Rugby club ownership?

Question

Are pro rugby teams owned privately like NFL teams in the US? Can they be bought and sold and moved to different locations inside their home country? If so, what would be the typical price to own a rugby side? I'm wondering about both Northern and Southern hemisphere teams.

Answer 1

Some Pro sides are owned by private people/companies. The Welsh, Scottish and Irish provincial pro sides are all owned by their prospective Unions. In England it is different with the clubs owned privately. Some teams have moved away from their usual fan base with London Irish moving to Reading for instance but this is rare.

Goodness knows what the price would be!

Answer 2

private people can own the clubs

in league we are moving over to a franchising system from next season

so in theory they could get a franchise for a team in a new area i doubt it would work taking another club to a new area thoughit would be done on the australian method and the new team would be set up

in the UK i coulc see a union side wanting to have a league side aswell so to maximise the revenue of a ground being used all year round

but time will tell on this i have heard a couple of union teams have looked into the criteria for a rugby league franchise for 2009

Answer 3

those who own r not in charge

Answer 4

Kind of.

The teams all have private owners who "invest" in the club.

But moving teams really only ever happens in the USA.

Not being funny, but no one else would put up with that.

Teams here are part of the town/citys where they are from.

You couldn't just move it.

If you tried to move Bath Rugby Club to another town, no one in the new place would support them. And the old fans would be pi$$ed off you just took their club away. Same goes for any rugby club.