End of the love affair with rugby?

Near-empty stadiums are a poor advertisement for our national game. Picture / Bradley Ambrose

New Zealand's national game is bracing itself for pain as plummeting TV ratings and near-empty stadiums signal the public's love affair with rugby is waning. The turn-off has been dramatic - and is financially worrying.

Each All Black Tri Nations test this year attracted an average 404,000 viewers on Sky and 221,000 on Prime - compared with 458,000 for Sky and 425,000 for TV3 last year.

The combined loss of 258,000 viewers per test represents a decline of 30 per cent.

The All Blacks also struggled to generate sell-out crowds for matches in Christchurch and Wellington.

At provincial level the picture is even bleaker, with only 12,000 at Auckland's Air New Zealand Cup match against Waikato last weekend - a game which would have attracted close to 30,000 at Eden Park two years ago.

Fewer than 12,000 turned up for Auckland's home match against Otago last night. And, in Christchurch today, a similarly poor turnout is expected for Canterbury's Ranfurly Shield defence against North Harbour.

The expanded Super 14 and Tri Nations competitions and the new-look Air New Zealand Cup mean rugby is now virtually an all-year sport.

Veteran sportscaster Keith Quinn said: "With so many more games on TV, people have to be more selective in watching. We have this mentality in New Zealand that if there is rugby on TV we have to watch it.

"But with the amount of rugby on now, if you did that, you would never get off the couch."

The declining interest will be a blow to the NZRU, which anticipates an operating loss this year. After years of revenue and profit growth, the boom is over.

The union is no longer benefiting from hedging currency. About 60 per cent of its income is generated by selling TV rights to Super 14 and Tri Nations and sponsorship rights to adidas - deals paid in US dollars. But the high-flying Kiwi dollar means the contracts are worth around a third less.

And the NZRU's losses could escalate if it has to pay compensation to News Limited for taking 22 top All Blacks out of next year's Super 14.

Last year the NZRU doled out $14.4m to help provincial unions. But with a loss this year and a predicted further loss of $30m from hosting the World Cup, its $80m reserves will soon be eaten up.

NZRU deputy chief executive Steve Tew said: "We actually had an 8 per cent increase in viewers for the first three (Tri Nations) games. We always knew this was going to be a challenging year and we steeled ourselves for it.

"We initially forecast a loss but have made some budget savings. We won't know until the end of the year because it depends on the exchange rate."

Tew said the NZRU had taken some positives out of the TV figures - there had been an 8 per cent increase in the number of people who watched the All Blacks' first home games.

Former All Black turned player manager Andy Haden said the rugby union needed to treat the game's fans with respect. The plan to rest 22 All Blacks from Super 14 games ahead of next year's Rugby World Cup was "tampering with the fans' loyalty", he said. The union should look at the TV ratings slide very seriously.

"You don't want to get on a slippery slide - it's very hard to reverse," Haden added.

"They've traded on the sport being ingrained in our society. I don't think you can treat the fans with anything other than the greatest respect."

All Black great Colin Meads loyally tuned into the Waikato v Wellington match last night and said rugby viewership was "just in a bit of a lull".

He said there was a lot of rugby currently on but more people would watch as the Air NZ Cup finals approached. Meads said resting top players before the World Cup was fine - as long as the All Blacks won. "We need to be sure we get to the final."