Wales are to sign a lucrative kit deal with Under Armour

Wales to sign new rugby kit deal with Under Armour

The Welsh Rugby Union is set to agree a new nine-year contract with kit manufacturer Under Armour worth £33m.
The American company replaced Reebok as the kit supplier for all Wales international teams in 2008.
Whereas the original Under Armour contract was worth roughly £2.5m a year, the new deal will see the annual fee rise to around £3.7m.
This renewal will be the first major deal overseen by new WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips.
His predecessor, Roger Lewis, stepped down after Wales' exit from the 2015 World Cup having held the role since 2006.
It was announced in September that Wales' home ground, the Millennium Stadium, will be renamed the Principality Stadium in a 10-year sponsorship deal beginning in January 2016.
Under Armour's other high-profile clients include Tottenham Hotspur, American football player Tom Brady and golfer Jordan Spieth.

Well, this will mean more money for another batch of development officers and buffet meetings with bucks fizz I guess.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-union/34629373

The principality stadium?

Wtf?!

yappysnap wrote:The principality stadium?

Wtf?!

Yep, they signed over the naming rights to the Principality Building Society for just the same amount the WRU were in debt.

Never realised that, personally I'll never stop calling it the millennium stadium.

yappysnap wrote:Never realised that, personally I'll never stop calling it the millennium stadium.

People said that about the Arms Park. "Millennium Stadium - hate it, it'll never stick. It will always be the Arms Park to me", etc. I preferred Arms Park, didn't much like Millenium as everything at that time was Millennium something or other, but I soon got into the habit of calling it that. I don't much like Principality either (as we're not one - yeah I know that's the name of the company) but I'm sure it will change in the vocab over time.

Still the Arms Park to me but happy to receive all donations/sponsorships

Any ideas what this extra cash will be spent on?

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Any ideas what this extra cash will be spent on?

I would like to think more DC. But as I have already alluded to, it will probably go on more development officers and bucks fizz buffets.

I think they're still planning on completing the missing link in the stadium to increase capacity. I believe the rest will be spent on 3 whippets and 2 greyhounds to keep Shaun Edwards in post.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Any ideas what this extra cash will be spent on?

Hopefully the four regions because they're lagging behind the Scottish teams as well as the Irish.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Any ideas what this extra cash will be spent on?

Gareth Davies next haircut

mikey_dragon wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Any ideas what this extra cash will be spent on?

Hopefully the four regions because they're lagging behind the Scottish teams as well as the Irish.

It would be nice to see the union come out and say that the money is going towards more NDCs (or any form of regional investment) considering the IRFU has announced it is throwing extra money at the provinces, otherwise we may well find the gulf between them and us being opened up even further. But sadly I can't see past it being 'invested' in the MS developments.

I'd rather the money go to financially struggling rugby clubs. Having been involved in mini rugby I have got to see how important grass routes rugby is for the game

Steffan wrote:I'd rather the money go to financially struggling rugby clubs. Having been involved in mini rugby I have got to see how important grass routes rugby is for the game

I agree. Lets get some decent playing fields and some decent facilities for these kids. My cousins son plays for Abercynon RFC. Their game was brought to a halt 4 or 5 times last Sunday to clear up dogs mess on the pitch FFS.

I'd prefer it to be invested in teams, beginning at grass roots as steffan says, and upwards into schools, premiership clubs and regions.

Steffan wrote:I'd rather the money go to financially struggling rugby clubs. Having been involved in mini rugby I have got to see how important grass routes rugby is for the game

Yeah I would be happy to see that too. Although if the money is spent like that, I would rather see it go to the very bottom of the system, where we see clubs struggling to survive, rather than the semi-pro sides.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Steffan wrote:I'd rather the money go to financially struggling rugby clubs. Having been involved in mini rugby I have got to see how important grass routes rugby is for the game

Yeah I would be happy to see that too.  Although if the money is spent like that, I would rather see it go to the very bottom of the system, where we see clubs struggling to survive, rather than the semi-pro sides.

Yes I agree. The semi-pro clubs are getting enough but many village clubs where the Dan Biggars and Alun Wynn Jones of this world are first picking up a ball and providng a lot of youngsters into the system are struggling so they need helping out

£33 Billion over nine years????

Scandalous.

