The Olympic spirit is returning to Britain. Three years after London hosted a memorable games, England is preparing to stage this autumn’s Rugby World Cup, one of the biggest sporting events of 2015.
奥林匹克精神正重返英国。三年前伦敦举办了一届令人难忘的奥运会，如今英格兰正在准备承办今年秋天的橄榄球世界杯(Rugby World Cup)——2015年世界最大的体育赛事之一。
The tournament’s Sebastian Coe equivalent is Ian Ritchie, chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, English rugby’s governing body, in charge of making sure the event runs smoothly. “It really will be a festival environment,” he promises.
伦敦奥组委主席是塞巴斯蒂安•科(Sebastian Coe)，而本次赛事的主席是英式橄榄球联盟(Rugby Football Union)的首席执行官伊恩•里奇(Ian Ritchie)。该联盟是英式橄榄球的管理机构，负责确保本次赛事顺利进行。“这必将成为一场充满喜庆气氛的盛事，”他许诺说。
Such optimism is in sharp contrast to three years ago when Mr Ritchie started work at RFU headquarters in Twickenham, home to its imposing 80,000-seater stadium. He left a plum job — chief executive of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, organiser of Wimbledon — to rescue a governing body riven by infighting, legal wrangles and leaks. The England team had just completed a miserable 2011 World Cup campaign noted for off-field player indiscipline and revelry . “I came at quite an interesting time,” Mr Ritchie recalls with understatement.
里奇的这种乐观态度与3年前形成鲜明对比，那时他刚开始在RFU位于特威肯汉姆(Twickenham)的总部工作，联盟壮观的8万人体育场也坐落于此。他辞去了一份称心的工作——温布尔登网球赛(Wimbledon)的主办方全英草地网球和门球俱乐部(All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club)首席执行官——来挽救一个被内讧、法律纠纷和泄密弄得四分五裂的主管团体。英格兰队在2011年橄榄球世界杯上表现欠佳，球员被指在场外缺乏纪律并纵饮狂欢。“我是在一个非常有趣的时间点上任的，”里奇轻描淡写地回忆说。
Why on earth did he want the job in the first place? The All England Club had been a “fantastic” job for this Yorkshire-born and bred former television executive, he admits. His business acumen had steered it through six years of modernisation — building the centre court’s roof, introducing Hawk-Eye technology for disputed line calls, increasing rights revenues, upgrading facilities and giving women equal prize money to men.
他究竟为什么要干这份工作？他承认，全英俱乐部对这位在约克郡(Yorkshire)出生并长大的前电视台高管来说是一份“极好的”工作。他的商业头脑带领该俱乐部经历了6年的现代化——建造中心场地的屋顶、为有争议的触线球引入鹰眼(Hawk-Eye)技术、增加转播权收入、升级场馆设施以及给女性球员与男性球员一样多的奖金。
But perhaps it had become too easy. “I didn’t think that I was ever going to leave Wimbledon, frankly,” he says.
但也许这份工作对他来说已变得太轻松。他说，“坦白地讲，我从未曾想过会离开温布尔登。”
His new challenge has been on many fronts: preparing for rugby’s showpiece tournament, modernising the RFU (described by former England captain Will Carling as a body run by “57 old farts”), building a coaching structure capable of producing a winning England team and creating a legacy from hosting the tournament.
他面临的新挑战来自许多方面：筹办橄榄球项目首屈一指的锦标赛，推动RFU（前英格兰队队长Will Carling所称的由“57个老家伙”管理的机构）现代化，组建一支能够让英格兰队夺冠的教练队伍，以及通过举办本次赛事创造长期效益。
On tournament preparations, he largely delegated. Mr Ritchie hired several London 2012 organisers to set up fan zones, recruit volunteers and sell tickets. Up to half a million foreign visitors are expected.
他把大部分赛事准备工作都委派给别人。里奇雇用了几名2012年伦敦奥运会的组织者，让他们负责建立球迷区、招募志愿者以及销售门票。预计将有多达50万外国游客到来。
But he has faced accusations of elitism — that rugby is predominantly played by public schoolboys and watched by affluent ex-public schoolboys. Just as Olympic events were oversubscribed, diehard rugby fans have also grumbled about how hard it is getting tickets. Seeing a World Cup match at Twickenham is almost impossible. One game attracted 650,000 applications.
但他也面临精英主义的指控，即橄榄球项目主要由私立学校的男生参加比赛，富裕的私立学校校友观赛。像奥运赛事门票被超额预定一样，铁杆橄榄球球迷也抱怨门票异常难买。到特威肯汉姆看一场世界杯比赛几乎不可能。一场比赛就吸引了65万购票申请。
Mr Ritchie rejects the idea that for all his team’s efforts to make the World Cup accessible — with first-round matches at rugby and football grounds around the country — Twickenham remains off-limits to all but the very well off. “I don’t think it is a cauldron for the elite,” he says. Most of the Twickenham tickets for this year’s Six Nations tournament, which begins on Friday when England play Wales in Cardiff, are funnelled through rugby clubs for their supporters, he points out.
里奇拒绝接受这样一种说法，即尽管他的团队想方设法让更多人能够观战此次世界杯——第一轮比赛将在全英的橄榄球和足球场进行——但仍然只有特别有钱的人才有幸到特威肯汉姆看比赛。“我不认为这是一场只为精英举办的赛事，”他说。他指出，以今年在特威肯汉姆举行的六国锦标赛（第一场是周五英格兰与威尔士在卡地夫举行的比赛）为例，大部分门票都通过橄榄球俱乐部发放到了他们的支持者手中。
But he adds: “The Rugby World Cup’s a different situation, I agree, and you’ve got to have some things at the top end. But, I think, it’s a balance, a bit like the Olympics.” The Rugby World Cup is also different because the RFU had to give World Rugby, the global governing body, an £80m guarantee — to “get the gig”, as Mr Ritchie puts it. “You have to make sure that you deal with that and cover it.” It will also be “a big corporate gig”, he says. A corporate box for England’s crucial first-round clash with Australia costs up to £50,000.
