R72m lawsuit allegations against Western Province are 'inaccurate'‚ says CEO

28 October 2016 - 13:38 By Craig Ray

Allegations that Western Province Rugby owe a company called Aerios‚ who sell commercial rights and stadium advertising‚ R72-million‚ appear to be off the mark. A report on Sport24.com on Thursday stated: “Aerios is claiming immediate payment of R72-million‚ understood to be related to the HSBC Sevens [World Series‚ SA leg now held annually in Cape Town]‚ outstanding invoices for stadium advertising‚ and over suite names and branding.”But insiders informed TMG Digital‚ that that particular claim was ‘nonsense’.The World Sevens Series is owned and administered by World Rugby and‚ in the case of the Cape Town leg‚ hosted by SA Rugby.WP Rugby does not have any commercial contracts with either the Cape Town Stadium or with the World Sevens Series. In short WP Rugby has nothing to do with the Cape Town Sevens – it’s a World Rugby event administered by SA Rugby. SA Rugby did not enter into a commercial agreement with Aerios for the Cape Town Sevens either.The story also claims that‚ “the dispute centres on a sponsorship contract entered into between WP Rugby and DHL [headline sponsors of Newlands‚ plus the Stormers and WP] without the consent of Aerios – holders of the commercial rights of the union.”There is also some discrepancy over that claim as a rival commercial and marketing company called the Treble Group brokered the deal with DHL in 2013. Aerios only came on board as a WP commercial partner much later. How they can lay claim to a contract that pre-dated their involvement remains unclear.Attempts to speak to Aerios chief executive Costas Constantinou were unsuccessful.WP CEO Paul Zacks would only offer: “There were a number of material inaccuracies in the report published by Sport 24 and we will deal with this in due course.” But insiders have painted a bleak picture about the relationship between the parties in which WP appear to have ceded a great deal of their commercial power to Aerios over the long term.The finances of the union – and all unions in SA for that matter – are precarious. According to the Sport 24 report the WP board projected an R11.2m loss when its next financial statements are released.That would be in keeping with the situation of most unions in SA‚ which have seen a decline in crowd attendances as well as financial pressure to compete with foreign clubs to keep marquee players. – TMG Sport..

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