WESTERN Province and the Stormers will not be losing any of their top players, and Newlands won’t be sold despite the union’s financial woes, says WP Rugby Football Union boss Thelo Wakefield.
Those were some of the assurances Wakefield gave club delegates at a meeting at Newlands on Monday night.
The commercial arm of the union, WP Rugby (Pty) Ltd (the company), applied for and was granted a provisional liquidation order by the Western Cape High Court on November 7 after the company cited reasons such as declining gate and season ticket sales, increasing player wages and a smaller sponsorship pool.
In addition, the “tipping point” for the company were legal disputes relating to certain commercial, media and wi-fi rights with one of their partners, Aerios, over the last year that affected their ability to “conclude key sponsorship and suite agreements… and ultimately led to the business of rugby being commercially unviable”.
The over 90 clubs are the shareholders of the WPRFU, which owned 75.1 percent of the company.
Wakefield told the Cape Times yesterday that Monday’s meeting was an “information session” to explain the executive committee’s decision to apply for provisional liquidation to the clubs.
“I have the full backing of council. I said if I’d failed them, or if they think I took the wrong decision and they want me to resign, I will do so. They didn’t say anything.
“Obviously the clubs weren’t satisfied (about the provisional liquidation), and they were very disappointed. They voiced their unhappiness because of one man, and I am not going to mention his name.
"They wanted to know why he had the freedom to allow the business to deteriorate like that. And we told them what the story was, and that’s it. But we are working very hard to get the show back on track, which we believe we are going to do.
“Although the general council was very disappointed in how the company fared, I allowed them to speak their mind and then we came up with a solution – which I am not going to talk about now because it could jeopardise whatever we are busy with. We don’t want to do that.
“We will find a solution going forward, definitely. There is no reason for panic. All we need to do is to stand together, and that is what they decided last night. The general council gave their backing to the process going forward.”
Wakefield insisted that WP will be able to hold onto their best players, and that the Stormers will field a competitive side in Super Rugby next year.
“Our fans don’t need to worry. There will be a Super 18 team, I’m telling you, and it will be stars running on to the field,” he said.
“All they have to do is wait until the first fixture and see who runs out on that field. If they don’t believe us, we’ve given them those assurances. See who’s in the team.
"I even had guys asking me last night whether we are now going to lose Newlands and our properties. These are delegates who have been there for 40 years.”
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