Former Wales international Mike Hall has called for the Welsh Rugby Union to consider selling the Principality Stadium and lease it back, arguing the extraordinary move could release hundreds of millions of pounds and help pull Welsh rugby out of what he describes as an “existential crisis”.
Hall believes the WRU has reached a critical juncture, with its finances, governance, professional structure and relationship with the grassroots game all requiring fundamental change.
The WRU is facing mounting criticism from all sides over its controversial plans to reduce the number of professional clubs from four to three, with well-respected entrepreneur Hayley Parsons calling for the entire board to resign last week.
Hall’s warning on the stadium
Hall, who won 42 Wales caps, captained the national team and toured with the British & Irish Lions, is speaking from his own experience of professional sport, having previously served on the board of Cardiff City during a hugely difficult period for the football club.
He believes Welsh rugby is now at a similarly critical juncture and must start thinking outside of the box.
“It seems to me at the moment they do face an existential crisis in all sorts of areas,” Hall tells WalesOnline. “It seems to me they are driving a super tanker into the rocks. The current people who are steering the ship seem unwilling or unable to make the decisions that are necessary.
“There doesn't seem to be a coherent plan with regards what they are trying to achieve. It is extremely worrying.
“There's so many people who love Welsh rugby and it is part of our history and our culture. It's part of our DNA in Wales but it seems to be falling away.
“There seems to be a complete disconnect in Wales between what's going on within the governing body and what's going on in the clubs and the bars in south Wales.”
At the outset of the interview, Hall was keen to stress that his intention was to offer solutions rather than hurl insults at the WRU board. But he believes the WRU faces serious flaws in both its governance and business model, and argues that even the sale of the Principality Stadium should be considered.
“The Principality Stadium is a huge asset to Welsh rugby but that's an asset that's now 26 years-old and from a property standpoint its going to need serious renovation and refurbishment work as well as maintenance along the road,” he said.
“I think it is a bit of an albatross around Welsh rugby's neck. Have they looked into trying to sell it and then leasing it back?
“It would release a huge amount of money because it is worth hundreds of millions.
“You'd sell the stadium for a huge amount of money and you'd hand over the obligation for somebody else to look after it.
“You'd take a lease back in perpetuity to play rugby there.
“Why do you have to have the burden of maintaining and looking after it?
“They need to try to find different solutions to the problems they've got. You can't keep going down the same road because it is the law of diminishing returns.
“This model where we try to run our game through receipts from the Principality Stadium is a very precarious one.
“The team keeps losing so they keep putting ticket prices up. At some point you are going to slay the goose that lays the golden egg there because people are going to vote with their feet and stop going.
“As a result there will be an even bigger hole in the WRU's finances and they will run out of money.”
Business background and the elephant in the room
Hall is an extremely successful businessman and former sports administrator. He spent more than 20 years with property development company PMG, where he was involved in projects worth more than £500 million, most notably the development of Cardiff City Stadium. He also spent around three years on the Bluebirds’ board, joining alongside a group of new investors during one of the club’s most turbulent periods, when Sam Hammam was replaced as chairman by Peter Ridsdale.
With a deep understanding of Welsh rugby and extensive business experience, Hall is well placed to offer his assessment of the WRU’s current predicament.
“The real elephant in the room is the competition the regions play in,” he said. “I don't think there's any interest in the URC in Wales.
“The URC is something I never watch. My kids are rugby fans who watch the English Premiership but they don't watch the URC.
“There's not enough interest from sponsors or TV in it.
“What are we doing playing South African teams in a club competition? We need to be playing English teams on a regular basis.
“We need to be getting together with the Irish and Scots before going to the RFU and saying let's have a British League with two divisions and promotion and relegation.
“Or we need to get a couple of our teams into an Anglo-Welsh league, but we need to start thinking about it now. It's not rocket science.
“Would you tune into Cardiff v Bath when there's something at stake or Llanelli against Northampton? Do you think TNT Sports or Sky would be interested in that? Of course they would.
“We don't seem to have enough ambition.
“If Welsh teams were playing in an Anglo-Welsh league they'd be far more attractive to investors.
“You've got to look at the fundamental building blocks and the competition they are playing in is a dead duck.
“You may be pushing an open door with the RFU and PRL. They've lost Wasps and London Irish, while Gloucester are out trying to raise money at the moment. But the WRU needs to make this happen.”
Community game and professional team cuts
Hall, who played centre for Bridgend and Cardiff, also thinks the WRU needs to take a good hard look at the community game and the pathway.
“There seems to be a crisis in amateur rugby as well as professional rugby,” he said. “There's less children coming into the game and that could be because of a lack of resource with school teachers not willing to take time to coach and develop players.
“I pretty much think that if you speak to any former Wales international, certainly in my generation, they'd tell you there was a schoolteacher who was pivotal in their development and interest in the game.
“I think possibly we've lost that in our schools. We need to try to reinvigorate schools whether that's from directly employing school teachers to do extra curricular rugby, whether that's sponsoring kit, whether that's having former professional players going into schools.
“They've also got to look at the community game. You look at my town Bridgend. There are three or four rugby clubs there sat on different grounds, all struggling.
“Have they not thought about amalgamating or playing in one facility. Sell the Brewery Field, build houses on it and reinvest it in a nice stadium somewhere in Bridgend.
“You could then invest in nice facilities for people to play on with 5g pitches. That's just one example. We just need people thinking outside of the box.”
The proposal to cut the number of professional teams from four to three is the most contentious element of the WRU’s plan. So what does Hall make of it?
“I haven't seen all the numbers and the data but I do remember being involved in 1995 when Kerry Packer was going to launch a professional league in Europe,” he said. “They came to see me and they said there's only room for two teams in Wales.
“I don't know whether it should be four, three or two because I haven't got the data the WRU has got. But we haven't got the players for four regions at the moment.
“But look at football. After 100 years of professional football in Wales we've ended up with three serious teams. That is one of the harshest businesses in the world. Cardiff City are only there because they are being propped up by Vincent Tan.
“If you look at other sports we've had 100 years of professional football in Wales and we've managed to sustain three teams. It's not rocket science to think that probably two or three is the right number.
“But there is an unfairness around how they going about cutting a team.
“If you are going to run a fully fledged professional rugby team in Wales you are going to need business people on board who have got deep pockets.
“I don't believe the WRU can fund it themselves. You need wealthy business people on board.
“Did anybody pick up the phone to the boys in Wrexham and say can you fund a franchise in Wrexham? They are trying to redevelop their stadium in Wrexham and might want to use the stadium more. I don't know if that's feasible but they need to start thinking outside of the box to find ways of increasing the base.”
Call for new leadership and involvement
Hall is a solutions man but he does believe the current board of the WRU needs to go. Hall believes some of Wales' most successful business people should be brought into the WRU and professional game. He is particularly impressed by Hayley Parsons, who has spoken publicly about the problems facing Welsh rugby.
“First of all the WRU have got to try to fix the governance,” he said. “It seems far too unwieldy and it is more concerned about its corporate and woke agenda than it is about delivering solutions.
“Are there enough people on that board who really understand what Welsh rugby means to the Welsh rugby public?
“Welsh rugby is a very hard thing to turn around now I think.
“You need to go in there with ideas and people who have been there.
“Hayley Parsons is very brave, she's put her head above the parapet. She's passionate and she cares. The woman is an innovator. She built up businesses and sold them for hundreds of millions.
“We need more of Wales' most successful innovators and entrepreneurs. We need to appeal to them to get them on board.
“Jonathan Davies cares. Beg him to get off his bike for a few weeks and tap into his knowledge.
“Why don't they try to get him looking for new sponsors. He's just raised over £50m for Velindre, bringing people along with him.
“Imagine if he was the person you were bringing along to meet sponsors. That's the sort of thing we need to do.”
So, the elephant in the room: would Hall like to be involved?
“If I could help on a new board with people like Hayley I would be interested,” he said. “The obvious candidate for the chair role is Gareth Davies. He understands business, he understands rugby and is well-respected around the rugby globe. It is that sort of person we need to rally around. I'd go knock on David Pickering's door as well.”
For Hall, the message is simple that Welsh rugby cannot afford to cling to the past and unless bold decisions are made now, the crisis he fears could become impossible to reverse.
