Commercial Board Insight – Part 1

Niall FitzGerald KBE takes time out to discuss his role as Chairman of the Munster Rugby Commercial Board, the board’s achievements to date and its plans for the future, both short and long term.

A native of Limerick, Niall was formerly Chairman and CEO of Unilever, Chairman of Reuters and Chairman of the British Museum. Having chaired the Commercial Board since its inception in 2013, he explains the function of the Board within Munster Rugby.

“The role is essentially to guide and advise the Munster Branch and the Executive regarding how to generate sustainable revenue. Within that the brief is to review all the current revenue streams, consider how these can be secured for the future and indeed how they can be enhanced.

“It’s also to explore new opportunities for revenue generation, advise on the commercial operations themselves and how they should be organised for optimum effect, participate when appropriate in high level negotiations be it with sponsors, broadcasters or the IRFU, etc, and essentially to engage in any activity which can impact on the commercial activities of Munster Rugby.

“All of the non-executive board members are business people who are very successful in their own right, they have a broad commercial network and all of that combined with being very passionate Munster supporters brings a whole new Munster dimension of experience and business understanding to the commercial affairs of Munster.

“It’s important to note that the Board is advisory and does not have an executive role and while any advice is not an instruction to the executive, it is regarded as a strong piece of advice.”

A lifelong Munster supporter, the decision to join the Commercial Board was in many ways seen as a labour of love for the St. Munchins alumnus.

“I grew up about half a mile from Thomond Park, first going there when I was about 5 years old and for many years thereafter so it’s very close to me in many ways. I have followed Munster through the years from afar so when I was approached about the role, it was for me a no brainer, once I had the time and the necessary skill to do it. For me I felt it was a very rewarding way to engage with Munster and to help continue the wonderful successes the club has had over the years.

“I decided to take this role for a period, as one has to judge if indeed you are being effective, and if after two or three years that I wasn’t being effective then I would step away from it, but so far we have made a good start with more to be done.

Niall expands on the aforementioned good start, discussing some of the Commercial Board’s achievements to date.

“Just in pure revenue terms we have generated and additional €;2m for Munster and specifically that comes through our Patrons Programme. Our patrons are people who are prepare to commit sums of up to €;30,000 over three years to fund initiatives and activities and therefore take them off the books of Munster. This has been the most significant impact of the Commercial Board to date.

Our Patrons Programme has sponsored the Munster Rugby Academy through the combination of Greencore as the corporate partner and a further twenty individual patrons. Also, the Community Programme is now on the way to being fully sponsored with a core sponsor in Marks & Spencer (corporate partner) along with individual patrons and that will be completed in the next few months.

“We also have several other programmes that will be sponsored by patrons including the Talent Identification Programme, and the High Performance Programmes for forwards and backs.

“Other achievements include the sponsoring of what is now known as Irish Independent Park in Cork – the former Musgrave Park, assistance in the funding of the Single Training Centre at the University of Limerick campus and the starting of the Diaspora Programme which in my view is of upmost importance for the future sustainability of funding for Munster.

“Our Diaspora Programme sees us tie in with Munster fans all around the world, starting with our closest neighbour, the UK. We had the first London Diaspora Dinner last September and will have another this September and that allows us to build up a network of people who, while they don’t live in Munster or indeed Ireland, are still very committed to the success of Munster and its ideals and are prepared to support that in very tangible ways, particularly financially.”

In Part 2 of our Commercial Board Insight – available tomorrow at munsterrugby.ie – Niall discusses his close working relationship with former Munster player and current Commercial Ambassador, Doug Howlett, and the immediate initiatives that the Board will focus on in the coming months.