NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

Brian Gaynor: World Rugby scores, as Cup delivers its four-yearly bonanza

Brian Gaynor
By Brian Gaynor
Columnist·NZ Herald·
27 Sep, 2019 09:25 PM7 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Tournament years are when World Rugby turns its usual losses into windfall profits. Photo / Getty Images

Tournament years are when World Rugby turns its usual losses into windfall profits. Photo / Getty Images

Brian Gaynor
Opinion by Brian Gaynor
Brian Gaynor is an investment columnist.
Learn more

COMMENT

The Rugby World Cup (RWC) is a huge event from both a financial and a sporting point of view.

The tournament is run by Dublin-based World Rugby, formerly known as the International Rugby Board. World Rugby's vision is to grow "the global rugby family", and rugby's new status as an Olympic sport will allow it "to reach out to new audiences within new and existing markets".

The quadrennial RWC is World Rugby's most important event. This is demonstrated by its windfall profits in 2011 and 2015, when the tournament was hosted by New Zealand and England respectively.

The figures in the accompanying table show that World Rugby reported total profits of £306.0 million ($602.7m) for these two RWC years, compared with combined losses of £232.7m for the five non-RWC years.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
GAYNOR
GAYNOR

The simple RWC formula is that all broadcasting revenue, tournament fees, sponsorship and other commercial revenue goes to World Rugby, while ticket revenue mainly goes to the host country. The latter is responsible for most of the costs, including the lump sum tournament fee paid to the Dublin-based organisation.

For example, English Rugby generated £275.0m in ticket revenue for RWC 2015 while World Rugby had £129.0m of broadcasting revenue, £64.8m of sponsorship and £151.0m of merchandising and tournament fees during that financial year.

From an English Rugby point of view, RWC 2015 generated a surplus of £15m after running costs and tournament fees were deduced from ticket sales revenue.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

World Rugby generated a surplus of £189.6m for its December 2015 RWC year after paying minimal tax because of its Irish residency. The funds are used to finance tournaments, meet administration costs and distribute grants to member countries and regional associations.

Merchandising revenue and the tournament fee have become increasingly important as they represented 43.8 per cent of World Rugby's 2015 revenue compared with only 33.8 per cent in 2011.

Discover more

Opinion

Brian Gaynor: Takeovers are thinning out the NZX

30 Aug 08:44 PM
Opinion

Brian Gaynor: Inside Shareholders' Association annual investor conference

06 Sep 08:38 PM
Opinion

Brian Gaynor: NZX brokers have raised white flag of surrender

13 Sep 08:20 PM
Opinion

Brian Gaynor: Where's the fight in Kiwi company directors?

20 Sep 08:32 PM

New Zealand paid a £55.6m fee to host the RWC 2011, but this fee hasn't been separately disclosed for the 2015 event.

World Rugby's latest financial statements, which are for the year to December 2017, show that it is in a strong financial position. At year-end it had total assets of £207.5m, mainly comprising cash and short-term bank deposits (£76.8m), global equities (£70.7m) and bonds (£36.9m). It has no borrowings.

World Rugby is a significant business, but it still has old amateur game features. It has more than 30 council members and several of them have held this position for a long time. Council members were hosted in lavish style when they visited New Zealand for RWC 2011.

World Rugby took a big risk when it awarded the 2019 competition to Japan, a non-traditional rugby country.

The original projections were that RWC 2019 revenue would be down by 20 to 25 per cent compared with the revenue generated in England in 2015. However, Japan's surprise victory over South Africa in the 2015 competition generated increased interest in the sport in Japan and the organisation of the current event has mostly been top class.

Broadcasting rights have increased compared with 2015 because World Rugby has negotiated deals with three Japanese broadcasters: J Sports, NHK and Nippon TV. This has been a significant achievement because most of the games are played in the early morning in Europe, which is not a great time for broadcasters.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Sponsorship deals have also been better than expected because World Rugby has attracted new Japanese corporates and global companies wanting to use rugby to access Asia's high-end consumers.

World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper. Photo / AP
World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper. Photo / AP

World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper recently told the Financial Times that his organisation expects to generate revenue of around £360m from the Japanese tournament, compared with £330m four years ago, but profits are projected to be lower than from RWC 2015. This is because of additional organisational costs associated with holding the competition in Japan.

