A Welsh rugby club chairman has issued a plea for the community game to receive greater financial support after revealing how monthly costs have doubled.
And, in a stark warning to the financial reality facing grassroots clubs, mid-week training and matches could soon be affected as teams struggle to cover the rising costs to simply power the floodlights.
Caerphilly RFC posted an infographic on social media on Wednesday that demonstrated that their monthly costs had soared from £5,112-a-month to £10,375 - meaning it now costs just shy of £125,000-a-year to run the Division Two East Central side. And the club's chairman, Gareth Ashman, fears that several other community clubs will be facing up to similar mounting bills.
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In the social media post, which has been retweeted and shared hundreds of times, the club describe the challenge to keep the club open as "frighteningly real". Speaking about what prompted the club to publicise the obstacles they were facing, Ashman admitted that, as well as informing fans and members of the financial reality, he hoped someone putting the figures out there could help spearhead some change.
"We put out an infographic a couple of years ago, just as we were coming out of Covid, just to illustrate to our fans how difficult it was and make them aware of the running costs of the club," he told WalesOnline. "People don't realise how costly it is to run a facility.
"We've got a 6,000-seat stadium which is a legacy of being professional, but it's been underinvested over the last 30 years so it's quite an aging facility. We wanted to highlight the challenges post-Covid.
"Obviously, with the huge rises in bills, we wanted to put it out there again with an updated view on how difficult it would be as a club to meet these challenges. Our energy bills coming out of Covid were £900 a month.
"Yet we've had a quote from our supplier saying it would now be £15,000-a-month. Just for utilities. You can imagine the shock. We've managed to get that down to what we see as a reasonable £4,500-a-month.
"It's quite bizarre to call that reasonable as that's four-and-a-half times increase on what we were paying. Just coming in and turning the lights on at the club costs over £10,000 a month now.
"It's really difficult to look at and pay. So we updated the graphic to reflect the fact that most prices have gone up, not just for the challenges we'll face, but all community clubs are going to be up against.
"It's going to be difficult to break even. Fortunately, over the last five years, we've had a new committee who has got us into a good position financially. We are business-like in how we treat it.
"I work in government and our treasurer Mike Haley is an accountant, so we treat it like a business. It is going to be challenging, but I'm sure there's clubs out there - having already spoken to some - who are in a far worse position than us.
"So it was to make our members aware, but also to publicise the plight of community rugby in Wales as a whole. It's going to be a challenging time for sure."
Since posting the inforgraphic, the club have been contacted by the Welsh Rugby Union and are set to meet with the governing body. Ashman is hopeful that they can offer some financial support, but admits that trying to look after 300-odd community clubs is a "huge ask".
"I'd like to think that they'd be able to offer some sort of financial support because without community rugby, you don't have that end product of professional rugby," added Ashman. "It's essential community rugby survives or what happens in the Principality Stadium won't be there."
Having a full set of fixtures will help in some way, after hit-and-miss fixture lists and cancellations defining community rugby in Wales post-Covid. Caerphilly are blessed in terms of playing numbers and having nearly 300 juniors, a thriving youth team and first and second sides means there will always be rugby on for people to come and watch.
But they are aware that not every club in Wales will be so readily able to field teams on a weekly basis. They are also aware that, while they would love the community to rally around them as nothing brings in money like "beer over the bar in the clubhouse", everyone is feeling the pinch right now.
"It's a challenging time for everyone and we're aware of that," Ashman said. "So we're reaching out to the Welsh Government and the Welsh Rugby Union to look at some support. Obviously our aim was to look at some support from the larger bodies out there that can offer that support."
One striking example of how costs have risen and the impact this will have on clubs is that Caerphilly's costs to run their floodlights has risen from £20-an-hour to a staggering £120-an-hour. Quite simply, serious thought will have to be undertaken over midweek training and matches in order to keep costs down.
"We've got aging metal halide floodlights," explains Ashman. "We applied for a grant with Sport Wales and the Welsh Rugby Union to get more energy efficient floodlights to replace them, but that grant was turned down for some reason.
"Other clubs have got them, which was disappointing. We were looking to make an environmental choice, but sadly we weren't supported in that.
"But our lighting cost has gone from £20-an-hour to £120-an-hour. Obviously that impacts on training and matchday costs.
"Other clubs, like Rhymney Valley District and Newport High, use our ground as we have floodlights but we can't offer that for free anymore as prices rise.
"We are looking at pulling matches forward so we don't have to use the floodlights on a Saturday. 13 teams train at the club so you can work out the huge financial burden on the club.
"It's worrying. If we had that grant, we'd be looking at around a tenth of that cost, but £120 an hour is unsustainable so we'll have to look at minimizing our need for the lights. It's huge.
"My concern is that we're in a really good financial position. We know clubs locally that have come and spoken to us about how we manage our funds. Our concern is about community rugby as a whole. We're all in this together and we need some support to survive.
"The support we've had on social media has been so positive. We are all supportive of each other as rugby clubs. We may be enemies on the pitch, but we support each other off it.
"We're all in this together and are facing the same challenge, but hopefully our tactic of putting the numbers out there can help spearhead some sort of change."
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