HEINEKEN CUP:THE ERC is set to confirm the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff will be the venue for next season's Heineken Cup final and to compound the IRFU's disappointment, the tournament's organisers have also overlooked the Aviva Stadium for the 2011-'12 final as well.
The clue is in the venue, Cardiff, for next Monday’s “major Heineken Cup announcement”, which will be attended by Wales coach Warren Gatland, his assistant, Rob Howley, who was the match-winner for Gatland’s Wasps against Toulouse in 2004 at Twickenham, as well as Ieuan Evans.
Whenever the ERC have announced the venue for the final a year in advance, they have done so in their city of choice for the decider.
However, the IRFU have also lost out in the tendering process for the 2012 Heineken Cup final, with the ERC also set to announce Twickenham will host that decider.
Sources in Britain have indicated that the attractiveness of Twickenham as a venue was enhanced in the eyes of the ERC’s board members by London also hosting the 2012 Olympics.
Even so, that the old Lansdowne Road stadium has been turned down after its €380 million refurbishment will be an acute disappointment for the Irish union.
This is in stark contrast to football, which will see the visit of Manchester United for the first football match at the Aviva Stadium on August 4th, followed by the Republic of Ireland’s glamour game against Argentina a week later, while next season’s Europa League final will also be hosted at the Aviva Stadium.
The IRFU would have hoped to showcase the stadium outside of the Irish internationals with a Heineken Cup final over the next two years but will now have to wait until 2013 at the earliest.
Despite all that the Irish provinces have given the tournament over the years (winning three of the last four finals and providing six finalists in total) the old Lansdowne Road has hosted just two finals, the 1999 decider in which Ulster beat Colomiers, and the 2003 final in which Toulouse beat Perpignan.
By contrast, although the Welsh have provided no finalist in the 15 years of the tournament, next season’s final will be the sixth to be held in Cardiff, while the 2012 decider will be the fourth in Twickenham.
Missing out in 2011 will not have been a surprise to the IRFU, given that the proximity of the 2011 Europa League final (scheduled for Wednesday, May 18th) to the Heineken Cup final just three days later created difficulties for the ERC, who ideally would want at least a week’s unencumbered build-up to their showpiece finale.
As recently as the end of March, at the launch of the ERC 15 in London, the ERC chairman, Jean-Pierre Lux, indicated as much when commenting: “For the moment we have a problem because there is a Europa League soccer final on the Wednesday. I don’t know, it is very difficult. With the Europa League final on the Wednesday we will have the stadium on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, (which may be) impossible for us.”
The 50,000 capacity at the Aviva Stadium may also have counted against it with regard to the 2012 final bearing in mind Twickenham can host over 80,000 spectators, and may or may not prompt the IRFU to examine the feasibility of hosting a Heineken Cup final at Croke Park in the future.
That said, the IRFU will remain hopeful that a final can be hosted at the Aviva Stadium one day.
The choice of the venues for the 2011 and 2012 finals was taken by the ERC board of directors, which, aside from Monsieur Lux, contains two members each from the six competing nations, namely Michel Palmie (FFR) and René Bouscatel (LNR) of France, England’s Terry Burwell (RFU) and Mark McCafferty (Premier Rugby), Peter Boyle (IRFU) and Philip Browne (IRFU) of Ireland, Orazio Arancio (FIR) and Fabrizio Gaetaniello (FIR) of Italy, Scotland’s Allan Munro (Scottish Rugby) and Jim Fleming (Scottish Rugby), and Roger Lewis (WRU) and Stuart Gallacher (Welsh Regions) of Wales.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan yesterday met a high-powered rugby delegation as part of the consultancy process for his proposals to expand the number of sporting events which should be listed on free-to-Air television.
The delegation included IRFU chief executive Philip Browne, ERC chairman Derek McGrath, Six Nations chairman John Feehan and Lawrence St John, one of the leading television negotiators in world sport, who has negotiated television deals for the Six Nations, ERC and IRFU.
It is believed Minister Ryan outlined the reasons for his desire to have Ireland’s Six Nations games and the Irish provinces’ Heineken Cup games listed on free-to-air TV, and would have cited many examples from other sports and countries to support his stance on the issue.
The aforementioned delegation would, in turn, have strongly opposed his proposal on a variety of grounds, not least that it would seriously weaken the IRFU’s bargaining position, result in an estimated €12-13 million annual shortfall in revenue, and jeopardise existing and future television deals for the Six Nations and Heineken Cup.
Afterwards, Minister Ryan announced he is extending “the deadline for receipt of submissions from interested parties and members of the public on the proposed list events designated as of major importance to society.
“The deadline is being extended by one month and final date for receipt of submissions will be July 4th, 2010.”
