Right-sizing Lions lost a year

Call it a repair job or a healing process, but part of the painful procedure of administrative restoration within the Golden Lions Rugby Union means making tough decisions.

GLRU President Kevin de Klerk has another name for the painful process of the past two years – right-sizing.

And he is intimately familiar with the pain that goes with it, having just watched as long-time friend Manie Reyneke walked out after four years in office as GLRU CEO – one of the many by-products of the ‘right-sizing’.

In this, Part Three of his exclusive and all-encompassing interview with rugby365.com, De Klerk speaks about the numerous administrative changes and controversies during his time in office – which, of course, has just seen the Lions claim their first Currie Cup title since 1999.

* Click here to read PART ONE and PART TWO of this interview!

Amidst all the player upheavals and coaching changes in the early stages of his time in office, the administrative issues often seemed to slip into the background.

However, as the last five months proved, they demanded as much attention and often caused more unwanted headlines than the onfield dramas.

There was the much-publicised public spat with equity partner Guma TAC, which resulted in negotiations around the completion of the shareholders agreement being terminated in June.

The outcome of that was the announcement last month of a new equity deal with Altmann Allers, the union’s vice-President and owner of Glasfit.

But the biggest indication that there are some dramatic administrative changes taking place at GLRU headquarters in Doornfontein was when Reyneke announced last month that he would be leaving the services of the GLRU after four years.

As De Klerk told this website: “There were plenty of painful experiences [in the past two years].”

The departure of the CEO was one of the most painful of those, with De Klerk adding: “Manie [Reyneke]… I saw him grow up and we’ve been friends for 30 years and we will remain friends for at least another 30 years. I am happy he has secured another job in a similar field.

“But we had to right-size, but in certain aspects we fell well short… in the commercial and financial fields. We are busy fixing that up.”

The other, very painful and unpleasant, experience was the public fall-out with Guma Chairman Robert Gumede, who accused the GLRU of being “stuck in the past” and “putting a veneer on transformation”.

“What really hit us – Manie, the union and myself – was the engagement with the previous equity partner,” De Klerk said.

“We lost an entire year. We had to [continue to] pay salaries and we had the usual expenses, but the money just didn’t come in.”

De Klerk did have a message for the Guma boss, Gumede, after some of the nasty things said in public.

“He [Gumede] said, on national television, that he shudders to think what would happen with the Lions now that he wasn’t there… he’s been left with egg on his face,” De Klerk said of a union that has not just found another, equally powerful equity partner, but has also won two national titles recently – the Currie Cup and the Under-19 championship.

Asked about the reasons behind the right-sizing, De Klerk said they could not afford to live beyond their means.

“I would like to explain it this way: If you have just R100 to spend and your shopping list costs R120, you have to cut something out.

“We are now going through that process, it is a long-term process. You can’t keep living hand-to-mouth.

“Unions depend on bums on seats, sponsors, those things for their income. We went through 12 lean years [poor attendances due to poor results] and this union really struggled.

“We are busy with that repair job and it is a tough task.”

Another drawn-out saga that was eventually resolved last month – ironically the same month in which the Lions ended a 12-year Currie Cup drought – was the decision to decline an offer from Stadium Management South Africa to host future Lions matches at the Soccer City Complex in Soweto.

“We had good offers from Soccer City and it is a great venue, but we could not get to a specific figure where we could say that is what we will make [in terms of income],” De Klerk told this website.

“There were just too many misnomers… such as the possibility of setbacks from suite holders, season-ticket holders and life members. We also had to consider how our sponsors would have reacted.

“We just did not get the right messages back in this regard. Add in all the current changers, the right-sizing and new equity partners, it was not the right time to make that move now.

“On the basis of that we showed faith in our current stadium [Ellis Park, or Coca-Cola Park], where we have a lease for another 80 years.

“The ground belongs to the municipality, but we own all the buildings,” he explained.

“At Soccer City the maximum [period] they could offer us was eight or 10 years. That was a shaky offer, because our destiny was not in our own hands – there were simply to many unknown factors for us to take the leap.”

The Lions may still play some fixtures in Soweto and there is the fact that the Springboks’ Tri-Nations Test against the All Blacks next year will most likely be staged in Soweto too.

“That is not impossible,” De Klerk said, when asked about the Lions playing in Soweto in the future, adding: “As we know SARU are considering playing the All Blacks Test there [again].

“We will also consider playing a game at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto, but that will depend on the schedule of those stadiums. It will depend on many factors, but that is one of the options we will consider.”

The GLRU will also have to look at how they manage the Ellis Park precinct more effectively, in terms of how they get “maximum value” out of the two stadiums at their disposal – the main rugby stadium, Ellis Park, and neighbouring Johannesburg Stadium.

The other aspect is the decline of the Doornfontein precinct, like the rest of Johannesburg central in the last decade.

“We are working very hard on that and the Johannesburg City council also have a responsibility to improve the inner city,” he said, when asked about making visits to Ellis Park a more pleasant and safe experience for spectators.

Asked if he felt the administration has improved sufficiently, his answer was brutally frank: “What is enough?

“What was important for me was to steer the ship to calm waters and then we can take it from there.

“We have a good team and we have an agreement with a new equity partner.

“They brought some of their officials, accountants and other administrators, to come help us… to help us solve the issues.”

The GLRU has also announced that it has started the process of appointing a new CEO.

In the interim, Ruben Moggee – from equity partner Glasfit – will be the acting CEO of the Lions. Moggee will be assisted by the Board of Directors.

By Jan de Koning

Related articles:
* Part One: Castaways saved sinking Lions ship
* Part Two: ‘Hands off our winning recipe’