Gloucester chief warns government bailout not enough to stave off Premiership's financial...

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Gloucester chief executive Lance Bradley warned the government’s sports bailout will save clubs from going under but will not be a panacea for all the Premiership’s financial difficulties. Last month the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) announced that Premiership clubs would receive £59million in loans as part of its overall £300million rescue package to winter sports affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Telegraph Sport understands that clubs are due to receive the funding in the form of a ten-year loan in mid to late January with an interest rate of 2 per cent. With crowds set to be absent from stadiums in the near future, the money is desperately needed to avert the prospect of clubs going to the wall. In Gloucester’s case, Bradley estimates that the club have lost £6-8 million over the course of the pandemic. However even with the rollout of a vaccine in the pipeline, Bradley says that clubs face a long and difficult road to making a full recovery. “The terms of the loan are not unreasonable and there may be a feeling once everybody is vaccinated and we start getting crowds back in that the problem is over with when it is not,” Bradley said. “We are all going to be paying back these loans for the next ten years. The support we are getting is not to replace we have lost, it is to make sure we survive but those (£6-8million) are the types of losses we have incurred. “The objective is survival as much as anything else and making sure we have got clubs still able to play in the Premiership. That’s been the focus. I am now expecting that we will have a full set of teams going forward because of the loan. Speaking for Gloucester, assuming we get what we think we will get that will tide us over. We would have been a lot of trouble if it had not been for that. The fact that we will be repaying it for ten years is not ideal but it is much better than not being here.” With so many clubs still teetering on the brink, there will be added pressure to introduce ringfencing at the end of the season, albeit with relegated Saracens allowed back into the top flight. After come back up last season after relegation, Newcastle head coach Dave Walder says that ringfencing will allow clubs to “get their finances in order”.

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