SCOTTISH RUGBY have bowed to the inevitable by confirming that the national team’s first home match in this year’s Six Nations against Wales on 13th February will be played behind closed doors.
Spectator access to the team’s two subsequent home matches against Ireland on 14th March and Italy on 20th March remain under review.
Members of the Nevis scheme who applied for the Six Nations ticket ballot have been informed directly by email, and no payments for tickets have been collected.
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While hardly a surprise, this development is a set-back to Scottish Rugby, who have been hit hard financially by the Covid pandemic. However, Chief Executive Mark Dodson stated in December that a combination of government support and bank borrowing facilities being arranged means that no crowds during the Six Nations would not be a killer blow.
“The important thing is that our financial position, regardless of what happens in the Six Nations, is secure, because of the refinancing we’ve achieved through to 2022,” he said.
Scottish Rugby have also already booked £17.8m from the deal struck last May to sell a 28 percent stake in the Guinness PRO14 to CVC Partners private equity house, and it has been widely speculated that another deal with the same firm to sell a chunk of the Six Nations in imminent.
It was announced last week that both the Women’s and the Men’s Under-20s Six Nations have been pushed back until later in the year.
Will the imminent clinching of the CVC 6N deal necessitate consequent repayment to the Scottish Government, or if not yet advanced, withdrawal of the taxpayers’ £20 million bail-out funding package?