Premiership Rugby weighs neutral-venue semi-finals to rival Top 14's 67,000-capacity spectacle

Premiership Rugby is seriously considering scrapping home semi-finals in favour of neutral-venue showdowns played in one city on consecutive days, according to a BBC Sport report, as the league looks to replicate the commercial scale of France’s Top 14 play-offs.

The current format handed Northampton and Bath home ties this season as a reward for finishing first and second in the regular season. Both grounds sold out at 15,000 capacity, generating an estimated £600,000–£750,000 in extra revenue per club, and the derby atmosphere — Northampton hosting Leicester, Bath hosting Exeter — was widely praised. Yet Prem Rugby’s leadership believes those numbers could be significantly higher in larger arenas.

“The semi-finals that we have just had were awesome in terms of the rugby spectacle, and they’re sell-out games with their home crowds,” said Prem Rugby Chief Executive Simon Massie Taylor. “But I think they would sell out larger venues and neutrals would go as well. This is about the long term. In the long term, it will be more valuable if you are playing in bigger stadia.”

The model under consideration mirrors the EPCR’s Champions Cup and Challenge Cup format, as well as the Top 14, whose semi-finals were just staged at the 67,000-capacity Stade Vélodrome in Marseille. Liverpool’s Hill Dickinson Stadium and Brighton Community Stadium — a venue used during Rugby World Cup 2015 — are understood to be among the neutral sites being evaluated.

The proposal faces resistance from clubs reluctant to surrender home advantage, which has proven decisive over the competition’s history. Of the 45 play-off ties played to date, only seven — just 15.5% — have been won by the visiting side. The last two away victories, Harlequins in 2021 and Exeter earlier this season, both required remarkable comebacks. To ease opposition, Prem Rugby is reportedly considering offering a larger revenue split or enhanced prize money to the clubs who finish in the top two and would otherwise have hosted.

Northampton were confirmed as Gallagher Premiership champions after a 26–17 victory over Exeter at Allianz Stadium, with George Hendy’s quickfire try double sealing the title — a result that underlined the stakes attached to any future restructuring of the play-off format.