Gloucester: Prem club hope Villa Park game will grow revenue, fanbase and talent pool

Harlequins have mastered their Allianz Stadium spectacle, Saracens have hosted huge crowds at Wembley, the Olympic Park and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Bristol return to Cardiff’s Principality this weekend and now Gloucester are the latest Prem club to launch a showpiece match at a major ground.

The Cherry and Whites are trading Kingsholm for Birmingham’s Villa Park on Saturday when they take on Leicester Tigers (13:00 GMT).

The idea to host a showpiece game has been in the pipeline for a number of years, says chief executive Alex Brown, and it was a visit to Premier League side Aston Villa’s home last year that confirmed it was the right place to try.

“It was really quite compelling,” Brown told BBC Sport.

“We all came away from that day, that visit, with our eyes fully widened and open to the opportunity, the grandeur of the stadium.

“The level of experience they’re delivering for their football fans is incredible and we’re all very impressed and equally excited.”

Sacrificing a home game to move your team and fans to another location – in this instance 57 miles away – comes with challenges.

But Kingsholm has a capacity of 12,000 and Villa Park is more than three times bigger at 45,000.

Commercially there are opportunities to generate more money, which is a big driver for a modest-sized club such as Gloucester.

“Harlequins sell out 82,000 at Twickenham and that’s a massive commercial revenue line for them and we want it to be the same for us,” Brown added.

“I don’t think we’re going to sell out in year two or maybe not even year three, but we may get close – we’ve got to start somewhere and we’ve got to make this sport financially sustainable and that’s what we’re edging towards.

“The goal is to use this extra revenue that we’re getting for this game to reinvest into our squad.”