Times are hard. Rugby has done a pretty remarkable job in establishing itself as one of the world's major sports businesses over the last dozen years or so, but businesses of all descriptions – big and small, national and multinational – are feeling the cold as a result of the economic downturn, and it is entirely obvious to those of us working in the top-level club game in England that a keen sense of fiscal responsibility will be essential over the coming months.
There are plenty of rumours about the difficulties Bristol are facing, but there again, we're all pulling in our belts. Show me a Guinness Premiership club that says they aren't concerned by the scale of the recession and I'll show you one with their eyes tight shut. We're lucky to have a strong board and some very generous supporters at Saracens, but I can tell you this: we haven't made a single move on player recruitment for next season, and that's the way it will stay until we have a much clearer idea of exactly how things will play out on the financial front.
Take the salary cap. There is a serious discussion under way about cutting it by £500,000 or so for next season; something that would have considerable implications in terms of squad building. Until a decision is reached, no one knows exactly how much money they can afford to spend. If things get really bad, the market could freeze up.
These problems are not peculiar to England, or even the northern hemisphere. In Australia, the New South Wales Waratahs are facing a shortfall of A$500,000 [£227,640] in sponsorship – an unwelcome development that has already cost people their jobs. In Queensland, money has been tight for years, so this downturn will hit the Reds really badly. In Perth, the big investment from a mining company that allowed Western Force to sign up the likes of Matt Giteau, Nathan Sharpe and Drew Mitchell is fast drying up, due to a drop-off in trade with China. It's tough out there, wherever you look.
It will be interesting to see how the downturn affects crowds. Premiership attendances have been holding up well and I confidently expect Saracens' hard-core support, which I'd estimate at between 6,000 and 8,000, to follow us through thick and thin. Their passion never fails to amaze me: the other night, while I was doing a radio show, someone sent through a four-page email on team selection, going through the team position by position and telling me the changes I should make! It's people in the next category – those who enjoy their rugby but pick and choose their matches quite carefully – who will determine whether we move forward or stand still.
Going back to the salary cap, I have to say that I'm 100 per cent behind it as a fundamental operating principle. It's one of the prime reasons why the Premiership is so competitive. Look at the table now: there are seven teams bunched together at the top, and of the remaining five, you'd certainly expect Wasps to find their way out of the bottom tier pretty quickly. Even Bristol, who on paper appear to have the weakest squad, are terribly difficult to beat at the Memorial Ground. You don't see this in football, or even in rugby elsewhere. This intense competitiveness tends to occur in sports where there is some kind of equalisation mechanism. We have the cap; American football has its draft system; Aussie Rules has a cap as well as a draft.
It means teams tend to move in cycles, because they can't do a Manchester United or a Chelsea or a Real Madrid and buy in large numbers of title-winning players who ensure they stay at the top in perpetuity. A famous Aussie Rules coach once said that team development was like a clock ticking towards midnight. When that hour is struck, you'd better win something, because if you don't, your moment will have passed and it will be time to start over.
I think he was right. Operating in this kind of environment is a true test for a coach. I just hope the economic problems don't restrict or distort things too much. We await 2009 with interest – and a degree of trepidation.
Eddie Jones is director of rugby at Saracens and you can see his team in Premiership action against London Irish at Vicarage Road next Saturday, kick-off 1.30pm.
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