Stable Stormers have a long-term vision while still chasing immediate URC success

With the start of the fifth season of the United Rugby Championship (URC) just days away, South Africa’s only winners of the tournament are in a healthy space.

The Stormers, champions of the inaugural URC in 2022, come into this year’s tournament under the radar, but quietly confident.

A small profit in their latest annual report, a growing list of sponsors, the relaunch of their Academy after an eight-year dormancy and clearer on-field objectives with a leaner squad are all reasons to be optimistic.

Let’s be clear, they won’t start the campaign as pre-tournament favourites, but their vision is one that looks years ahead, and not just in the coming weeks.

Two home matches to start the campaign is as kind as the fixture list can be, even if game one is against defending champions Leinster.

Fans want to hear about teams predicting wins and being champions. Naturally, the Stormers want to win the URC and are certainly capable of it, but they’re also pragmatic.

Despite a healthy balance sheet at a time when many clubs are struggling (Wales has proposed cutting two clubs), chief executive Johan le Roux quashed any thoughts of a spending spree on players for instant gratification.

In fact, the elite player squad has been reduced from a roster of about 55 to fewer than 50 as part of the tight financial reins Le Roux maintains.

A change in the Test match hosting model, which the Stormers opposed, but which was accepted by the South African Rugby Union’s (Saru) general council, will cost the Stormers R50-million in their next financial year.

That is income that could have paid half the salaries on the Stormers’ current roster for a year.

In the past the hosting union staged the Test, set ticket prices and sold them, and paid Saru a set fee, which fluctuated depending on the opposition. The union then kept the difference.

The new model sees Saru set a price, control the ticket sales and pay the union a “fee” for using its stadium.

“The profit we made last year was largely due to the R80-million we earned from the All Blacks Test (held at DHL Stadium in September 2024),” Le Roux told Daily Maverick.

“This year, under the new Test model, where we are paid a hosting fee of R30-million by Saru (for the August 2025 Test against Australia), we have seen a R50-million swing in earnings on one match alone.”

Ticket prices for both the All Blacks in 2024 and the Wallabies in 2025, the Stormers’ big earners, remained similar. The difference is that Saru bagged most of the money from the latter.

Le Roux understands that the Springboks are the national team and that pinning your funding model on hosting a Bok Test is not ideal, but it’s also the way the South African rugby ecosystem is structured.

“I know that the Springboks are not ‘our’ team, and that the argument Saru makes is that hosting Test matches is not guaranteed, but it is a frustration for us in terms of trying to run a profitable business,” Le Roux said.

Full members

The one upside for the Stormers and other clubs though is that Saru became a full member of the URC at the end of July. That means the close to R390-million Saru was paying to “buy” its way into European competitions has fallen away.

Read more: SA clubs set for R40m dividend after Saru gains full URC shareholder status

And as a consequence, there will be additional income flowing towards the Stormers, Bulls, Lions and Sharks – R36.5-million more per club per annum, to be exact.

That almost offsets the R50-million shortfall in Test match revenue for the Stormers, although all their URC travel costs will need to come out of that extra money.

Le Roux has budgeted for about R23-million in URC and European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) travel costs this season, leaving about R13.5-million in his coffers.

“I’d have preferred the old Test model over this, but that’s the way it is.” Le Roux said.

Clear vision

Le Roux heads up the Red Disa Consortium. He, and his partners, bought a majority equity stake in the Stormers at a time of tumult at the Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU), which effectively owned the Stormers through its professional arm, WP Professional Rugby.

The WPRFU was put into administration under Saru in late 2021 and it took another two years to find an equity buyer for the Stormers. The administrator selected Red Disa in 2023 while the WPRFU remained under administration until earlier this year.

Red Disa paid about R150-million for a 74% stake, with the WPRFU holding 26%, and removed the Stormers from under the control of the union. A new board was established, with only two seats going to the WPRFU.

From a business perspective, Red Disa cut the clutter by ring-fencing the elite rugby programme from elected officials.

It’s a lean programme now, focused on three pillars – rugby, business success and driving commercial value. The days of voting for positions of power through the 90-odd clubs that make up the WPRFU are over.

But that doesn’t mean the Stormers won’t engage with the rugby community and integrate themselves with the lifeblood of the sport in the province.

The Stormers “rebranded” last month. They changed their logo, which, while initially causing some shock, has actually grown on this writer.