但他补充说：“我同意，橄榄球世界杯的情况不一样，你总得有点高端的东西。但是，我认为，这是一种平衡，有点像奥运会。”里奇介绍说，橄榄球世界杯还有一点不同，因为它必须给该项目的全球主管机构——国际橄榄球理事会(World Rugby) 8000万英镑保证金，才能“获得举办权”。“你必须确保拿得出这笔钱，并且把它收回来。”这也将是“一场大型企业赛事”，他说。英格兰与澳大利亚第一轮关键对决的公司包厢费用高达5万英镑。
“The money that comes into all this sort of thing goes directly back into the game. This is not going into a shareholder’s pocket,” he says. The RFU will spend £80m this year on grassroots rugby, on projects such as a new clubhouse for a club in Gloucestershire whose changing facilities not so long ago were a horse box with straw on the floor.
“这些收入都直接再次投入这项运动，而不会流入股东的口袋，”他说。今年RFU将投入8000万英镑资助基层橄榄球运动，项目包括为格罗斯特郡(Gloucestershire)的一个俱乐部修建新的会所，不久前该俱乐部的更衣室还设在一个马棚里，地板上有麦秆。
Such spending on community projects is important to the RFU. Money is also being spent on getting more state schools playing rugby.
社区项目上的此类支出对RFU很重要。一些资金也被用于让更多的公立学校开展橄榄球项目。
But has he really reformed the governance of a body that seemed on the point of self-destruction just three years ago? “We’re in a good place,” he claims. He recruited three independent directors from business to the RFU board, including Helen Weir, outgoing John Lewis finance director, and Andy Cosslett, Fitness First chief executive.
但是，他真的改革了一个3年前似乎濒临自我毁灭的团体的治理模式吗？“我们现在情况很好，”他说。他从商界招募了三名独立董事进入RFU董事会，包括零售企业约翰•路易斯(John Lewis)即将离任的财务总监海伦•韦尔(Helen Weir)，以及菲力斯第一健身俱乐部(Fitness First)的首席执行官高蓄来(Andy Cosslett)。
Mr Ritchie says he has sought to “integrate” the RFU’s activities, from negotiating TV contracts to building community facilities. The RFU Council — the supposed “old farts”that represent the grassroots — is “extremely important”, he says. And on the financial side, the RFU has strengthened.
里奇说，他已试图“整合”RFU的活动——从谈判电视转播合同到建造社区设施。他说，RFU委员会——也就是所谓的“老家伙”，他们代表基层——“非常重要”。同时，RFU已经增强了资金方面的实力。
Money and rugby are strange bedfellows. This is a sport that turned professional only 20 years ago, that prides itself on values such as respect, sportsmanship and discipline, between players and between spectators.
金钱和橄榄球奇怪地纠结在一起。这是一项只有20年历史的职业运动，它引以为傲的是球员之间以及观众之间的相互尊重、体育精神和纪律性等价值观。
“The great beauty of rugby games is no segregation,” says Mr Ritchie. Aussies, English, Welsh, French sit with each other, “part of the camaraderie of the game”. Large amounts of alcohol are consumed but little unpleasantness ensues. “You want to have a family environment,” he adds.
“橄榄球运动的伟大之处在于没有隔阂，”里奇说。澳大利亚人、英格兰人、威尔士人以及法国人都坐在一起，这是“体育友谊的一部分”。人们饮用大量酒品，但很少发生不愉快。“你希望有一个大家庭般的环境，”他补充说。
But to some rugby purists, the RFU has, under Mr Ritchie, taken on a zeal for making money that sits uneasily with rugby’s core values. It employs 640 people. There is a busy commercial department working on maximising income. “I always love it sometimes when you get this ‘oh, the overly commercial RFU’,” says Mr Ritchie. “I don’t see it that way at all. We’re providing a great customer experience.”
但一些橄榄球纯粹主义者认为，里奇执掌的RFU热衷于赚钱，与橄榄球的核心价值观格格不入。RFU雇用了640个人，包括一个繁忙的商业部门，负责使收入最大化。“我总是喜欢有时听到别人说‘噢，RFU过度商业化了’，”里奇说。“我一点儿也不这样认为。我们在提供一流的客户体验。”
There is always plenty of optimism about the legacy benefits of hosting a major sporting event. But it does not always turn out that way, as London 2012 has discovered. Swimming, which saw once-a-week participation among adults in England rise to 2.9m on the back of the Olympics, suffered a fall of 245,000 last year.
对于举办一项重大体育赛事之后能带来的遗留效益，总是有很多乐观的估计。但事实并非总是如此，就像伦敦2012年奥运会之后经历的一样。那届奥运会之后，每周参加游泳的英格兰成年人数量增加到了290万，而去年减少了24.5万。
Does the RFU stand a better chance of success? Six years ago, there were 230,000 adults in England playing rugby once a week. That dropped to 160,000 in 2013, before getting up to 179,000. Mr Ritchie expects the tournament to boost participation.
RFU有取得成功的更好机会吗？6年前，英格兰有23万成年人每周都玩橄榄球。这一数字在2013年降至16万，不久又升至17.9万。里奇希望此次赛事可以扩大民众参与。
“It’s the hardest gig in town to get people playing that regularly in a team sport,” he says. “That’s why this is the best opportunity that we will have.”
“这是最难让人们经常参与的团队运动，”他说。“这就是为什么此次赛事将是我们的最好机会。”