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CHAPTER 6 Finance and Infrastructure 178 This chapter will examine the economic history of rugby football in Munster. Though the ideological tenets of amateurism sought to undermine any potential financial function in sport, formal clubs and governing bodies could not be run free of expense and thus had no choice but to cultivate some means of raising revenue in order to survive. In Ireland financial matters in the rugby sphere were left in the hands of the provincial branches. The cultural shift towards the concept of financial management was a slow one, however, and it was largely through the work of enterprising individuals that Munster rugby evolved from a purely participatory sporting culture to one which, out of necessity, modestly embraced the commercial imperative of modern sport. Economic and demographic scale, the geographical specificity of its popularity and the limit of its appeal to the working classes ensured that the game was never sufficiently popular in Ireland to embrace any level of professionalism until the 1990s. Therefore, though the IRFU’s desire to maintain the amateur purity of the game was successful, economic reality rather than ideological adherence was at the core of this Pyrrhic victory. After a brief discussion on the commercialisation of sport in general, this chapter will initially focus on the early history of rugby as a gate-money sport in Munster. Issues that will receive particular attention will be the enclosure of grounds and the establishment of formal competitions – both fundamental developments in gate money sport. As already indicated, it will be clearly shown that the development of the game’s capital infrastructure and the distribution of revenue was, for a long period, a heavily centralised process with clubs having little control over their own financial destinies. Though eagerness was always shown to balance the books, Munster rugby was not run in a businesslike manner and was ultimately heavily subsidised by the IRFU. Modern sport as a commercial activity One of the most observable characteristics of the Victorian and Edwardian ‘revolution in sport’ was the development of modern Finance and Infrastructure 179 codified sport as a spectator activity. This was a gradual development and provided the rationale for the enclosure of grounds and charging for admission to sporting events. The potential for sport to generate revenue via gate money was maximised by the establishment of formal cup competitions whose popularity provided the ‘market signal’ for the establishment of season-long league structures.1 Sports in Britain that witnessed significant increases in spectator appeal from the late 1870s through to the outbreak of the First World War, such as soccer and rugby (particularly in Lancashire and Yorkshire), traded not only on the skill and entertainment on offer but also the platform they provided for expressions of civic pride and intra-regional rivalry and their ability to offer a mode of escape from the pressures of urban and industrial life.2 Huge increases in the spectator appeal of such sports as horseracing, cricket, boxing and cycling were also witnessed in this period.3 The revenue and, as importantly, the prestige to be gained from success in competitions created rivalry among clubs for the services of talented players and resultant abuses of the amateur ethic were inevitable. These key developments were quite regional in intensity and were intimately linked with broader social and economic conditions, with increasingly favourable levels of disposable income and spare time among the urban working classes being of particular importance.4 Rugby football historically had a peculiar relationship with money. The powerful RFU, which held considerable international sway over the game,5 was deeply suspicious of commercialisation, sport spectatorship and competitions. This was symptomatic of a dogmatic desire on the part of the game’s authorities to maintain amateurism in its purest form. This peculiarity was best exemplified by the secession in 1895 of twenty-two clubs in the north of England from the RFU. Though the formation of the Northern Union was occasioned by the refusal of the RFU to allow broken-time payments to players for loss of earnings through rugby participation, the causes of the split ran much deeper into the social fabric of Victorian Britain. In reality the RFU, keen to maintain middle-class hegemony over the gentlemanly game, were ill at ease with the fact that rugby in the north had become hugely popular among the industrial working classes. The resultant burgeoning popularity of cup competitions in Yorkshire and Lancashire had seen the tangible growth...

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