The Prem Rugby Playoffs (UK) are set to be played at a neutral venue from the 2029-2030 seasons.
The sellout factor is being considered over the games to be played at a neutral venue.
‘BBC SPORT’ stated that the current format, which means the top two teams in the regular season table get home advantage in the Semifinals, has been in place since 2005.
The Prem Rugby, officially known as the Gallagher Prem Rugby or the ‘Gallagher Prem’ for sponsorship reasons, formerly known as the Premiership Rugby, is an English Men’s professional rugby union competition consisting of 10 clubs and is the top division of the English rugby union system.
The Prem (Premiership) Rugby Playoffs are the end-of-season knockout matches in the Gallagher Premiership which is England’s (UK) top tier of professional rugby union. After a regular season where the teams play each other home and away the top four teams qualify for the Playoffs to determine the ultimate national champion.
‘BBC SPORT’ further stated that but the league bosses say they have a vision of playing both the Playoffs on consecutive days in one city similar to the European Finals weekend.
It is being thought that Liverpool and Brighton are two of the cities under consideration at this early stage.
This season’s Playoffs were a major success with Northampton’s 15,249-seat Franklin’s Gardens and the 14,509-capacity Rec in Bath hosting two epic contests in front of the soldout crowds.
Grow Product
However, with both the grounds having a modest capacity of about 15,000 the Prem Rugby Chief Executive Simon Massie-Taylor believes there is an opportunity to grow the product on both a commercial and sporting level.
France’s Top 14 Semifinals have taken place this season at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome which has a capacity of more than 67,000.
Sellout Games
Maintained Massie-Taylor, “The games that we have just had were awesome in terms of the rugby spectacle and they’re sellout games within their home crowds. But I think they would sell out at the larger venues and the neutrals would go as well.”
Bigger Stadia
Speaking at a Prem Rugby event with the sports investors where Massie-Taylor outlined the future strategy of the league, he added, “This is about the long term. In the long term it will be more valuable if you are playing in bigger stadia. They become main events and you have longer time to sell the games.”
The club insiders have given the proposal a mixed reception with some excited about the number of fans that could attend the Playoff weekend in a big venue in a destination city.
Financially Viable
However, it is estimated that the clubs currently make between £600,000-£750,000 when hosting a Playoff at their home ground so the money generated from switching to a neutral venue would need to be significant to make it financially viable.
Disincentivize Clubs
There are also concerns that the lack of home advantage might disincentivize the clubs towards the back end of the season especially if there is no tangible benefit for finishing first in the regular campaign compared with the fourth.
One option would be to incentivize the teams to finish in the top two by awarding either prize money and/or a greater share of the Playoff gates.
Commercial Factors
As well as the commercial factors another advantage of holding the Playoffs in a host city would be the chance to take the big league games to an underserved area of United Kingdom.
Concluded Massie-Taylor, “You have to mix up trying to open up the new markets and with the tried and tested fan bases.”
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