The first weekend has demonstrated that the event will be a huge success from a sporting, as well as a financial point of view.

Downtown Tokyo is not the same as Dublin or Cardiff on a test match day, as rugby supporters are few and far between in the Japanese capital.

This is understandable as Tokyo has more than 9 million people while greater Tokyo has more than 37 million inhabitants. The latter figure includes Yokohama, where most of the major games are being played, including last week's All Blacks/Springbok contest, the two semi-finals and final.

The atmosphere picks up dramatically as fans approach the stadiums, particularly in Yokohama.

The opening game, Japan versus Russia at Tokyo Stadium, had several major glitches, partly because supporters were warned to arrive 60 minutes before the opening ceremony, which meant travelling on Tokyo subways during Friday rush hour traffic.

Most people arrived between 5.00 and 5.30, with the short opening ceremony at 6.30, followed by the game at 7.45. This left considerable time for drinking and eating but the facilities at Tokyo Stadium were woefully inadequate, with huge one-hour-plus queues at bars, food outlets and toilets.

These facilities are suitable for most Japanese sports because drinking and eating are not major activities at events in that country. For example, Japanese major league baseball attracted total attendances of 25.5 million last year but most of these supporters sing and chant throughout games, with limited alcohol consumption.

Facilities at Yokohama were better on Saturday and Sunday, with a huge Heineken bar between the main entrance and seating areas, but RWC organisers have relented on food and from now on they will allow a limited amount to be brought into stadiums. However, no drink will be allowed in and Heineken, a major sponsor, will continue to be the only beer supplier.

The 2011 and 2015 tournaments generated windfall profits for World Rugby. Photo / File
The 2011 and 2015 tournaments generated windfall profits for World Rugby. Photo / File

It is a shame that World Rugby hasn't attracted a major wine sponsor, as the drink options are severely limited at the event.

Notwithstanding this, the Japanese are wonderful hosts and the first week of RWC 2019 has been a huge success. The atmosphere has been enthralling and the contrast between the serious New Zealand and South African supporters on Saturday night and the joyous Irish and Scottish supporters the following was quite startling.

New Zealanders and South Africans both know that anything less that winning the Webb Ellis Cup will be total failure, while the Irish and Scottish would like to bring the cup home but if they don't, at least they will have a great craic in Japan.

World Rugby has taken a big risk by going to Japan, but the early signs are that it will be a huge success from both a financial and sporting point of view. Business organisations need to take risks and World Rugby is demonstrating that if these risks are well thought out and successfully implemented, they can bring huge rewards.

New Zealand can take a great deal of credit because it initiated and organised the first World Cup in 1987, which was reluctantly supported by other countries. The old British Isles rugby blazer brigade didn't want to turn the sport from an amateur game into a business and lose their privileged position.

Ironically, some of them may now be World Rugby council members enjoying Japanese hospitality, fantastic food and wine in corporate boxes in Tokyo, Yokohama and throughout the rest of Japan.

Unlike most attendees, it is highly unlikely that these council members are forced to queue for one hour or more for their food and drink at RWC 2019 games.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Business

Premium
Business

Trump’s finances were shaky. Then he began to capitalise on his comeback

05 Jul 08:00 PM
Premium
Media Insider

TV shake-up: Sky TV set to lose channels - viewers 'don't like repeats'

05 Jul 09:46 AM
Business|companies

Entrepreneur Bowen Pan on why he returned to NZ

Audi offers a sporty spin on city driving with the A3 Sportback and S3 Sportback

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

Premium
Trump’s finances were shaky. Then he began to capitalise on his comeback

Trump’s finances were shaky. Then he began to capitalise on his comeback

05 Jul 08:00 PM

NY Times: Records suggest his riches were not the product of a steady and strong empire.

Premium
TV shake-up: Sky TV set to lose channels - viewers 'don't like repeats'

TV shake-up: Sky TV set to lose channels - viewers 'don't like repeats'

05 Jul 09:46 AM
Entrepreneur Bowen Pan on why he returned to NZ

Entrepreneur Bowen Pan on why he returned to NZ

Premium
Silicon Valley to NZ: Kiwi Facebook Marketplace inventor is back home to give back

Silicon Valley to NZ: Kiwi Facebook Marketplace inventor is back home to give back

05 Jul 12:00 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP