American investors eye our oval ball game
Rugby Union is in a financial pickle, but American investment is a growing phenomena, discovers Robert Buckland
Hello Rainmakers,
Rugby Union is facing an ongoing financial crisis, one that even the huge sums poured in by the sport’s billionaire fans-turned-investors have so far struggled to effectively tackle.
But recent events have shown that change could be coming to at least some clubs.
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Former England flanker James Haskell summed up the state of Rugby Union last November with a characteristic, no-nonsense comment.
Launching Leonard Curtis’s 2025 report into the finances of the 10 Premiership clubs, he likened them to “Thelma and Louise heading off a cliff”.
No surprise when the research revealed they made a combined loss of £34m during the previous season.
Worse than that, none of the clubs had made a profit for three years and six were balance sheet insolvent, just one less than in the previous season.
It’s hardly surprising that three Premiership clubs monitored by Leonard Curtis when it started its annual reports collapsed.
Wasps fell into administration in 2022 with a debt estimated at £45m, much of it tied to ownership of the CBS Arena in Coventry along with a heavily leveraged retail bond scheme.
Worcester Warriors also suffered the same fate also in 2022 following a severe financial crisis and a winding-up petition over unpaid taxes. The club’s total debts were estimated at more than £25m.
Meanwhile, London Irish went bust the following year owing more than £30m.
Those remaining are almost entirely dependent on owners with deep pockets who are prepared to cover their losses.
Earlier this year multi-billionaire industrialist Sir James Dyson acquired 50% of Bath Rugby - a club he has supported most of his life.
The stake was bought from Bruce Craig, a Bristol-born entrepreneur said to be worth around £300m having sold his holding in Marken, an international distributions services company for the pharmaceutical industry.
Reflecting the traditional ownership pattern for the sport, Craig had bought Bath in 2010 from local greetings card and hotels tycoon Andrew Brownsword.
The club’s accounts show in the year to June 2025 its turnover increased by 11.2% to £23.3m, as it continued to benefit from its historic treble the previous season – which included a first league title in 29 years.
While unprecedented success on the field increased the club’s revenue from ticket sales and commercial activities, Craig still had to open his wallet to keep it going, increasing his loan by £2.2m to £32.3m.
Such is his commitment to Bath – and the dedication of moneyed individuals to the sport - in an interview two years ago Craig claimed he “had no idea” how much he had put into the club but said it had been worth it.
Likewise, Dyson, whose family wealth weighs in at an eye-watering £12bn according to The Sunday Times, has pledged to put “substantial” funds into the club.
Down the M4 in Bristol, fellow billionaire Steve Lansdown CBE – the Guernsey-based co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown (estimated net worth circa £1.5bn) – majority owns Bath’s arch-rivals Bristol Bears through his Bristol Sport holding company.
The stable also includes Bristol City FC and professional basketball team Bristol Flyers, along with Ashton Gate stadium and the teams’ ‘high-performance’ training centres.
But it’s not just Southern billionaires who are bankrolling their local rugby union clubs. Sale Sharks is co-owned by Simon Orange, whose net worth surged following the £1bn sale of his investment firm Corpacq, along with Ged Mason, CEO of engineering recruitment firm Morson Group, whose net worth is around a modest £190m.
Yet for all their largesse, these well-minted Brits could find themselves shouldered out by even richer, dollar-backed enterprises in a similar way to what has happened in football.
Shareholders of Exeter Chiefs voted two weeks ago to approve takeover talks with Cannae Holdings, an investment firm owned by US billionaire Bill Foley and prime funder of his Black Knight Sports and Entertainment group.
Black Knight, which owns AFC Bournemouth, French club FC Lorient and New Zealand’s Auckland FC, along with a majority stake in Portuguese side Moreirense FC, has said it will provide multi million-pound funding for Exeter Chiefs.
The club, owned by its members since its foundation in 1871, is now negotiating the terms of the sale, which would be the first of its kind for the Premiership.
However, across the River Tamar in Cornwall, Championship club Cornish Pirates has already stolen a march on its bigger rivals and landed investment from US-based Stonewood Capital Management, making it the first English rugby union club to get a deal with wealthy Americans over the line.
Kenn Moritz and John Tippins of the Pittsburgh-based private equity firm have joined the club’s owners’ consortium in a transaction the board says represents a pivotal moment not just for the side – but for the game as a whole.
The board believes the long-term partnership – reported to include an initial seven-figure sum - will help it develop a world-class academy and Premiership-standard facilities, while expanding the club’s reach into global markets ahead of the 2031 Rugby World Cup in the US.
In a statement, it said: “This partnership represents far more than investment. It is the beginning of a transatlantic relationship that will help drive the next phase of our journey.”
The deal also brings an end to the involvement of one of the sport’s most colourful financial backers.
Penzance-born entrepreneur Sir Richard Evans took control of what was then Penzance & Newlyn RFC in 1995 while the team was competing in the seventh tier and on the verge of bankruptcy.
Having transformed the Pirates’ fortunes and completed his second spell at the club, Sir Richard – who made his money from horticulture and hotels in Kenya - is bowing out with the club’s finances in good shape.
Stonewood Capital may have blazed a trail by teaming up with Cornish Pirates, but with an eye on growth opportunities in the US linked to the 2031 Rugby World Cup, more American backers are said to be poised to snap up English clubs.
Good news, undoubtedly, for the clubs. But it seems that for the likes of Sir Richard and his fellow well-heeled rugby benefactors, the final whistle could be about to sound.
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