Steff, they are also forgotten so often when discussing things. My local club is looking likely to be force away from where they have been forever (well as far as anyone I know can remember) to make way for a super-school. But with all the discussions about traffic, class sizes etc, nobody seemed to consider where the rugby team would end up.

Granted the club has never produced any decent players (the best lads tend to go 7 miles down the road as kids), but it is still something that should have been considered as a major concern rather than as an after thought.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Steff, they are also forgotten so often when discussing things.  My local club is looking likely to be force away from where they have been forever (well as far as anyone I know can remember) to make way for a super-school.  But with all the discussions about traffic, class sizes etc, nobody seemed to consider where the rugby team would end up.

Granted the club has never produced any decent players (the best lads tend to go 7 miles down the road as kids), but it is still something that should have been considered as a major concern rather than as an after thought.

ScarletSpidey - you're talking about the Mariners at the Obs ? My father used to play for them. They played out at The Mount in the 50's. Craig Moir (3 Scottish caps, over 100 appearances for Northampton) played for Milford - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Moir

Yeah, that's them. Damn you old farts remembering further back haha. I should have remembered Moir, I was in the comp when he got capped and they made a huge thing about it. Looks like they are going to be playing at the comp in the future.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Yeah, that's them.  Damn you old farts remembering further back haha.  I should have remembered Moir, I was in the comp when he got capped and they made a huge thing about it.  Looks like they are going to be playing at the comp in the future.

Crikey, where will the clubhouse be ?

PenfroPete wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Yeah, that's them.  Damn you old farts remembering further back haha.  I should have remembered Moir, I was in the comp when he got capped and they made a huge thing about it.  Looks like they are going to be playing at the comp in the future.

Crikey, where will the clubhouse be ?

Ain't got a clue really. I've also heard they may end up at Milford athletic football ground, which I couldn't see ending well. But either way, the clubhouse is frequented by Hakin folk, and it moving elsewhere would prob be an issue.

Wherever the money is used for I now feel we have genuine Rugby fans in charge of the game in Wales, more so that these guys will do what they believe is right for the game overall rather than what is best for achieving a personal agenda, as was more likely to be the case with the outgoing regime.

Steffan wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Steffan wrote:I'd rather the money go to financially struggling rugby clubs. Having been involved in mini rugby I have got to see how important grass routes rugby is for the game

Yeah I would be happy to see that too.  Although if the money is spent like that, I would rather see it go to the very bottom of the system, where we see clubs struggling to survive, rather than the semi-pro sides.

Yes I agree. The semi-pro clubs are getting enough but many village clubs where the Dan Biggars and Alun Wynn Jones of this world are first picking up a ball and providng a lot of youngsters into the system are struggling so they need helping out

I don't know if I agree with this, in a 10 mile radius of where I'm sitting there are 8 clubs, 6 of which I KNOW, have or are paying players to play at level 2 and 3 in the new system, IF the money can be guaranteed to be improving grounds or helping with transport for the Senior or kids teams, or improve the coaching at these clubs, I could agree. If it is used to pay players to play for these supposed progressive clubs, never in a million years could I sanction such an exercise, there are much better ways to utilise this money IMO.

Apparently according to the contract they have to pay WG 2million a year to stay on and the ball must not be passed to the wing in Internatiols so that bosh becomes synonymous wth Under Armour

I wouldn't want anyone passing to our wings anyway at the moment....unless it's the opposition of course

I put in a club section topic last week, that an Osprey had signed a new DC, with  the WRU, having actually spoken with him this afternoon, he is one of FOUR (4) to have done so, I reckon the Under Armour money is going on these, it will be interesting to see how many others will be brought in under that umbrella.

PenfroPete wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Steff, they are also forgotten so often when discussing things.  My local club is looking likely to be force away from where they have been forever (well as far as anyone I know can remember) to make way for a super-school.  But with all the discussions about traffic, class sizes etc, nobody seemed to consider where the rugby team would end up.

Granted the club has never produced any decent players (the best lads tend to go 7 miles down the road as kids), but it is still something that should have been considered as a major concern rather than as an after thought.

ScarletSpidey - you're talking about the Mariners at the Obs ? My father used to play for them. They played out at The Mount in the 50's. Craig Moir (3 Scottish caps, over 100 appearances for Northampton) played for Milford - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Moir

I remember a Craig Moir playing for on the wing for the Scarlets, looked a really good player. Is he the same guy, no mention of Scarlets on Wiki page?