All Blacks to play Ireland in Chicago again as World Rugby eyes game-changing $80bn economic boost from US World Cups

Dejected All Blacks after losing to Ireland in 2016. Photo / Photosport

World Rugby believe the men’s and women’s World Cups in the United States could bank up to $80 billion ($135 billion) in economic opportunities over the next 20 years in its attempt to grow the game.

The governing body has confirmed to Telegraph Sport that Ireland and the All Blacks will face each other in Chicago next year, a repeat of their classic meeting in 2016 when Ireland defeated the All Blacks for the first time. England will also travel next year to face the USA.

That figure of $80 billion in economic opportunities generated by the 2031 and 2033 men’s and women’s tournaments is an estimate of the growth of the US rights and commercial market. It highlights the significant financial benefits on offer in the US, with World Rugby forecasting that access to just one per cent of the sports rights market would double rugby’s global economy.

“As a sport that’s reliant on a small number of established markets which tend to be quite small, we need the big economies and the big populations to help ensure we have a bright and sustainable future,” Alan Gilpin, World Rugby’s CEO, told Telegraph Sport.

“Some of the modelling we’ve done, if rugby was to command one per cent of the sports rights market in the US, which sounds like a small number but is still not easy, that would double rugby’s global economy. That is the size of the prize in terms of the amount of money being spent on sport in the US. The yield per fan – which is quite a cold, business-like way of looking at it – is much higher in the US across sport than in Europe or other parts of the world.”

Rugby’s critical spell in bid to crack the US

Gilpin is in Paris for the rugby sevens events at the Olympics, where International Olympic Committee meetings have featured a presentation from the Los Angeles 2028 organisers about the plans for sevens in 2028. That represents the first in a pivotal run of events for the sport in the US before the men’s and women’s World Cups. Next year’s fixtures between Ireland and New Zealand and the USA hosting England follow sold-out games this year between Fiji and New Zealand in San Diego and the USA’s match against Scotland in Washington DC.

Representatives from prospective US host cities and states for the Rugby World Cups in 2031 and 2033 recently attended a summit in Washington DC. There are currently 30 interested parties, with final decisions over the tournament’s host cities and dates still some way off.

“Lots of investment and partnership is needed, not just with US Rugby and Major League Rugby but with investors and major stakeholders. Part of that is taking a long-term view,” added Gilpin, while noting there are currently 3,100 rugby clubs in the US, the same number as in the United Kingdom, with 800,000 players.

“Hopefully 2031 and 2033 are just staging posts on a 20-year journey for rugby to be a really established sport in the US. There is a lot of rugby already played in the US, great high-school and college pathways, it’s how do we bring those more aligned.”

‘Commercial power of women’s sport is unrivalled’

World Rugby has also targeted the women’s Rugby World Cup in 2033 to be the first to potentially make a profit, after “significant additional investment” was needed to take the upcoming 2025 tournament in England nationwide, with pool matches taking place from Sunderland to Brighton before the final at Twickenham.

Noting that World Rugby had seen revenues grow before England 2025 following the previous women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, particularly with broadcast deals and sponsors, Gilpin added: “We have great partners in the RFU and UK Sport, but World Rugby has taken the heavy lifting there in terms of investing in raising the standards, more training bases. We’ll take that to Australia in 2029. We want to get to a point by 2033 where that investment in delivering brilliant Women’s Rugby World Cups can be matched by the revenue opportunity. As we go through Australia 2029 into 2033, can we keep driving those revenues and outcomes so that by 2033 we can break even, if not have a profitable RWC? The US is a great target for that because the commercial power of women’s sport there is currently unrivalled.”

Having “credible, competitive” men’s and women’s USA sides ahead of their respective home Rugby World Cups was also described by Gilpin as “incredibly important”, after the men’s USA side missed out on qualification for the 2023 Rugby World Cup following defeats by Chile and Portugal; their first missed tournament since 1995.

Rugby’s attempt to strengthen domestic game Stateside

Plans are already in place to strengthen the domestic game in the US in the build-up to 2031, following the launch of Anthem Rugby Carolina, a Major League Rugby franchise backed by World Rugby with a focus on developing young American talent for the national side, in a similar programme to the Fijian Drua in Super Rugby Pacific. The average age of the Anthem RC squad is 23, compared to 28 across the rest of MLR.

“The slight irony with [the USA not qualifying for 2023] is we have worked hard with Chile and Portugal to build their high-performance pathways, in a way that we probably had not done before in the US,” Gilpin added. “[Anthem Rugby Carolina] is deliberately a high-performance pathway with connections to the US national coaching set-up. We have a number of years to build that.”