New CEO Confirms His Ambition For Connacht
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14 August 2014 by Tim Groves
Willie Ruane's feet are only “just in under the table”, as he says himself, but the new Connacht CEO is already talking up the prospects of the recently financially troubled Irish province and says plans are being put in place to ensure it has a bright future.
Ruane, who played for Connacht in the late 1990s as well as for Ireland at Colleges and U21 level, has been in the top job just five weeks and acknowledges that his impact is yet to be felt as he is still in the process of reviewing the club's current position rather than making sweeping changes.
However, that has not prevented him from forming an early assessment of the potential in Galway and he is not shy about the club's ambition, even setting lofty aims for the forthcoming season on the pitch.
“Our ambition this season is to qualify for the Champions Cup for next year off our own bat and everyone is focused on that,” he told Running Rugby.
“We have some short-term targets but we are actively working on a long-term plan at the moment because I obviously want to have an input and make sure I am influencing that heavily.”
With just the highest-placed Pro12 team from each country and the next three best-placed sides qualifying for the European Rugby Champions Cup now, some may consider that target a little too lofty or unrealistic – especially with Connacht finishing 10th in the league last season and the other three Irish provinces all ending up in the top four.
But Ruane feels the signings of Mils Muliaina, Bundee Aki, Tom McCartney and others, as well as the addition of a number of new coaching staff, give the club a fighting chance and he is adamant that there is genuine ambition and belief there in all departments.
“I have sat down with all of the different department heads and gone through where we are at, what their plans are and what we hope to do,” he said.
“There isn't a definitive plan that has been developed in five weeks but the one thing that is very clear is that everyone is genuinely ambitious and wants to achieve something and is trying to create something very successful here.”
On-field ambitions are one thing but it is off the field and behind the scenes where Ruane's day-to-day focus will be and the Mayo native is convinced, from what he has seen so far, that Connacht are in a solid financial position despite reports to the contrary not so long ago.
The IRFU increased the province's funding by as much as €1 million at the end of last season (the playing budget remained the same and the money was said to be for the improvement of strength and conditioning coaching and facilities), which has helped but Ruane says it must work harder commercially in order to become more self-sustainable.
“We have gone through a number of review processes and I am very satisfied that we are in a good place now with a sound funding structure but we have an ambition to grow our revenues off our own bat and Connacht need to drive this now,” he told Running Rugby.
“We want to raise the numbers through the gates and boost our sponsorship revenue and make people aware what Connacht has to offer in terms of a valuable proposition from a sponsor's perspective.
“We are looking at a number of different areas. The commercial side is key to us and developing a longer term commercial plan that we believe will get us to where we want to be, as well as making sure that all of our governance is where it should be.”
Ruane played for Connacht under Warren Gatland in the 1997/98 season when the club reached the European Challenge Cup quarter-final and became the first professional Irish team to beat an English team away from home and a French team away from home.
That was less than three years after the sport had turned professional though and, although the former full-back thinks his close affinity to the club is important, he is far from misty eyed in his approach to rugby.
“I am from Connacht and this is who I played for, so it means an awful lot more to me,” he said.
“The whole sporting area is interesting and it is an area that everyone wants to be involved in but we also have to remember that it is a business.”
Best practice governance is cited as a priority for Connacht but the main focus is the commercial side and good control of finances – an area that Ruane is likely to excel in after spending 15 years in the banking sector working for the likes of the Bank of Ireland, the Anglo Irish Bank and Ulster Bank.
“What I bring is an ability to look at it as a business. I still have a huge passion for rugby but it needs to be viewed as a business,” he told Running Rugby.
“We have gone through a comprehensive review process in terms of how we manage all departments of the game and there have been various actions taken. For example, we have a new finance team in place headed up by Niamh Hoyne and she is doing a superb job.”
The expertise of Ruane, Hoyne and others will be vital as reports a year ago suggested that there was a €450,000 overspend at the club and it was thought midway through last season that the deficit at the end of the financial year could reach €900,000.
That was prior to the news of the IRFU's €1 million cash injection though and Ruane says the governing body has helped a lot, both on the financial front and in other areas.
“The IRFU have been instrumental as well because they have increased their investment and that has been huge, The support from the IRFU for Connacht has been significant and obviously very much appreciated but we know that there is an expectation,” he said.
“We are very, very closely aligned with the overall IRFU strategic plan and it isn't just the financial support that we benefit from. Just since I have been here we have had national performance director David Nucifora, Joe Schmidt and head of fitness Dave Clark down here.”
The new Connacht CEO is keen to point out that the province is far from completely dependent on its national union though and says the new principal sponsorship agreement with Lifestyle Sports and other deals mean it is in the best shape ever in that department.
“We are at the highest level that we have ever been in terms of sponsorship. We are continuing to grow in that area and our ambitions are to keep going and drive it further again,” he told Running Rugby.
“We've had success but is it enough? We want to be as commercially viable as we possibly can and sponsorship, growing our ticket sales and ensuring that our season ticket base is growing every year are all very important to us,” he added.
“We have a season ticket campaign that we are promoting at the moment and that is key for us.
“Getting people through the gates is absolutely key for us and I do think that the changes to the Pro12 this year will help in that regard because every single match counts and they are all going to be very competitive.”
And the attendance is one area where Connacht have indisputably made huge strides over the course of the last five years. It has not risen over the past season and Ruane clearly wants it to kick on again but the average gate has more than doubled since the 2008/09 season from 1,989 to 4,758.
The new television deals and new main league sponsor are important as well, in addition to the changes to European qualification, and it has been all change in the Pro12 in recent times.
With those issues resolved now though, it is time for stability – at Connacht as well as for the league as a whole.
Ruane is the province's fourth chief executive since the back end of the 2011/12 season, with Tom Sears succeeding Gerry Kelly but leaving in September 2013 and being replaced by Kevin Potts on an interim basis until this summer, and he thinks it is important to have some continuity now.
“To have a CEO back in place and to be able to provide that focus and leadership is very, very important,” he added.
It may be early on in his reign and only time will tell if his faith in Connacht's on and off-field potential is well-placed or wide of the mark but the man himself is unequivocal and insists he would not have taken the job if he had any doubt he could lead the club to success:
“We are very, very ambitious and we are optimistic. I really believe that we can create something very special and successful here and I wouldn't have taken up the role if I didn't think that”
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