Páirc no go: Munster Rugby CEO rules out Cork switch for Leinster URC clash

The matches in Cork proved a great success with Graham Rowntree’s side winning both fixtures but with the costs of staging an established league fixture in the Páirc is understood to be upwards of €300,000, perhaps as much as six times the operational cost of playing one at Thomond Park, and leaving the province with relatively low profit margins.

Munster welcome an All Blacks XV back to a sold-out Thomond Park on November 2 while Páirc Uí Chaoimh is Munster’s designated venue for a home Champions Cup semi-final, should Rowntree’s 2022-23 URC champions reach the last four in the European tournament.

In an Examiner interview, Chief executive Flanagan praised his organisation’s working relationship with the Cork GAA led by his opposite number Kevin Donovan but pointed to erroneous figures being used by “media people” urging province bosses to stage home league games in search of huge profits.

“There is no fixture for 2024-25 in Páirc Uí Chaoimh as things stand,” Flanagan said Thursday. “We’ve looked at options, none of them have really worked. We’ll continue to look at options. I’m not ruling out a game this season but there’s nothing at the moment and I’m not counting on there being anything.

“Kevin O’Donovan and the team at Cork GAA are fabulous to deal with, and we’ve had a fabulously positive experience over the last number of years. That’s all been great and we look forward to putting on a future game with them again. When that is I don’t know but we’ll continue to look at it because I’d love to do another big game in Cork - but it has to make sense for the organisation as a whole.

“The two games we’ve had at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, incredible occasions in Cork, great successes, and couldn’t have been happier with them… we know in the southern (Munster) counties, we need to be visible, we need to be relevant and those games did really well for us.

“What I will say is there’s a media narrative out there that we’ll make ‘X amount’ more by switching a game to Páirc Uí Chaoimh but the financials aren’t compelling at all about an existing game moving from one stadium to the other.

“The two games we had in Páirc Uí Chaoimh were additional fixtures, touring games that weren’t in our calendar, so they were basically extra games on top. When media people talk about moving an existing game, you may end up with 40,000 people in Páirc Uí Chaoimh versus 26,000 in Thomond Park and in very basic terms you sell 14,000 tickets (more). Against that there’s a hire fee, which gets paid to Cork GAA, and there are additional costs, big screens and stewarding costs are much higher because they’ve got two huge terraces.

“Just in basic terms, it’s not just the ticket sales, it’s the whole matchday piece.” 

Flanagan pointed to an existing 'pouring' rights with Diageo at Thomond Park, whereby Munster has to reach a sales target the season to earn more revenue, and a similar deal with a catering partner which could be hit by taking fixtures away from the Limerick stadium. He also referenced longstanding commercial partners such as Bank of Ireland, the front of shirt sponsors, DHL and kit suppliers Adidas, who entertain clients at every Thomond Park game and watch the game from hospitality boxes.

“I can’t give them that at Páirc Uí Chaoimh because there’s no boxes, there’s no internal room I can give them (for dining).

“It’s not about (a lack of) romance (in Munster’s decision-making),” he added. “I would love to do a game in Cork but we have to have some clarity to this argument. It’s not like Leinster moving a game from the RDS to the Aviva, a couple of hundred yards down the road and there’s 120 boxes and big function rooms and everyone has a bigger and better experience at premium level.

“Whereas we would be looking at some important commercial partners having to make arrangements to give them something like what they have at Thomond Park without the same entertaining or activation opportunity.

“We’ve got a facility that we own and we’re trying to use it, as is our prerogative and so it’s a far more complicated conversation than simply ‘you’ll sell 14,000 more tickets’. I know we will, but the costs are significantly higher and we are in a situation where we are actually inconveniencing a lot of our core customers: our season ticket holders, our 10-year season ticket holders, our commercial partners.

“And I’m not saying it’s not achievable or it’s not realistic but it’s a very nuanced conversation and at the moment we’re cannibalising by taking one to the other, you know, it doesn’t automatically add €500,000 or €700,000 to our bottom line, which is the media narrative that’s sometimes out there. The financials aren’t compelling about moving an existing game, as things stand.”