Major sporting league could be renamed in radical shake-up with neutral venues also on cards
A RADICAL shake-up is reportedly being planned to change the name of Premiership Rugby.
Executives are hoping that the rebrand will help engage new fans in the rugby union competition.
The tournament is officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby.
But The Times has reported that it is undergoing a marketing shift ahead of a “fully fledged rebrand next year”.
The effort is being made to celebrate the best parts of the sport such as the physicality and athleticism.
It is being based on feedback from broadcasters, sponsors, fans and the players.
Premiership Rugby’s chief growth officer Rob Calder told The Times: “Everything is on the table. We’d need to be really convinced we would move the dial by changing it.
“We’re in that process at the moment, we’re looking at the name, speaking to the broadcasters, to players, to Gallagher about what they want to see from the league moving forward.
“There are a few things at play here. We’ve got equity in the Premiership — people know what it is, if you’re inside rugby.
“Is it a bit too much like the football Premier League? Yeah probably.
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“If I was starting from scratch I probably wouldn’t call it ‘the Premiership’.”
Any change to the competition would not come into effect until the 2025-26 season at the earliest.
This is due to Premiership Rugby being set to honour its existing sponsorship deals.
Another major change that is suggested is that the league’s play-off semi-finals could be moved to neutral venues.
Twickenham will remain the venue for the final until at least 2028 and is likely to stay till 2032.
Newcastle United‘s St James’ Park and Brighton and Hove Albion‘s Amex were touted as potential replacements.
In terms of the semi-finals, there is interest in changing the format away from the top two clubs hosting the third and fourth-placed teams.
The suggestion is that the matches would happen at bigger grounds near the hosting clubs.
One example would be the Northampton Saints swapping Franklin’s Gardens for Stadium MK which has double the capacity at 30,500.