Championship clubs again hit by Premiership stadium requirements

English rugby union’s Premiership is set to be ringfenced at the same 10 clubs once again in 2025-26 after aspiring candidates for promotion from the Championship failed to meet stadium requirements.

The Men’s Professional Rugby Board (MPRB) of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) has detailed the results of the annual independent audit of all clubs in the Premiership, as well as those Championship clubs who applied to be assessed for promotion against the league’s current minimum standards criteria.

The audit included three Championship clubs – Coventry Rugby, Doncaster Knights and Ealing Trailfinders – but only the Knights met the minimum standards criteria. After 12 games of the current Championship season, the Trailfinders have a commanding 13-point lead at the top of the table, while Coventry sit third. However, the Knights lie eighth and have no realistic chance of promotion via an end-of-season play-off against the Premiership’s bottom team, currently Newcastle Falcons.

While the Knights and all existing Premiership clubs met the league’s minimum standards criteria, the MPRB said Coventry and the Trailfinders did not meet the requirements principally as they were not able to evidence planning permission being in place, and in the case of the Trailfinders, that appropriate assurances in respect of safety compliance were in place.

Stadium capacity and general standards have proven an ongoing barrier for Championship clubs. At the end of the 2021-22 season, the Trailfinders and Knights were denied promotion to the Premiership due to their home stadiums having a capacity of 5,000 and 5,183, respectively. Ealing also won the Championship last season but the team was once again deemed ineligible for promotion.  

In the wake of the latest verdict, the MPRB has conceded “it is clear” that the minimum standard required for stadium capacity has proved to be a “major hurdle” for clubs with the ambition to join the Premiership.

In June, Premiership Rugby and the RFU consulted with Championship clubs and agreed a phased runway to reach the required capacity of 10,001 such that the ground is then governed by relevant safety legislation.  

It was agreed that a promoted club could phase the development of the 10,001 capacity requirement of its home ground over four seasons – year one, 5,000; years two and three, 7,500; and year four, 10,001 – subject to there being planning permission in place at the time of audit. 

This was rubber-stamped in September and it was hoped that the change in criteria would enable more clubs from the Championship to be able to meet the required stadium size and safety standards to be considered for promotion.  

Responding to the latest decision, Mike McTighe, Men’s Professional Rugby Board chair, said: “We are in a new era for the men’s professional game and there are ongoing and very live conversations about how we can build an investable framework that ensures that it is sustainable.

“While right now only one Championship club is meeting the requirements that would enable them to come into the league, we are working hard to ensure that is not always the case and that we apply the right flexibility and support where it’s appropriate. 

“We know how hard those clubs with aspirations to join the Premiership are working both to generate the required investment to be sustainable within that league and to ensure they have the required infrastructure to support themselves.

“This forms a vital part of the ongoing discussion and collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders from the clubs and organisations who run both leagues to many others because we recognise that in the future, new and innovative approaches are going to be required.”

Premiership moves to build stadium atmosphere

In other news, the Premiership will reportedly trial the concept of dedicated away sections for fans at two games next month.

Traditionally, rugby union crowds in the UK have been unsegregated, but Premiership Rugby announced in October that a trial of away sections in stadia was being considered as a means to improve matchday atmospheres.

Saracens’ fixture against Gloucester on April 19 at StoneX Stadium, and Leicester Tigers’ meeting with Harlequins at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on April 26, are now said to have been chosen for a trial.

The Guardian said the Premiership has a target of 82% stadium occupancy across the 2024-25 season and is currently tracking at an average of 81%, which represents an increase on recent years.