponsorship deal with Mazda reported to be worth €1.5 million over three years.
All a far cry from the state of play the Connacht branch found itself in less than two years ago.
“There have been a number of occasions when the IRFU have looked at the situation where there might be only a need for three provinces and that would have been raised on financial as well as other issues,” Kelly said. “But a review was done again about 18 months ago and the message from that is that Ireland needed four provinces and the way to look at Connacht was to invest more into it rather than take it away all together.
“Even the recent World Cup has shown the need for four viable teams competing in the RaboDirect league and in the European competitions, for Irish rugby. So I think that allied to the message we got about the growth of the game at grassroots level in Connacht led to the decision that Connacht did have a lifeline and (the IRFU) would actively support rather than just let us die.”
Kelly, with IRFU backing and a new Professional Game Board in the province chaired by Elverys Sports boss Jimmy Staunton, drew up a three-year strategic plan, albeit based solely on Amlin Challenge Cup participation.
“We set up with the IRFU the Professional Game Board and they set out to do a strategic plan which did not include Heineken Cup participation. Obviously when that came on the table it acted as an accelerator to the plan. But we’re very much conscious that that can be transient so while we’re in the Heineken Cup this year there’s no guarantee we’ll be in it next year, so we’re planning on growth of the game in Connacht using the Heineken Cup this year as a catalyst but not expecting it to maintain us over the next number of years.”
The effect of Heineken Cup participation and the dream draw of Toulouse cannot be underestimated.
“From an organisational point of view, I suppose not being in the Heineken Cup made it very difficult to get the fans motivated. They were looking south and east in particular with envy and certainly an awful lot of people from the west of Ireland were regular visitors to Thomond Park for the bigger Heineken Cup games.
“It’s been great for us to now have that opportunity to give rugby people in the west of Ireland. That’s been manifested in the big increase in season ticket sales this season, that there is an appetite there for this type of game. It’s had a real impact on our revenue streams, increased sponsorship and increased season ticket activity. But the challenge for us will be to show both the new-found support, both commercially and in the fan base, that the matches are an occasion, both RaboDirect and Heineken Cup matches and that the Sportsground is the place to come for your entertainment at weekends.”
Much has been invested into improving the Sportsground into a comfortable and enjoyable destination for Connacht supporters and their families.
“It’s been shown in other sporting venues that the people now look at it as a family day out and the more you can provide facilities for the public and improve their matchday experience then the more it grows. We have particular challenges, the fact that we share with greyhound racing, to make the ground more stadium-like. We’re working towards that and things have moved significantly in that direction.
“The key is retention now and we’re looking at all the ways possible that somebody that comes to the Sportsground, while the match is still the focus of activity, we want them to enjoy the whole experience so they keep coming back.”
It is a difficult balancing act when the often wet and windy Galway stadium has for so long been an asset in the struggle against visiting high-calibre teams but Connacht’s playing style is also on an upward curve under Elwood, says Kelly.
“I think Eric and the team management would prefer to be playing a more attractive type of rugby and sometimes the conditions in the Sportsground don’t always allow that. But that is the aim of the side and I think anything that improves the facility is a help to them.
“There is no doubt though that at times the winds here make life very difficult for people that don’t know what to expect, so we want to retain the home feeling that gives us advantages there but at the same time play a more attractive brand of rugby as well.
“It’s an unknown quantity, the Sportsground, there’s no doubt and we’ve hosted in recent years Toulon, Brive, Dax and people like that and they’ve all found it a pretty harrowing experience and our record in the Sportsground against even the top sides is very good.
“Of the sides in our pool this year, obviously Harlequins are well used to the Sportsground, they’ve been here on several occasions but for Gloucester and Toulouse it will be a new experience and hopefully we can get some sort of an edge out of that.”
Yes, the visit of Toulouse to Galway in round two on November 18 is the stuff of dreams for all those connected with Connacht rugby.
“In any competition you want to be competing with the best and when I was over for the draw, and having spoken to Eric going over, we had our secret wishes for the draw and Toulouse were at the top of that list. With respect to Munster and Leinster, Toulouse are the aristocrats of European rugby and every club would wish to have Toulouse visit.”
And the visit of all three teams to the Sportsground has helped forge stronger links with local businesses.
“The French teams do not tend to travel well, support-wise, so having two Aviva Premiership sides like Harlequins and Gloucester, who have indicated they will be travelling in numbers, will have a huge impact on the city. We’re getting great support from the businesses and the tourist organisations in the city because they’ll see the benefit of three enormous weekends during what’s not a particularly busy time of the season.
“So I think there will be a great impact for hotels and restaurants, who are telling us that bookings are way up for November, December and January, which can often be lean months for them. And the support we’re getting from the city is a reciprocation of that.”
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