Bristol Bears have been left out of pocket for a second week running following the cancelation of their European Heineken Champions Cup game with Stade Francais.
Sunday’s scheduled game has been postponed due to travel problems caused by the French government banning all but essential travel to and from the UK in a bid to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
EPCR, the tournament organisers, released a statement confirming all games between British and French clubs have been postponed with their intention to reschedule the matches at a future unknown date.
Last weekend Bristol were handed a 28-0 walk over victory in Europe after Scarlets were forced to forfeit the game following the majority of their squad being forced to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel up until a couple of days before the scheduled game after getting trapped in South Africa as the UK Government put the country on the travel red list in their own unsuccessful bid to stop the spread of Omicron.
While the result was favourable to the Bears’ advancement in the competition, director of rugby Pat Lam confirmed it has hit them hard in the wallet.
Lam said: “I think what people don’t realise is that we have lost nearly £300k from not having that Scarlets game on [at Ashton Gate], with what we had already sold in tickets and hospitality.
“We had our annual budget meeting this week and before Covid we were flying financially, and obviously, everyone took a hit, and then we were starting to get back with our ticket sales, season ticket sales and people coming to the games, which has been awesome.
“You are trying to recover from those financial losses but with our game not being played you see the numbers we have to refund and what it costs - it is huge.
“Don’t get me wrong I understand health and safety but when you are watching Munster and Cardiff play last weekend, and we were the only ones not playing, there is a question about the impact on our finances.
“Potentially there are more teams going to be facing that this week, whether it is hosting games or flying in and the costs of everything booked.
“It will certainly take its toll.”
Now the Bears face a further financial hit.
Bristol had a plane chartered at a cost of around £40,000 for the trip to France and the overall cost of taking 30 players, plus coaches and support staff, costs in the region of £75,000 for a trip to Europe in Covid times.
