By Glen Leat
August 3 2007

It's interesting looking through the early editions of ERE to see whether we have made progress at Bath Rugby. One reason for starting ERE was to vent my spleen at my personal frustrations about the running of the club and whilst checking through Issue 5, printed in May 1992, I came across an article headed "Wasted Opportunities" in which I commented how the club and the Rec should be developed.

Given the profile of the recent Bath Chronicle "Keep Rugby on the Rec" campaign it's worth noting that we, the supporters, were talking about this subject in some detail 15 years earlier than the mass media had an interest and probably before some of the current anti-brigade even moved to our fair City. I have reproduced this article below for your interest.

Over the years the Evening Chronicle has published quite a few articles and letters about the facilities available to supporters of this Football Club and this is usually met with a standard letter from the Club Secretary saying how hard things are because the Club does not own The Rec. In a very recent letter Clive Howard said: "To make spectator improvements there for requires both landlord's and planning permissions, which is not easily obtainable in a World Heritage city".

Previous requests for an improvement have usually been met with cries of unfairness to minorities from the Tennis/Croquet/Hockey and Lacrosse clubs: it seems as though the City Council, as landlords, cannot win!

Most of us would like to support the view that there should be facilities for all sports, whilst recognising the difficulty and cost of building new facilities for the smaller clubs who share The Rec, but things have got to be kept in perspective with full recognition being given to our Clubs' place, not just in national but international sport.

We are very fortunate in Bath to have one of the worlds premier rugby teams and, following the success of the World Cup (we came second you may remember), our Clubs' sporting profile is even higher. But what does the Club have to offer in terms of facilities? A small ground, poor spectator accommodation and a constant fight for upgrading or expansion!

Some people may say that the problems of a sports club belong to the club and its members, but ERE believes that Bath Football Club is different. To many people in this and other countries who have little interest in history or heritage, Bath is the Rugby Club and the success of the Club is seen as the success of the city.

Obviously tourism is a major source of revenue for the city but the City Council should not put all its financial eggs in one basket. It was not so long ago that national political actions affected the number of free-spending Americans to the City. Instead why not use the success of Bath Football Club to attract new business? Large corporations like nothing better than to be linked with success and, over the last decade, this Club has not only demonstrated success but also dominated all competitors.

A ground could be built, or at least refurbished, which would reflect the status of the Club and also give the city somewhere which would be attractive to businesses wishing to offer corporate hospitality or other facilities. The Club has shown how keen it is to improve things with its plans for the Sports Centre end of the ground but with more support from the City Council something far better could be achieved.

Instead of fighting for every bit of space to create a ground fit for a world-class outfit, the Club should be overwhelmed by offers of support from a council and business community which recognises that, in addition to tourism, Bath Football Club will attract much needed income and therefore help the city to prosper.

Anyone who doubts the wisdom of using a rugby club for furthering business links should visit London Irish, where large and small Irish companies get together to socialise and no doubt do a little business, or Northampton where they are selling management skills and videos. It is worth remembering that rugby is attractive to business people, often in the financial sector, all over the globe.

As our proposed development of the Rec appears to be making some progress with the Charity Commission Bath Rugby will be looking for serious investors to help fund the new arena so once again the concept of local businesses supporting their internationally renowned rugby club will come to the fore. The recent recruitment of two high profile South African international players is a clear demonstration that Bath Rugby is one of the small number of clubs known across the world and our city should take advantage of this profile!