Bath chief Craig thinking big

24 October 2014 01:01

Bath may be gearing up for their first European Champions Cup home game in three years this weekend against Toulouse but owner Bruce Craig is already plotting their return to the glory years that saw them crowned champions of Europe in 1998.

However, a European Challenge Cup victory in 2008 apart, it's been slim pickings for Bath at home and abroad in recent years.

They have not won their domestic title since 1996 -- their sixth crown in eight years -- despite topping the league standings in 2004 and reaching the Premiership final in 2001 and that year.

But now Craig, a self-made millionnaire with an estimated personal fortune of 380 million euros ($480 million), wants to re-establish the West Country outfit as one of the leading clubs in Europe.

"Next year there will be some huge stars joining after the World Cup, we'll earn more in gate receipts, sponsorship and TV rights," said Craig, a francophile who moved to Paris following university and fell in love with a Frenchwoman.

He opted to stay in France where he made his fortune before selling his rights in a pharmaceutical logistics company in 2009.

Yet instead of retiring to his home in Aix-en-Provence in the south of the country, he chose instead to buy Bath a year later.

"It was the right time to return to my passion," said Craig, a former scrum-half with his home-town club Chew Magna and Loughborough University before a broken leg put paid to his hopes of earning a spot in the England under-19 team.

Now, though, he's ploughing capital into Bath, uprooting the club's headquarters to an 19th century Gothic-style country house.

His next plan is to renovate the club's Recreation Ground home while he wants to attract the biggest names to Bath.

- Impressive squad -

He has already convinced English rugby league star Sam Burgess to quit South Sydney and the 13-a-side game for a move to union back in his homeland.

He joins an increasingly impressive squad that includes talented young centre Kyle Eastmond, another league convert, Fijian-born British Army soldier and wing Semesa Rokoduguni and former Leicester Tigers fly-half George Ford.

Not to mention the likes of England forwards Dave Wilson (prop) and Dave Attwood, as well as former Ireland scrum-half Peter Stringer, Wales prop Paul James and South Africa flanker Francois Louw.

However, ahead of Bath's 150th anniversary next year, Craig must find a way to turn around the club's finances -- they lost 2.5 million euros last season.

"We hope to increase revenue by three or four million euros which would soak up our losses," he said.

With a current budget of 16 million euros, that would make a huge difference.

And finances are an important part of Craig's long-term strategy. He says he has a five-year plan in place.

"My aim is to merge sporting success with financial balance," he added, acknowledging that to do so the club needs to start winning things, either at home or in Europe.

Anyone doubting Craig's aptitude to achieve such a feat need look only at his influence on reforming the European cup competitions and his hand in bringing Welsh and Scottish clubs on board for evidence of his determination, persistence and ability.

And he showed no fear in upsetting some of the most prominent figures on the European scene such as International Rugby Board president Bernard Lapasset, French Federation president Pierre Camou and now former European Rugby Cup president Jean-Pierre Lux.

"In rugby you always have to go to war when you could simply sit around a table," complained Criag.

"It's very tiring to have to fight to put obvious foundations in place."

One such was defending the commercial autonomy of the clubs and negotiating their television rights directly for European Cup matches.

Having won those battles in the boardrooms, Craig has now set his sights on sporting success on the field, and all of Bath awaits.

Source: AFP