While the styling and the logo were a nod to the future, the jersey, which has gone back to traditional WP hoops, is acknowledgement of the past and of the club’s storied history.

The idea of unity and being “In it together” is the slogan for the season.

“The rebrand, which included the introduction of a new logo, was primarily done to expand the appeal of the organisation beyond the boundaries of a traditional rugby team,” Le Roux explained.

Rugby is part of a global entertainment industry and not simply a rugby team in the “sporting” arena.

Le Roux sees them as a “contemporary lifestyle and entertainment brand” rather than just a traditional rugby entity. The goal is for the brand to evolve into something “much more than a rugby team”, becoming associated with a “tribe”.

The rebrand seeks to appeal to a “wider audience and not just a traditional rugby audience”. The strategic objective is to make the proposition appealing to everyone – including getting “the kids in” and “the wives in” – so that supporting the team becomes part of the fabric of Cape Town society.

“Hardcore rugby fans want a winning team,” Le Roux said.

“A lot of what we did with the brand relaunch, how we focused and how we set targets was to make the Stormers an appealing proposition for everybody. That it is, if you’re from Cape Town, you support the Stormers.

“It’s not for someone who only played or plays rugby, or if you can quote rugby laws verbatim. You don’t have to be an expert. It’s something that you do. And I think that’s important for us to get the kids in, get the wives in and get everybody in.

“It must be part of what the fabric of Cape Town society does. Whether a Saturday afternoon or on a Friday night. If you’re from Cape Town, you’re a Stormer.”

The club is already having some success in that area, with the highest average attendances at home games in every season of the URC so far. Last year the Stormers pulled in a little under 25,000 per game.

On the field

Off the field the Stormers are on a much surer footing than at any time in the past five years, thanks to focused management and careful fiscal responsibility.

On the field though, is where the business must be done. The recent woes in the Currie Cup (when almost no URC players were used) has left some fans unsettled.

Obviously, results in the 2025 Currie Cup are not a reliable indicator of URC success or otherwise, but at the club with the most Currie Cup titles, older supporters feel shortchanged by the domestic debacle.

As thrilling as Griquas’ Currie Cup win was, for the Stormers and three other clubs, the Bulls, Lions and Sharks, the URC is where their priorities lie.

The Stormers have opted to focus on youth with a smattering of old heads. The acquisitions of 35-year-old scrumhalf Cobus Reinach, 29-year-old flank Ruan Ackermann and 31-year-old prop Wilco Louw (who will transfer in 2026) and 33-year-old Scotland prop Oli Kebble fall into that small band of recruits needed for a long season.

The thought of Reinach, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse operating as a 9/10/12 axis is salivating, but also something that won't be common due to restrictions on Bok players.

Therefore, the longer-term view is focused on youth. And the Stormers have signed 2025 high school stars such as Paarl Gim’s Markus Muller (centre), Rondebosch’s Alutha Wesi (flank/centre), Matt van der Merwe (prop) and Randall-John Davids (utility back), Paul Roos’ Altus Rabie (hooker) and Paarl Boys’ Jordan Jooste (prop). They have also already locked down SA U20 captain Riley Norton (lock/flank).

The plan is to continue to be a factor in the URC and fight for the title every year while building enough squad depth through focused recruitment from the Western Cape’s brilliant schoolboy system to realistically contend for an EPCR title by 2029.

“The rugby foundations need to be solid,” Le Roux said. “We are not interested in buying a team.

“We will give the coaches what they need, we are investing in data to help our coaching trends, we are prioritising strength and conditioning.

“Our investment is going into getting those structures right, getting the right personnel in, to manage pathways, and recruiting the best players we can.

“The URC is a long slog. Your non-Springboks are vital because the Springboks must miss so much of the season. Those guys just below are incredible.

“Neethling Fouche has now taken a step up, Ruhan Nel, JD Schickerling, Ruben van Heerden, Warrick Gelant and Leolin Zas are examples of players we need.

“There’s so many of these guys who would not look out of place in the Springbok team, but for whatever reason, they’re not in that category.

“But it means they are 100% committed to the Stormers. And they’re available the whole season. Those guys are very, very valuable.

“If I have to pick a priority though, and I think it’s important to have a priority, it is to make sure that we build this machine that squeezes everything out of this junior rugby environment that we’ve got.” DM