Northampton Saints chief: Champions Cup run is financial tonic
Northampton Saints may be the sole English representative remaining in the Investec Champions Cup but they’re out only to look out for themselves.
A run in the world’s premier club rugby competition is a money spinner, up until a certain point, and can open doors to countless commercial and fan activation opportunities.
For Julia Chapman, the Northampton chief executive in her first season in post, it is a battle deeper than 80 minutes on the pitch.
French Top 14 clubs and the likes of potential semi-finalists Leinster dwarf English clubs when it comes to turnover and central rugby body handouts, but Northampton Saints have a good shot at beating Castres this weekend and reaching the final four.
Chasing France
“We know that rugby is the No1 sport in France,” Chapman tells City PM. “They’ve got huge audiences, both in the stadiums and in the TV culture view. So that drives revenues into the game, which is probably our No1 challenge for rugby in England compared to some of the other sports.
“We’re not the only sport wanting to grow the eyeballs on the game, but that’s one of our biggest challenges, both in terms of numbers and also supporter demographics.”
A run in the Champions Cup has been a season lifeline for Northampton Saints, whose title defence in the English Premiership has been a non-starter; they’re eighth with a handful of games to go.
Chapman, in part, puts that down to the lack of availability of the club’s stars who have been favourites of England coach Steve Borthwick this term, but admits she and head coach Phil Dowson aren’t happy with Premiership progress.
But a run in Europe has been a boost for sales, with demand for season tickets healthy. The club sold out of season memberships ahead of the 2024-25 campaign and only current ticket holders can apply for season tickets for next year.
Northampton Saints on the charge
A win against Castres on Saturday night, however, may actually cost the club. Home and away teams share the net gate receipts – gross gate minus costs – in the quarter-finals but in the semis governing body EPCR divides the gate between the 24 teams who started the competition, resulting in a smaller cut for the final four.
“We haven’t been performing quite as well in the Premiership as we would have wanted to,” Chapman adds. “So [the Champions Cup is] really important from that performance and engagement point of view. But then also financially, these additional matches drive significant amounts of extra revenue.
“There’s significant chunks of extra income for the club, which is material, but also then you get the halo benefits of it because we’re on sale with season tickets at the moment, so our supporters want to see us doing well.
“It makes them feel good about the club, and when they’re making that decision as to whether to buy their season ticket or not, it’s quite critical for that as well.”
Financial reality
Northampton Saints made a loss before tax of £1.7m for the 2023-24 season despite record turnover. Chapman insists the club are on course to breach £22m in turnover for the first time this season but admits the financial state of the English clubs in the Premiership is a relative issue.
“I think we always feel that we do sort of reasonably well by comparison, in the sense that we lose less than other clubs, although it remains to be seen what the results will look like at other clubs,” she concludes.
“We’re well run, and we do well commercially, but when you’re comparing yourselves against other clubs that make losses I suppose you could say it’s a low bar.
“Our focus is very much on getting back to break even. We’re not a FTSE 100 company that needs to be returning profits back to its shareholders.
“It’s profit for the purpose of boosting performance, not for satisfying shareholders.”