'More appetite' to invest in Prem rugby says Gloucester owner

Gloucester owner Martin St Quinton says there is "more appetite" to invest in Prem rugby now relegation has been officially scrapped from the league.

Promotion and relegation to and from the top flight will be abolished from the 2026-27 season among a number of changes to English rugby.

Clubs will now have to apply to join in future, where they will be assessed across a variety of criteria.

Since the news was announced in February, Bath have secured major new investment from British billionaire Sir James Dyson and Exeter Chiefs have approved a takeover by Cannae Holdings' Black Knight, the American owners of Premier League football club Bournemouth.

"We've been talking to people for a while except the big difference now is there's a much greater appetite to invest principally because we've scrapped relegation," St Quinton told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"As long as we had relegation it was very difficult for investors to really get their head round what would happen if they invested and then the team got relegated, because that would have been very difficult to contemplate for an external investor."

St Quinton has had a financial stake in Gloucester since 2008 and took over as majority owner in 2016.

He pointed to the arrival of Dyson, Black Knight and Red Bull, who last September took over at Newcastle, as a sign that the Prem has become "quite a hot opportunity".

While St Quinton stressed Gloucester was not for sale, he said they would speak to any potential new investors as they try and keep up with the influx of money coming into the game elsewhere.

"Can we keep up with it? We're absolutely doing our best," he said.

"But as I said all along, if a big corporate came along that all the shareholders really felt could actually take the club to a different level and win trophies, that's what we basically want to do for all the very loyal fans we've got. We would talk to an external investor."

Gloucester's most recent set of accounts, covering the 2023-24 season and released last year, showed a loss of £516,000.

While the club aim to break even each season, St Quinton said that is rarely achieved and he has to put additional money in to subsidise the shortfall.

"It's very difficult to be competitive in the league and break even," he said.

"That's what we try and do but most years we have to subsidise it."

He added he was in favour of the Prem expanding to 12 teams in the future, as is the plan for the 2029-30 season, to put more home games on the calendar.

"I'm very much in favour of the Prem going from 10 to 12," he said.

"Nine home games just isn't enough in my opinion. I would love to see two more teams join, whether that could be two of the Welsh teams - because the Welsh club game needs a solution - or whether it's two completely new teams coming in."

This season, Gloucester moved one of their home games from Kingsholm to Villa Park in Birmingham - home to Aston Villa Football Club - for the first time.

The aim was to open the club up to new fans and also, by playing in a stadium with a larger capacity, bring in more money.

On the field, the game was a disappointment for the Cherry and Whites - as they conceded four early tries to Leicester and quickly fell to a 36-17 defeat.

About 24,500 tickets were sold which St Quinton described as an "excellent start" but the game did not bring in any additional income than if they had stayed at Kingsholm.

Yet the plan is to return in 2026-27 and in years to come, while fixing "mistakes" St Quinton said they made to make it a "first-class day out".

"The kick-off time wasn't right - we were made to kick off at one o'clock, which is too early. Some of the transport wasn't good enough, we're going to dramatically improve that next year," he said.

"We're going to learn some lessons from the Villa experience, but we're very much hoping to get over 30,000 next year and over 40,000 a year after that."