There has been a long-standing tradition in rugby union that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and when Ealing Trailfinders hosted Leicester last weekend TV commentators Austin Healey and Ben Kay exercised that right of free speech after being asked for their views on promotion and relegation.
The focus was on whether Ealing should have the right to be promoted if they win the Championship title this season, because after winning the league two years ago the club was blocked from going up.
Healey’s view supported a continuation of the restrictive ground criteria put in place by the Premiership ring-fencers that saw them excluded because their Vallis Way ground did not yet have a capacity of 10,000.
Healey’s rationale was: “There’s 2,700 people here today for their biggest game of the season – that’s not adding to the Premiership. Unless they can get a crowd of 7,000 to 10,000, and show a plan of growth, what is the point of coming to the Premiership?”
Kay supported Ealing’s promotion in principle, but with the key proviso that they had the necessary financial resources. However, it is clear that Trailfinders’ owner Mike Gooley has ticked that box already through the size of his multi-million investment in the club.
What is hard to understand about naysayers like Healey is their failure to recognise that blocking clubs from being promoted through cartel-like measures – such as imposing unequal funding, and insisting on unaffordable stadium infrastructure being in place – kills any prospect of a league structure based on merit on the pitch.
The Premiership, with a legacy of three clubs going bust and an estimated £300 million debt mountain facing the 10 remaining clubs, is in no position to lecture Championship clubs on financial probity.
Ealing’s ground capacity is currently 5,000 – which is plenty given that last-placed Premiership outfit Newcastle, after almost 20 years in the Premiership, have attracted much less than that to some home matches this season.
The prospect of promotion would almost certainly see Trailfinders filling their ground – and probably boosting capacity by 2,000 the following season if they were to beat Newcastle in a promotion-relegation play-off and go up.
