2023-24 'very positive' financially for Munster but this season 'a lot more challenging'

Munster COO Philip Quinn said moving a game against Leinster from Thomond Park to Páirc Uí Chaoimh "wouldn't see a huge uplift in revenue".

Munster Rugby broke even for the 2023-24 season but a loss of between €500,000 and €1m is projected for 2024-25. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Munster Rugby reached a break-even cashflow position for 2023-24, provincial branch delegates were told at the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday but the forecast for the season just past is projected to be losses of up to €1 million.

The Munster Branch AGM, held at Sunday’s Well RFC as Sean Loftus succeeded Brendan Foley as President for 2025-26, had the accounts for 23-24 delivered to them by honorary treasurer Tom Kinirons as the professional team benefitted from finishing first in the URC regular season standings to earn a home draw for the knockout stages. They defeated Ospreys in the quarter-finals at Thomond Park and returned to the Limerick stadium a week later for a semi-final which was lost to eventual champions Glasgow.

Chief Operating Officer Philip Quinn told the Irish Examiner that a surplus of €100,000 was achieved largely through increased gates throughout the URC season, a lucrative incoming tour match against Super Rugby champions Crusaders at a sold-out Pairc ui Chaoimh and those two URC knockout games, in addition to ongoing reductions in player costs.

Describing the break-even position as “basically our revenue matching our costs, Quinn said: “Revenue is up to €20 million from €18m, so a significant jump, but a lot of that would have been relative to URC knockout income. Costs in general rose almost in step with increased revenues in 23-24… from €18.6m up to €20m.” 

Yet Munster’s failure to secure a home draw in either the Champions Cup or URC knockout rounds this season, 2024-25, with the latter campaign concluding last Saturday in South Africa with a goal-kicking shootout defeat at the Sharks, means a very different outlook for the accounts to be delivered in 12 months. Also affecting this season’s figures, the COO explained, will be lower than expected revenue shares from both the URC and EPCR, organisers of the European club competitions.

“Overall, 2023-2024 would have been very positive, and then looking at the current year, a lot more challenging,” Quinn said. “We're going to have a loss this year, We're probably going to be between €0.5m and €1m cashflow loss for the year, and we can't put an exact number on it yet, there's a few still a few things to fall in place.

“Our gate income will drop, which we would have expected, like there is one thing within it around the IRFU funding model where we used to have URC South African TV money, about €0.75m in our other income, that's been built into the IRFU funding now for player costs.

“So our income comes down by €0.75m but are costs come down by €0.75m as well. So now it suddenly looks like we've taken €1.1m off our pro team costs but it’s not. €750,000 of that is just an extra credit that we're getting down below.

“But the central distributions from URC and EPCR, we were hopeful that in this new model we would be getting an element of revenue share there but because they haven't hit the targets inside there, the revenue isn’t coming in, so that's a hit to us because we would have budgeted that in the new model.” 

Also impacting the bottom line was switching the annual incoming tour game from Cork GAA’s HQ back to Thomond Park, despite Munster playing the All Blacks XV last November in front of a sell-out crowd of 26,267.

“We would have had the All Blacks in Thomond Park versus the Crusaders in Supervalu Pairc ui Chaoimh, so there would be a downturn in revenue there, but it would been offset by costs as well.

“We've been consistent in saying if we were to move Leinster from Thomond Park to Supervalu Pairc ui Chaoimh we wouldn't see a huge uplift in revenue, because the costs of moving into Páirc Uí Chaoimh are significant between the rental cost and the operational costs. It offsets the vast majority of revenue that you're going to generate.

“When we're when we're looking at year on year there and having played Crusaders at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and comparing it with the All Blacks, our revenue will be down but also our costs will be down.

“We do still make a significant profit but not as much as we made for the Crusaders game, although the costs associated with bringing the All Blacks here would have been higher.

"And then the URC knockout income. Minimal this year for us, unfortunately, and going to South Africa would cost us money. So when we were at home to Ospreys and Glasgow, you're making money on it, this season we're going to actually lose money from last weekend's game.”