The Exeter Chiefs have joined the Cornish Pirates Rugby Football Club, Bath Rugby and the Newcastle Red Bulls in welcoming foreign investment.

It is the beginning of the next chapter of English #rugby which has been a roller-coaster where it is not clear if the introduction of private equity has been positive.

The initial attempt to stabilise English rugby came from the top down.

In 2018, CVC took a 27% stake in PREM Rugby in a deal worth around £200M, which was followed up by £365M for a one-seventh share in the Six Nations Rugby in 2021.

At this point English clubs were losing about £30M collectively per years and the investment was meant to create stability - each of the 12 Premiership clubs, along with then-Championship leader London Irish Rugby Club, received approximately £18 million from the CVC deal.

COVID then invalidated the financial runway this investment was to provide.

Since then Wasps, Worcester Warriors, and London Irish all collapsed.

Influx of cash has not changed the underlying economics which is the wage-to-revenue problem. The Leonard Curtis Rugby Finance Report warned that a ratio cap of 70% may be needed for any franchise model to deliver genuine financial stability.

Several clubs are currently running that ratio at 87–92%.

Now capital is going direct to clubs.

Red Bull acquired Newcastle in April 2025 for £39M, while committing simultaneously to pay off the club's debts (£14.5M government loan and £4M from fellow Premiership clubs).

Red Bull's playbook from football is instructive: RB Leipzig won four promotions in seven years after the brand invested heavily, starting from the fourth tier of German football.

Exeter Chiefs announced a takeover via Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, if due diligence completes the group take full ownership of the Devon based club.

This is Bill Foley's vehicle which includes AFC Bournemouth, Auckland FC and FC Lorient.

This follows James Dyson's 50% stake in Bath Rugby in March, while Cornish Pirates announced a deal with Pittsburgh-based Stonewood Capital Management, described as the first known US investment into an English professional rugby club.

None of this investment wave is coincidental.

England Rugby approved a reform in February 2026 replacing automatic promotion and relegation with a criteria-based expansion and demotion model from the 2026-27 campaign.

By 2029-30, the top flight is planned to expand to 12 clubs under the new franchise arrangement.

Prem Rugby is working with The Raine Group and Deloitte to sell potential expansion franchises and attract new investment into the league itself.

With the US hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2031, the timing also provides a clear commercial demand catalyst for American capital specifically.

The franchise model removes relegation risk for investors, but it also reduces competitive stakes for fans that makes football so compelling.