Leeds Rugby scoops yet another top award, this time in the world of business.
The Leeds Rhinos rugby league club would seem to be world class in all departments, having already won the Rugby League, World Club Championship & the Engage Super League Grand Final in 2008 they now complement this with the off the pitch award to their commercial arm Leeds Rugby for Commercial Department of the Year, the Rhinos business model is recognised as one of the most successful in sport.
Leeds Rugby were this week named 'Commercial Department of the Year' at the prestigious Rugby Business Awards Dinner.
The Rugby Business Awards were the highlight of a two day rugby exhibition in London that brought together all parts of the oval ball game from both codes.
Leeds Rugby's Business Development Manager Lisa Crooks accepted the award on behalf of the Commercial Sales department, which looks after both Leeds Rhinos and Leeds Carnegie.
The Rugby Business Awards recognise/celebrate commercial achievement globally across both rugby league and union.
The awards were supported and judged by foremost organisations and individuals from both sport and industry with categories recognising & rewarding outstanding practice or achievement.
The nomination & award is recognition for the systems put in place some years ago & through hard work, diligence & innovation added to the total professionalism at Leeds Rugby’s world famous Headingley stadium has led to commercial success which has not been hindered by the incredible achievements of the dominant Leeds Rhinos who are the successive Engage Super League Grand Final winners & RL World Club Champions with attendance that now rival many football clubs, the team have created massive interest from business sponsors with the commercial activities helping to underpin this success.
Commercial Director Rob Oates said, "This is a fantastic achievement for us and one we are very honoured to receive. Our company vision includes being recognised as the leader in club rugby both on and off the pitch and this award shows we are doing just that with our commercial operation.
"We are fortunate to have some tremendous partners here at Leeds Rugby with people like Leeds Met Carnegie, Leeds Building Society, O2 and ISC to name just four. In the current ecomonic climate we are always grateful for the support of all our partners and this award is wonderful recognition of that."
Rebecca Hopkins, MD of ENS Ltd and founder of the awards explained 'The awards were established to recognize and celebrate commercial achievement in both codes of rugby, globally. Whilst other clubs submitted impressive entries, Leeds' work across both codes, commercially and within the community made them the stand-out candidate.'
The full list of categories and winners are:
1. Commercial Department of the Year: Leeds Rugby Ltd.
2. Union of the Year: Welsh Rugby Union
3. Outstanding Advance in Technology, Innovation or Research: Opta Sportsdata Ltd
4. CSR Programme of the Year: SOS IRB Kit Aid
5. Rugby Correspondent of the Year: Mick Cleary, The Daily Telegraph
6. Rugby Business Person of the Year: Reg Clark, Rhino Rugby
7. Sponsor of the Year under US$500,000: The Co-operative Group
8. Sponsor of the Year over US$500,000, Tournament: Guinness
9. Sponsor of the Year over US$500,000, Team: 02
Rebecca Hopkins concluded 'We are delighted with what the awards have achieved in the first year and how warmly they have been welcomed and supported by the industry, from South Africa to Serbia and Australia to the USA. We were keen to be transparent as to how we reached our conclusions and to this end the team at Deloitte adjudicated every stage of the judging process to ensure all entries received a fair hearing. So if someone didn't win, they were fully considered and if they did win then, like Leeds Rugby, they were a very worthy winner.'
For more information about the Rugby Business Awards visit www.rugbyawards.org or contact Sam Bowman on 020 7934 9301 / info@rugbyawards.org |
