Shock as award-winning Springbok museum to close

SA Rugby has announced free entry to The Springbok Experience from Friday, March 1, after reluctantly taking the decision to close the rugby museum as a cost-saving measure, confirmed Sport24.

The top-rated facility will be open from 09h00 to 17h00 every day (except Mondays) until the end of the month when it will close its doors for the last time at 17h00 on Sunday, March 31.

"This has been a very painful decision to take but we have had to bow to economic reality," said Jurie Roux, CEO of SA Rugby.

"The museum achieved what we set out to do, by providing a world class experience for visitors while telling for the first time the 'hidden' story of black rugby to a national and global audience.

"We have won accolades on an annual basis and have had 200 000 visitors in the past five years, who have been blown away both by the story we have told and the way it has been told.

"But the economic landscape in which SA Rugby operates has changed significantly since we first planned the museum in 2012 and the expenses we were happy to bear as a brand building exercise at that time, have now become a challenge for the business.

"We have engaged with many stakeholders for many months on avenues by which this course may have been avoided, but ultimately we had no choice."

Full story via Sport24