Fitzgerald sure of Euro resolution

Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald is confident his province will have two meaningful competitions to play in next season, despite the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the futures of both the Heineken Cup and Celtic League.

With clubs from England and Wales wanting to quit the European competition run by ERC at the end of the current accord this summer and French Top 14 clubs only committed to an extra season, the Heineken Cup is on shaky ground. The Celtic League, too, is far from certain of continuing in its present format with the Welsh regions threatening to withdraw, Italy’s Treviso announcing its intention to quit and backers RaboDirect Pro12 ending its title sponsorship of the 12-team competition this summer. But Fitzgerald believes, though negotiations may go to the brink, a resolution will be found.

Speaking before news emerged from Paris yesterday of a positive response by the breakaway clubs, represented by LNR (France), Premiership Rugby Limited (England) and Regional Rugby Wales to proposals put forward by the Six Nations Unions, Fitzgerald said: “Given the nature of rugby business and how close we’ve got to the wire every year with the competitions, I’m always very, very hopeful and I’d be totally positive there’ll be two competitions.

“I think I’d be confident there will be a Heineken Cup next year. The only question is probably the number of countries that would be in it but I’d be very confident it will look very similar to the present.”

As for the league, the Munster chief executive said: “I think the Pro12 probably will settle down once the Heineken Cup is decided. That will have a big bearing on what will happen. I had wind of the Treviso decision, but I think there may be some commercial background in that from a Benetton [the club sponsors and backers] point of view as well. I’m not sure of the background to that but I know they are querying their involvement in the current competition but I think it will survive, even if they’re not in.”

Munster’s future involvement in both Celtic and European competition is vital to the province’s financial well-being, following last year’s losses of €1m and the ongoing economic hardships in this country. Fitzgerald, on Tuesday, revealed gate income this season is already down €600,000, though the losses had been recouped elsewhere, with the situation eased by Rob Penney’s team securing a home Heineken Cup quarter-final.

Of the drop in ticket sales, Fitzgerald said it was down to lack of supporters’ income. “People don’t have money to spend. Once you move outside of the greater Dublin area at the moment we’re operating in two different economies. You can see that yourselves in Dublin in the spend area, it’s a different market.

“There’s a lift in Dublin. The recession has probably withdrawn a good bit in Dublin and there’s a good spend, and there’s a population there. You know the number of players and people who are gravitating from the provinces to Dublin to work. The bottom line is that people don’t have the money to spend. They only have a set amount of money to spend.”

And in a week when Munster were forced to play a home league fixture against Cardiff Blues straight after Ireland’s Six Nations clash with Wales, Fitzgerald also took a swipe at television companies’ scheduling policies and the effect they were having on Munster’s ability to fill their stadiums. “One of the other issues is that some of the times our games are being played at doesn’t help.

“Playing a game on a Saturday night after an international in Dublin is an issue, but that’s totally out of our control. We’re told when the games are on at the same as you are. It’s a decision made by television.

“It is totally out of our control. But, if you look at what was on television last weekend, TG4 had no other time at the weekend, they’d football and hurling on Sunday, the international was on Saturday and U20 on Friday night and, by process of elimination, we got that. You saw Leinster played on a Sunday at 5pm, Leinster tried to bring their game forward as well.

“The unfortunate thing about it is television determines everything, even at Six Nations level. We might believe otherwise but that’s what happens, they pay money and they get to determine it. We get an email the same time as you do to say what time the match is on. We don’t get consulted.”

The upshot for Munster was that though they announced ticket sales of 13,500 for last Saturday’s game, the official attendance was somewhere nearer 7,000. A lot of them [supporters] were in Dublin and things like that. I don’t think it’s good for the game and it is something that needs to be a consideration. The game in Ireland isn’t that big and that strong that we can treat people like that, there needs to be consideration given to the people who are putting their hands in their pockets and make it easy for them to attend games and bring families.”

Fitzgerald said dropping ticket prices was not a consideration. “We dropped our prices a number of years ago and actually sold less tickets, so it’s just to get the measurement right. People have a certain amount of money to spend and they’ll spend it and that’s it. We’ve kept our prices the same while others have raised theirs.”

On a separate issue, the Munster CEO said the province was on track with its proposed move to a single training centre, to be based at UL. “It’s due to go to planning in the next three to four weeks, with a view, it will have to go to tender after that. It’s UL doing the thing, we’re working with them. The plan initially was for July 15 but there may be a few months to that, depending on how the planning goes. But we’re happy with where it is.”