It was a tough gig for Martyn Phillips at Newport, but the WRU chief executive gave his audience a stark vision of the choices ahead. Robin Davey reports on a fiery meeting and clubs that could yet go up in smoke.

 

The future of rugby – and football, too – at historic Rodney Parade is hanging by a thread following a fiery two-hour open meeting at the ground’s Bisley Suite on Monday night.

Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Martyn Phillips was bombarded with a series of questions from Newport RFC fans, anxious about the future of their club under the terms of the new deal.

The WRU have offered to buy Rodney Parade which is severely in debt and tottering on the brink of bankruptcy, beset by financial issues, plus pitch problems, with the ground in a bad state of repair into the bargain.

The Newport shareholders now have to vote on the deal put forward by the WRU – the only one on the table – at a special meeting on May 9.

It requires a 75% majority and a ‘yes’ vote secures the immediate future. But a ‘no’ vote will mean the receivers being called in almost immediately with Rodney Parade likely to become a building site pretty quickly.

Newport RFC and Newport County, who share the ground, would be cast into the wilderness without a home while the Dragons would probably emerge elsewhere in Gwent, possibly at Ebbw Vale.

Scores of jobs are also on the line and while Phillips said they would do their best to protect them, no guarantees could be given.

Many Newport fans believe they have been short-changed by the WRU in their proposed deal, with no guarantees for their future even though they are giving up their ground.

They also believe the £3.5m the Union are paying for the ground is a knockdown price, especially as no independent survey has been carried out.

Phillips told last night’s audience of several hundred that he is risking his own job with this proposal, that he and the Union have stuck their necks out to the tune of around £5m to pay for a new pitch, or improving the existing one if Newport County remain in the Football League, and by carrying out extensive repairs to the ground.

He also said the other regions are constantly complaining to him about the money they are putting into the Dragons and he stressed that other Premiership clubs are watching so that Newport are not being given preferential treatment.

But speaker after speaker stood up to insist that Newport are not being offered enough in this deal, like the opportunity to raise funds from club facilities which would be denied them, like the provision of a museum where they can house all their historic memorabilia collected over more than a century.

Phillips told them no guarantees could be given, certainly not beyond the ending of the current RSA agreement in 2020 because they simply did not know what the position would be then.

He left pretty quickly at the end of the two-hour meeting, having told the audience that if they were unhappy with the deal they should vote no, and, that in fact, such a decision would make life a lot easier for him and the WRU.

If body language counted for anything, I would say he was pretty fed up with what is basically a Rodney Parade rescue package being given such a hostile reception.

And given the reaction from those fans, many of whom are shareholders, I would say the chances of the deal getting a 75% majority are extremely thin.

On the Newport County front, if they do complete their great rescue act and remain in the Football League, Phillips indicated they would have to resort to improving the drainage of the current pitch.

He said both the Pro 12 and Football League have complained about the state of it. Ideally, the WRU would like to put down a 4G pitch, but Football League rules forbid that. With a Desso pitch and its maintenance considered too expensive, they would have to quickly revert to digging up the present one and improving drainage.

As to whether the people of Newport will soon be digging a grave for sport in their city, that remains to be seen.