According to the latest set of published accounts, Gloucester enjoyed the most economically sound year of all 10 clubs across the top flight of English rugby union. In the fragile world of Premiership finances, this was achieved by posting a loss of almost £544,000 for 2022-23.
Martin St Quinton can laugh at what is a dubious honour. Chairman and majority owner of the Cherry and Whites since 2016, he describes himself as a natural optimist and has much to be positive about. His bold team is plundering tries after a tactical rethink. Gloucester have also landed new investment from 31-year-old hedge fund manager and boyhood fan Jack Ingles, which is worth “millions of pounds, not hundreds of thousands”.
St Quinton rarely deviates from friendly enthusiasm during this conversation, which spans Saudi Arabia and streaming platforms as well as broaching the ageless question of when Gloucester, perhaps the Premiership’s sleepiest giant, will properly stir. He admits to feeling “hurt” at years of underachievement. But, as a successful businessman, it is the league-wide quest for sustainability that truly exercises him.
“The game itself is in fantastic shape,” says St Quinton, citing another gripping round of Premiership fixtures. “The one overriding thing we have to sort out is getting all 10 clubs to be sustainable.
“At the moment we are far too dependent on high net-worth owners writing out huge cheques every month to pay the wages. It’s just not a good model, which is why there is investor fatigue… because it is fatiguing.”
‘You have to look at all options’
The first priority proposed by St Quinton, also the chairman of Cheltenham racecourse, is landing a bulkier broadcast deal. He believes that will require attracting another media entity to the negotiating table; if only to compete with TNT Sports and drive interest.
To do that, as Telegraph Sport revealed last month, Premiership chiefs are pondering different competition structures, including mergers with the United Rugby Championship. “I’m not in charge of PRL [Premiership Rugby Limited], but you have to look at all the different options as a matter of urgency,” St Quinton continues.
“We only have nine home games in the Premiership now, with a 10-team league. That’s not enough. Fans want more, and what they love watching is the Gallagher Premiership. Nine weekends out of a 52-week year is just not enough content.
“We need more home games to stimulate season-ticket sales and match revenue, which is decent. If you started from scratch, you wouldn’t have a 10-team league.”
Next comes the salary cap, up from a base of £5 million last term to £6.4 million for the current season. St Quinton is proud of how Gloucester run “a very tight ship”, yet stresses that the club could fall into “a terminal decline” if they did not spend up to the permissible ceiling: “Some argue that you don’t have to spend up to the cap. I find that very specious logic because you have to be close to stay competitive.” He does wish that the cap had not been raised to its pre-Covid level, a view shared by many around the country.
“Point number two is controlling our costs,” St Quinton says. “The way to do that is to reduce our salary cap. Our salary cap is too high. It should not be a penny more than the central distributions we receive from the RFU [Rugby Football Union] and PRL.
“Each club receives about £5.2-5.3 million. Our salary cap is £6.4 million plus injury credits and a marquee player. Even if you take the base cap, it shouldn’t be £6.4 million, it should be 100 per cent – or even less – of our central distributions.
“At the moment, every year, you know before you’ve even started that you’re losing a significant amount of money and we need to do something about that by pegging our salary cap to the central distributions and thereby control our costs so that all the clubs are close to breaking even, which is key to attracting external investment.”
The obvious retort is to ask why any broadcasters – whether online streamers or television companies – would shell out to show cheaper squads? Here, St Quinton gets into his stride. Even with the caveat that Gloucester will once again compete in the second-tier Challenge Cup, a competition in which they have reached the final four times in the past decade, he plainly prefers domestic action to cross-continental tournaments.
“I don’t think the salary cap has anything to do with the product we put on the pitch,” insists St Quinton. “If you’re arguing about how the reduction affects our chances in Europe, I’d absolutely agree. Right now, with a salary cap of £6.4 million, we’re not competitive in Europe. Frankly, that doesn’t bother me.
“The final this season, almost certainly, will be between Leinster and a big French club. I would be amazed if you saw an English club there. It’s just not going to happen. Some of these French clubs are paying €13-€14 million. Leinster have three quarters of the Irish national team. To the average English rugby fan, the competition that excites them the most is the Gallagher Premiership. It’s fantastic.
“I don’t think [a smaller salary cap] would affect the playing departments hardly at all. You would have a similarly sized squad that would be paid less. Some players would go abroad – that’s market forces, I understand that. That’s fine. You can’t prevent players wanting to do that. But if they do, they can’t play for England.
“I think the English game, as a product on the pitch, is fantastic. Sponsorship and season-ticket sales are pretty buoyant. The one area that we need to improve is the media rights and we need to control our costs. The trade-off is more and more clubs spiralling into debt. Three have gone bust.”
‘Fans were getting a bit bored’
When St Quinton introduces himself to rugby union novices, he explains that Gloucester was founded in 1873 and that Kingsholm produces “probably the best match-day atmosphere of any ground in the country”. While wins are not yet rolling in, this season is repaying passionate supporters. Because, as well as underwhelming finishes of 10th and ninth across the past two Premiership campaigns, a pared-down approach was wearing thin. This season has brought five try bonus-points despite four losses from the opening five games.
“Fans were getting a bit bored with kicking the leather off it in all parts of the pitch and some pretty dull encounters, in all honesty,” says St Quinton, who credits Bristol Bears owner Steve Lansdown. The latter urged Pat Lam to throw off the shackles, bringing about a thrilling play-off push. Gloucester board members did not have to be as forthright this summer, approving the instincts of head coach George Skivington rather than having to persuade him. Tomos Williams, the Wales scrum-half, seems to be an inspired signing and Afolabi Fasogbon, the hulking tighthead prop, is among the most intriguing prospects in the Premiership.
Off the pitch, the arrival of Ingles is eye-catching. He has acquired 10 per cent of the club, diluting the respective shares of St Quinton and Tim Griffiths to 80 per cent and 10 per cent. “Neither Tim nor I have taken a single penny,” St Quinton says. “All of Jack’s investment money has gone straight into the club and it is a fantastic endorsement of English club rugby in general and Gloucester in particular.
“I think it’d be fair to say that he’s not investing in Gloucester or club rugby because he’s hoping to make any money, though he may well do. He’s investing in it because he thinks that English club rugby has a great future and he’s hoping to make a difference. He was born in Moreton-on-the-Marsh to a farming family, went to Oxford [University] and is in charge of a big chunk of a huge hedge fund. He comes to all the games and has been a breath of fresh air.”
Gloucester were one of several Premiership clubs linked to Saudi Arabian investment by Telegraph Sport back in February. St Quinton is also insightful on this episode, though the men’s game does not appear to be the most likely beneficiary.
“I think there are a number of clubs who have been approached by various Middle Eastern countries who have been keen to grow and promote rugby in their part of the world,” he says.
“The women’s game is actually what interests those people, because they feel that with the right investment, they could have a genuinely competitive international team. I think they’ve worked out that to get a competitive men’s team might take them 50 years.”
Though he regards himself as a “temporary custodian” of Gloucester, St Quinton is determined to bring “great things” to the club. In the current climate, breaking even while entertaining supporters and staying competitive would constitute a real triumph.
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