David Dein, the man who pushed to create the breakaway Premier League, once said, “I have the motto of the turtles – you don’t get anywhere unless you stick your neck out”, so why can’t there be change in rowing to keep moving with the wants and needs of the athletes and spectators? There is a tendency in rowing to uphold long-standing traditions, despite there being clear evidence that not adapting to modernity and the needs of consumers causes systems to fail. Polls conducted on Instagram and LinkedIn show that more than 90% of people have a preference of side-by-side racing over head races. Does this not show that the rowing season should be adjusted to make it more spectator friendly for a larger proportion of the year? Let’s introduce the Rowing Super-League!
Take 10 of the top performing universities and clubs; Leander, Oxford Brookes, Molesey, Thames, London RC, University of London, Durham University, Edinburgh University, Oxford University and Cambridge University, with the rankings taken from recent results at WeHORR, HORR and the Boat Race and its fixture series from 2023. A larger and more in-depth rankings table could also be produced to give access to other clubs looking to join the League or create multiple divisions.
The importance of a training period and head races within the season cannot be understated as it still has a value to those athletes more focussed on endurance and in creating a base level of fitness to allow athletes to perform at such a high level in the regatta season. Therefore, this would still stand from September to January moving key head races to take place within this time frame to ensure the large scale traditionally significant races still go ahead.
The start of February is where the season starts to grow in intensity for the top 10 clubs in the country. In three locations around the UK; Henley, Nottingham and Eton Dorney, 1.5km 1v1 races will take place on one or two weekends per month in a men’s 4-, women’s 4-, men’s 8+ and a women’s 8+ for points which would go towards the overall league table. More locations could be added to grow the appeal more widely around the whole of the UK. In addition, more disciplines could be added to the race days including different boat classes and para classes.
The 1v1 races will bring into play the intensity of fixture racing and will lean more towards tactical racing as crews find different ways to gain an advantage over one another throughout the course. To further add to the sense of competition, points would be gained at each 500m mark in the race and at the end of the race with a maximum of 5 points up for grabs along the course, 1 at 500m, 1 at 1km and 3 at the finish line. These points will then be summarised on a league table where the clubs aim to win the championship and to keep out of relegation at the end of the season.
How could it bring in great revenue? Financially, a model could be brought in, similar to the one in the United States, teams are sponsored by large sports companies such a Nike, adidas and Under Armour as the rise in spectators and TV coverage would bring value to the companies. The races could be streamed on television or on a streaming site to gain coverage and spectatorship. As more supporters begin to follow their local club more closely, they can follow their performances statistically on the league table. Therefore, boosting the accessibility to spectate the races on television as well as creating spectator friendly areas along the course, selling tickets and hospitality packages to bring revenue into the venues and the clubs. This increased income can also be filtered down in grass roots clubs to help improve the accessibility of people starting out in the sport.
Adopting this new style would be daunting for the clubs involved as well as long-standing host institutions such as British Rowing. But the incorporation of this would still allow for key rowing events to take place during the season such as WeHORR and HORR being relocated to end of December/start of January and the Boat Race to the end of January. With the league being completed by the middle of June it still allows for Henley Royal Regatta to take place in its usual dates. Moreover, other head races and regattas would still take place for the other 200+ rowing clubs in Britain to take part in.
To wrap up, this new idea has the potential to bring in more revenue to the sport through increased spectatorship and sponsorships. This increased income can be filtered down to grass roots clubs to develop the future rowers who aspire to race in the Rowing Super League and improve the accessibility of the sport. It increases the duration of the regatta season by 2 months, which has been shown to be the more popular discipline of rowing for more than 90% of people. The idea also brings in a new and exciting format of racing for points and overall time. Adopting something like this would obviously take a lot of planning as did the creation of the football Premier League in 1992, but it is something that could elevate the sport into new heights and turn the current trajectory of the sport around. Of course, this idea is simply that and I don’t see any major formatting changes in the near future of our sport.
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