The 38-30 scoreline said the All Blacks were in trouble, but the nearly 5000 unsold tickets said the whole game of rugby was in much bigger strife.
Seeing vast swathes of empty seats has become the norm when the Hurricanes play in Wellington, but so much garish yellow being visible at an All Blacks test carried a different message – one that can’t be ignored or attributed entirely to the Government’s bureaucratic purge, which has left thousands in the capital looking for jobs.
The capital is unquestionably feeling the economic bite of rising unemployment and stubborn consumer price inflation harder than most.
Discretionary income is in short supply, and with the All Blacks heading back to Wellington in September to play the Wallabies, rugby households and corporate entertainers have likely allocated their reduced budgets to buying tickets for that higher-profile encounter.
But the argument the failure to sell out Sky Stadium is illustrative of a Wellington-specific problem will lose its strength this week, as Eden Park is tracking towards a meagre 34,000 ticket sales.
For the All Blacks to play in front of empty seats at a home venue is rare indeed – but for them to do so in consecutive weeks is unheard of.
This is the Rugby Championship after all, the Southern Hemisphere’s showpiece event, and while we are indeed still in a cost-of-living crisis being sustained by interest rates that are punishing homeowners, that hasn’t stopped Coldplay from selling out three shows at Eden Park later this year.
What’s clear, or at least should be, is rugby is now paying a price for several sustained and compounding factors that have strained the bonds between New Zealanders and the All Blacks.
The love for the team may no longer be unconditional, or at least the days of fans digging deep into their pockets to buy both match tickets and broadcast subscriptions are over.
Now, it seems, it is increasingly true that fans are choosing one or the other, and mostly because NZR has prioritised maximising the sale of TV rights, it is the latter that is picking up the discretionary spend.
Kicking off after dark in the New Zealand winter works only for Sky and no one else, but NZR has long gambled that it can take the loyalty of the stadium fan for granted – that there will always be a sizeable brigade happy to forego the warmth of their living rooms or the buzz of the pub and trek for miles, or catch an Uber at great expense, or endure faulty, overcrowded trains, to be there for the All Blacks.
And that once they get there, they will tolerate being cold, likely wet, fleeced of their last remaining dollars for a poke of chips and then required to follow the game on the big screen because they are so removed from the action they can’t see it.
Santiago Chocobares pushes past Cortez Ratima. Photo / Photosport
This assumption has extended to believing fans will pay exorbitant ticket prices that are gauged against other exorbitant entertainment genres and that NZR can hit the double commercial jackpot of enjoying massive broadcast income that comes with a $30 million per annum sweetener from ticket sales and corporate hospitality.
But perhaps what the empty seats in Wellington last week and Auckland this week signify is NZR can no longer expect to have its cake and eat it – that if it wants to continue to enjoy full stadiums for All Blacks tests, it may have to stop pandering to Sky and introduce a few afternoon kickoffs.
So, too, might it have to review its pricing policies and accept the All Blacks can’t compete with the likes of Coldplay because rugby’s entertainment is far from guaranteed given the vagaries of the law applications.
And above all else, the local fan needs to feel more loved than they currently do.
There seems to be little recognition on the part of NZR that they may be approaching a danger point regarding domestic All Blacks tests.
In 2019, a World Cup year, the All Blacks only played three home tests.
In 2020, it was two because of Covid. In 2021 it was five, but the entertainment factor was light as the opposition was Tonga, Fiji twice and Australia twice.
And then again in 2023, it was back to just two home tests because of the World Cup, and the country may have reset its perception of All Blacks games being must-attend events.
There was an enforced reduction of inventory, and now it may be that plenty of fans realised they didn’t miss going as much as they imagined and are not all desperate to be lured back.
It hasn’t helped that local fans have heard, ad nauseam, how important offshore markets have become to the All Blacks and are seeing such concerted efforts to take the national team to foreign venues.
This year Hamilton lost out on hosting the Fijians to San Diego, and next July the French have already said they are bringing a host of unknowns for a three-test series in New Zealand, while it will be the good folk in Chicago who get to see the All Blacks play the world-leading Irish.
New Zealanders are being served increasingly thin gruel in terms of the domestic test match schedule and experience, and it is one they may no longer be willing to stomach – even when they get a bit more cash back in their pockets.
