Premiership begins 30th season as leaders say early fights and mistakes are behind them
English club rugby begins its 30th season as the Premiership, which kicks off this Friday, and the league’s chief executive, Simon Massie-Taylor, said those in charge had “picked all the fights, we made all the mistakes.”
Massie-Taylor added: "[But] a bit like any 30-year-old, you now have responsibilities. And there’s an excitement that there’s quite an exciting career ahead." The league’s launch campaign has leaned into the sport’s past while promoting the new season.
The promotional push pairs modern stars with retro imagery, featuring Finn Russell and Maro Itoje wearing 90s-style baggy cotton club jerseys to link past and present, following a period when the game focused heavily on attracting younger audiences. Rob Calder, Prem Rugby’s head of growth, said: “We do see the 30-year thing as a bit of a pivot point and a platform for us.” He added that growth will come from strong competitions and said: “We think we’re really well positioned to exploit that.”
The professional era’s early years involved struggles between new owners and old amateur structures; the league recalls figures such as Sir John Hall at Newcastle, Chris Wright at Wasps and Frank Warren at Bedford. Ian Malin’s book Mud, Blood and Money quotes Warren: “It wasn’t so much a sleeping giant as one in a coma.” Despite progress, the Premiership still faces familiar issues including season structure, crowd numbers and financial uncertainty.
Massie-Taylor described increasing investor interest after attending a recent conference: “I went to this investor conference last week and there were various city bods talking about sport as an investment becoming the hottest opportunity within the market. They see it as actually a very stable investment. There was even an argument that it was more stable than US government bonds, partly because it’s relatively recession proof. During recessions people continue to spend money on consuming sport. And it’s AI proof as well. We’re not going to suddenly start watching avatars playing each other.”
Questions over the league’s private equity backer were addressed directly by Massie-Taylor, who said CVC Capital Partners "will continue on as they have done" while the league seeks more investors like Red Bull at Newcastle. He added: “The good news is that there’s not the urgency that there was. Newcastle was a distress situation, everyone knows that.” He also conceded a proposed Birmingham franchise is logistically impossible within the next five years and that the World Club Championship has been mothballed again for the next four years. On finances, he warned: “Before choosing to spend any more money on players, we need to be sure of the return. If you increase the cap you may just be just inflating salaries without necessarily accumulating players that are going to move the dial, either in European competitions or at a local level commercially.”
Product and broadcast changes are planned, including a reinvention of the Premiership Rugby Cup in 2027-28 as a next-generation tournament during the Six Nations, with Calder saying: "All the research tells us that people want to know who the next generation of players are." Massie-Taylor called for a higher-quality restructured Europe from 2030: “We want to make that as high quality as possible.” He also stressed matchday income, saying: “There’s a big effort here to max out crowds because that’s the main week-in week-out income for our clubs. You can’t rely on a big ‘Hail Mary’ broadcast deal that’s suddenly going to change things.” The league has launched a Broadcast Innovation Group and a Prem Media House, and more than 250,000 people watched the opening two Premiership Rugby games on YouTube, a fivefold increase from last season.
The Premiership is pursuing further investment and measured expansion: Massie-Taylor predicted, “I think there will probably be two or three more in the next two years,” and the league retains an expansion pledge of another two teams by 2029, a target that still requires clubs such as Worcester to find additional backing. Officials say the combined initiatives aim to make the Premiership "match fit" for the coming decade.