As he prepares to leave Northampton Saints to take up a new role with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews, Chief Executive Mark Darbon and Julia Chapman, CEO and CE in-waiting, chatted about changes both on and off the pitch. Hilary Scott reports.
“It’s a job that I’ve come to love, and actually it becomes a bit more than a job, right? it’s what our family do every weekend now,” says outgoing Chief Exec Mark Darbon. “My kids have grown up sitting in the stands here as Saint supporters. So yeah, it was a really difficult decision to leave.
“At the same time, after seven and a half years, it’s probably time for a new challenge for me and probably time for the club to have a new voice too, as we sort of go into the next phase of our growth, hopefully, building on the success.”
Darbon arrived at Franklins’ Gardens in July 2017 – before Covid and Cinch had such an impact on Northampton’s town centre ground. He oversaw the hiring of Chris Boyd, the transition to the current coaching team under Dowson, and the commercial benefits of the cinch partnership, the Tunnel Club, indoor performance centre and far better links to the women’s game via Loughborough Lightning and as a host venue for the Women’s World Cup.
One the new premiership season, which starts against Bath away on September 20, he is very upbeat: “It’s the position you want to be in, right? We’re really proud of our success last year. I think we’re optimistic for what’s to come this season. Obviously, a bit of change on the playing side, but we’ve got a very settled spine core to our side. It’s homegrown.
“I think we’re at 70 odd percent of our senior squad which has come through our Academy. That’s something we’re really proud of. So we’re optimistic and looking forward to getting into it at the same time, without the likes of Courtney [Lawes] and Lewis [Ludlam] and things are going to look and feel a little bit different.
But what of the health of Northampton Saints after the demise of other clubs, including London Irish, Wasps and Worcester?
“The clubs themselves manage their commercial performance on a local basis, with their own audience in their own venues, and we’re really proud of what we’ve been doing on that front. And then we’re working collaboratively with the league, ultimately to grow the audience for our sport. We’ve got to continue to grow the audience – grow its appeal to ensure that it works for our traditional season supporters and new younger people that we bring into the game, because only then can we monetise that proposition.
“We need the broadcasters to invest in our sport because there’s an audience that follows it. We need major corporate partners investing at league level because they want to be involved with the Premiership. And then at club level, we need to be harnessing our audience and providing a sensational experience when people come in through the gates of our club.
“And so it’s challenging to get all those pieces working. And there’s definitely, you know, a hangover from Covid, not least in the form of the loans that most of the clubs still have to pay back to DCMS [Dept for Culture, Media and Sport] for their support during the pandemic. But I’m optimistic that we can we can get there.”
Julia Chapman – who has worked alongside Darbon for more than seven years as CEO – will be taking over. She wanted to reassure fans that the business of rugby at Northampton is stable: “Any CEO of any Premiership Club has to have the finances of the club very close at heart because it’s a really big challenge. But we have never adopted a price-first approach to tackling that problem. And, you know, we can assure our fans that that isn’t changing. We’re acutely aware of the challenges that people face and the cost of living crisis, And our focus always has been, and always will be, on value for money and providing people with a great experience when they come here.”
In the light of recent England coaching departures, are there worries Borthwick might come for the best club in the prem’s coaching team?
“We’ve relatively recently extended the contracts of Dowson, of Sam Vesty, Lee Radford, James Craig and Matt Ferguson – they’re under contracts”, says Darbon. “I think we’re in a really good place with that coaching group and I mean, look, when people are saying your coaches are doing a good job, we take that as a huge compliment.”
On the Professional Game Partnership (PGP) which will see the RFU hand over more cash to clubs and an adjudicator appointed to oversee any issues between club and country, darbon is reasonably relaxed. he said: “The new PGP isn’t signed yet but I think it’s pretty close. We’re as a club pretty comfortable with what’s in there and excited by a lot of it. I think, at the same time, there are many aspects of that new deal which we’re going to learn about as we go through the next few seasons. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
“One of the things that comes up typically is the relationship around your key players who are England Internationals, and who can call the shots in terms of medical approaches under these new hybrid contracts.
“Our team has got good relationship into the England setup. I think it’s those relationships that will be the big driver of what plays out. But it is a bit of a new world. And so we’re going to have to watch that space carefully and make sure we work really effectively with them.
“If we’re to make headway with the challenges we face, we have to grow the audience. We’ve said that many times already, and I’m hoping that the new JMA, The Joint marketing agreement, will help us unlock some of those opportunities. And from a club, and league perspective, tapping into the large International rugby audience, trying to get them to Premiership games and hope that they fall in love with that.”
Julia added: We’re very, very thoughtful about where we spend, how we spend, and looking at what’s going to deliver a return. Making sure we’re making wise decisions when we do spend – and there are lots of examples of projects that we’ve done that with the High Performance Centre being the most recent example.”
