Wales Rugby League (WRL), after two seasons of running Kingstone Press League 1 club South Wales Scorpions RLFC in the semi-professional ranks of rugby league are seeking new owners to take the club forward.
The sport’s National Governing Body took control of the organisation after original owner and founder Phil Davies decided to relinquish control in late 2013.
State of Mind have visited the Scorpions see picture
South Wales Scorpions were formed in 2009 following Crusaders’ move to Wrexham. Since then the club have fielded 32 full Welsh internationals including now Super League stars like Ben Flower, Gil Dudson and Lloyd White, plus others from England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Tonga and Malta.
In addition, the club’s commitment to youth development has resulted in 17 players who have graduated from the South Wales under 16 Academy over the last six years, making their first team debuts with the Scorpions.
WRL chief operating officer Chris Thair said: “This represents a wonderful opportunity for someone to lead the only professional rugby league club in South Wales into an exciting new era.
“Richard Branson had a dream of leading out a side at a packed Wembley stadium and he decided to take over a rugby league club in 1996 to fulfil this dream and in 1999 it came true,” continued Thair, who worked at the club in the Branson era.
“Russell Crowe became an owner of South Sydney Rabbitohs in 2006 to get them back to the top of the sport. The Rabbitohs won the Australian NRL Grand Final in 2014 and then the World Club Championship with Crowe missing the Oscars to take in the latter.
“For an investor of this type, this wonderful sport offers the opportunity to be able to fulfil some dreams, gain huge exposure and leave a truly lasting legacy on the sport and the local community, certainly in a far more cost effective way compared to other sports.
“It is thought an investment of three million pounds over three years would get the club into Super League and it would be important some of this is into off field activities to ensure the club has the ongoing commercial revenues to make it viable in the long term on a self-sustaining basis.
“The landscape of elite sport in South Wales certainly has room for another full-time sports club and Scorpions could be that vehicle. Any new investor who wished to run a fulltime squad and get into Super League would be a big ongoing news item in the national and global media. The Scorpions currently just sit two promotions away from Super League and ambitious projects such as these would galvanise the Welsh nation and the wider sporting community.
“At the other end of the spectrum, the way the current club is set up, a new owner could take on this challenge and make very low levels of investment or even none at all, outside of their own time.
“Since taking over the ownership in January 2014 we have positioned the club so it runs at a breakeven position on an annual turnover of £115,000, it has had all debts cleared, has a stable staffing structure put into place and a very good hosting partner in Mountain Ash RFC. For someone who wishes to build upon this model, there is now a very stable platform from which to do so. The challenges remain great however as the club currently resides at the foot of the table.”
Should no suitable individual or consortium be found then Wales Rugby League will continue to run the club over the next few seasons. WRL are open to an immediate takeover or one which starts in one or two years and allows the new-co sufficient lead up time to make the maximum impact. It should be noted the Rugby Football League, who govern the competition that the Scorpions play in, must approve any change in ownership and/or club name.
Any party interested in taking ownership of the Scorpions are asked to submit an expression of interest to WRL chairman Brian Juliff at brian.juliff@walesrugbyleague.co.uk by Tuesday 25th August.
WRL advise all expression of interests cover the following parameters as a minimum: Proposed company structure, ownership model, envisaged investment levels and from which sources, club location, start date, proposed board of Directors and their relevant experience and skills, ambitions for the club over the next few years and envisaged Welsh make-up of the playing squad. WRL will respond to all submissions.