Leighton Koopman
It was tough for the owners of Red Disa Investments to see what was happening to Western Province Rugby and that is why they decided to get involved in the beleaguered company that owns the Stormers.
While things were going to pieces off the field, the Cape side kept the fort going on the rugby field, winning the United Rugby Championship (URC) in its first season, but sustaining that would have been the tough part for coach John Dobson and his team without proper financial backing.
There were plenty of days when it looked like the end of the road for the professional side, and at times threats of the franchise being taken away from the union were made.
And after talks with some of the other potential investors fell flat, the Red Disa consortium stepped in to save the day and rugby in Cape Town. They acquired a 74% controlling stake in the professional arm of the Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU).
“The idea that WP Rugby was going to go bankrupt was unacceptable for us,” new Stormers CEO Johan le Roux said yesterday.
Le Roux, as head of Fynbos Ekwiteit, will be responsible for the Stormers alongside the new board and Dobson as the new director of rugby.
The new CEO also announced the name of Western Province Professional Rugby will be scrapped, and the company will officially be known as Stormers Rugby.
“The reasons for this are twofold: to closely align our company’s corporate profile with that of our top team, the Stormers, from which we derive almost all of our revenue.
“It also allows for easier differentiation between the professional rugby entity and the entity responsible for amateur rugby, which is the WPRFU.
“It is not an easy environment to step into. If it was, the club would not have been for sale. The motive for the investors was to save the rugby club, (and) to make sure this region retains the heritage of Western Province Rugby and the Stormers. So, it wasn’t for financial reasons.
“This investment is not profit-driven. It is purely in the interest of rugby and what it means to society.
According to Le Roux, it was important for them to see a way of getting the Stormers back to financial stability and they have no appetite to keep funding losses. The investors feel the Stormers are well-placed to financially be the strongest club in the country.
Dobson will be given a rugby budget in which he has to operate, and one of the first pieces of business they’ve done was to lure back influential double World Cup winner Steven Kitshoff, who was at the helm of the Stormers when they won the inaugural URC tournament.
“The deal does give us options. The company is solvent, it has got capital and we have to decide where we will deploy it.
“For us as a management team, it’s between deciding to invest in the commercial team, coaches, or player base. It is a difficult decision.
“The option is there now. He (Dobson) can sign (someone like) Kitsie, but he has to stay within the budget. It is fair to say the budget is probably bigger now than it would’ve been without the transaction.”