The Rugby Football Union considered building a new stadium in Birmingham and relocating, before opting to stay at Twickenham and selling the naming rights to the home of English rugby.
As revealed by the Guardian, the RFU also looked into buying a 50% share of Wembley and its chief executive, Bill Sweeney, said that moving to a greenfield site in the Midlands “which might have had better access for the whole of the country” had been under review.
Twickenham has served as headquarters since 1909 and match days drive about 85% of the union’s revenue, so the RFU has been reluctant to take fixtures around the country. Sweeney has acknowledged, however, that England’s south-west London location is prohibitive for supporters. “If you’re coming down from the north you’re probably spending two nights in a hotel in the London area,” he said after last year’s World Cup. “You’ve also got all your entertainment, food and drink.”
That Birmingham was even under consideration shows that the 82,000-capacity stadium requires an overhaul. Last month the RFU signed a naming rights deal with Allianz worth more than £100m. As of the start of this month, Twickenham is officially known as the Allianz Stadium.
“We looked at a range of different options,” said Sweeney. “There was the merger with Wembley option which was a conversation, and there was a move somewhere else to a greenfield site which might have had better access for the whole of the country. It was in the Birmingham area and they were quite keen to work with us.
“All of the numbers led to remaining at Twickenham and redeveloping the stadium. That was partly to do with the hospitality market in London, from a commercial point of view, plus the traditional piece couldn’t be discounted in terms of the home of rugby being based in Twickenham.”
While the RFU has calculated Twickenham overhaul costs at £663m, that is at present unaffordable and the most pressing works will be prioritised. That figure forms a longer-term blueprint for subsequent works to be carried out when the union has the finances.
Work on the stadium is slated to start from 2027 and Sweeney has urged local authorities to show more flexibility in allowing the stadium to stage lucrative events outside rugby in an effort to drive revenue. He cited as examples the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley, which hosted Taylor Swift concerts and is due to stage Oasis as part of their comeback tour next year.
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“Meetings are ramping up,” said Sweeney. “It is very important we get flexibility with local councils in terms of events. If you look at the non-sporting events at places like Wembley and Tottenham, it is important it is part of our future thinking. Work would not be starting any time before 2027.”