The All Blacks will face the Springboks at Eden Park in September, marking a high-stakes match.
New Zealand Rugby’s corporate packages for the game are priced up to $1299, sparking debate over value.
Concerns arise over the sustainability of high-priced live sports entertainment amid a cost-of-living crisis.
The Springboks have been to New Zealand just once in the last six years, and it’s been 31 years since the All Blacks lost a test at Eden Park.
Combine those two facts, then throw in another three – the Boks are the reigning world champions; theAll Blacks haven’t beaten them in their past four attempts; and head coach Scott Robertson hasn’t beaten them at all – and the match between these two old rivals in early September at Eden Park will probably be the highest-value game of rugby played anywhere on the planet in 2025.
Who wouldn’t want a night at the footy to see this one? This isn’t a game for the telly – it’s one to be at – to smell the liniment, hear the crunch of bone crashing into bone and to see the sweat spray off bodies as they collide and spin.
And being there gives a story to tell in years to come – a chance to be part of history and have a memory that will fade over time but never be forgotten.
But how much, exactly, would this experience be worth? It’s No 1 versus No 2 in the world and a marketing narrative to die for, but it’s still only 80 minutes of entertainment.
It’s still a game that can be dramatically (negatively) impacted by the weather or the officials. So, weighing it all up, what’s a fair price to ask people to pay to be there?
This is an important question, because live entertainment seems to have lost the plot when it comes to putting a value on itself.
The modern pop star seems to think it is fair to sell concert tickets at anything between $200 and $500 just for a seat.
Manchester United are amid a fan revolt after part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe raised the minimum per-match cost of a season ticket by 5% to $130. Where New Zealand Rugby (NZR) might have gone a little mad is in the price of its corporate packages.
Rieko Ioane on the break against the Springboks. Photo / Photosport
NZR is selling so-called Unity packages – a match ticket, access to a communal lounge and shared bar – for $899 per person.
For those who control the purse strings of major corporate entertainment budgets, this might sound about right – as would the Heritage package at $1299 (plus GST) per person, which comes with access to a private box and live entertainment and talent (presumably a couple of high-profile former players telling their war stories).
But when these prices are broken down, they start to feel wildly over the top for what is being sold – and are only justifiable because every other live entertainer, be it sport, music, comedian or anything else, is charging in the same sort of wildly over the top way.
It’s this market collaboration which provides the benchmark comparisons that keep the money rolling in.
Breaking the numbers down looks like this: a premium seat at Eden Park for the Boks game comes in at anything between $170 and $280.
On an $899 spend, $200-ish goes on a match ticket. That leaves about $700 on booze, food and the privilege of being able to spend time before and after the game in a bar conveniently close to your seat.
Again, NZR can rightly argue that this is the going rate for corporate packages, but this is where the rort of using only other in-stadium entertainment packages as the comparative falls down.
There is an assumption built into this pricing structure that corporations place an extraordinary value on convenience, and will pay excessive premiums for the ease of being able to simply turn up at a stadium and have everything organised for them.
But if a medium-sized corporate is looking to entertain 10 guests and has a budget of $10,000 to do so, it would get better bang for the same buck buying match tickets only, hiring out a private room at the nearby multi-award-winning Sid at the French Cafe, and then walking down to the game.
If that’s a little too refined, then Kingsland is awash with local craft brew bars, and for a fraction of the cost, corporate guests could be treated to some of the country’s finest IPAs.
An $899 per person price tag may stack up against other corporate stadium packages, but it doesn’t stack up in the real world, where there is a cost-of-living crisis and many companies have been forced to make large-scale redundancies.
An almost $1000 price tag carries an element of thinking that corporates are much like cruise liner guests and have no ability to sense that they are paying way over the odds for the services being provided.
The danger for live sport promoters is that at some point, the bubble will burst, and the whole corporate hospitality gig will collapse under the weight of its own greed and erroneous belief that big business is never discerning or careful about what it spends on entertainment.
