Rugby Australia returns surplus in wake of COVID-19 chaos
SYDNEY (AP) — Rugby Australia has returned from the brink of budget despair during the COVID-19 pandemic to announce a surplus for 2022.
RA chairman Hamish McLennan announced the surplus of 8.2 million Australian dollars ($5.5 million) for last year after the annual general meeting in Sydney on Wednesday, saying “the last two years have been a wild ride for us.”
The workforce was slashed and elite players had to take deep short-term pay cuts early in 2020 when the sport’s national governing body posted a AU$27 million ($18 million) deficit and needed an emergency low-interest loan from World Rugby to keep the professional ranks afloat.
The staged return of Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship in 2021 and ‘22 were pivotal in turning around the sport’s finances around, with attendances and TV ratings improving as well as increases in participation rates.
McLennan said with Australia hosting a tour by the British and Irish Lions in 2025, the men's World Cup in 2027 and the women's World Cup in 2029, "rugby is very much on the rise again.”
World Cup-winning winger Joe Roff was also unveiled as Rugby Australia's new president at the AGM, replacing David Codey.
Roff played 86 tests for the Wallabies in a career that included the 1999 World Cup victory, Bledisloe Cup and Super Rugby titles as well as a series win over the British and Irish Lions in 2001.
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