Rugby after the pandemic will never be the same. But were there existing flaws within the game that Covid-19 merely brought to the surface?
Is New Zealand Rugby's business model suited for the 21st century world of rugby? How strong is the All Blacks' brand, really? Should the New ZealandGovernment invest in the All Blacks?
The Herald's rugby writer Gregor Paul mulls those questions over through a range of interviews with some of rugby's biggest and most influential voices in a seven-part series called 'The Business of Rugby'.
Here's a recap of the series. Read them in full by subscribing to NZ Herald Premium.
Professional rugby in New Zealand is big business. The elite game generates lots of money — in the past four years, the industry has earned more than $1 billion.
New Zealand Rugby typically turns over close to $200 million a year, while Super Rugby clubs generate about $40m annually.
The game has made a lot of people rich. The big-name players of today enjoy incomes of around $1m a year and some make almost half again in endorsements, while NZR came into the Covid-19 lockdown with $114m of cash reserves.
But while the money has flowed, balance sheets across the country make dismal reading.
The economics of Southern Hemisphere rugby have always been challenging.
Since 2016, big-scale Super Rugby played across multiple timezones has been under pressure.
Crowds have consistently dropped – the sharpest decline being 25 per cent which occurred between 2015 and 2017 when the average attendance fell from 19,163 to 14,436.
But the scale is also its strength, as it gives Southern Hemisphere rugby enormous reach, making it attractive to broadcasters and sponsors and money in has mostly kept up with money out.
And this is why the arrival of Covid-19 and the various travel restrictions and uncertainty about when they will lift, led to NZR commissioning the Aratipu review to determine what the economics would look like if, next year, Super Rugby has to become a domestic or trans-Tasman competition.
New Zealand Rugby and the question of private investment
It has never sat well with New Zealand Rugby that the All Blacks have the same brand recognition in their sport as the likes of Manchester United and Ferrari but only a fraction of the income.
The All Blacks are a sporting phenomenon, a team recognised beyond rugby's small global footprint.
Yet for all the brand appeal, a total return of $187 million in revenue last year is a disappointing financial result.
The golden ticket is to strike a partnership with one of the many giant private equity groups sniffing around rugby.
Given that broadcast and sponsorship income accounted for 70 per cent of all revenue last year and almost 80 per cent in 2016, the question has to be asked - do these two sources of income have future growth prospects?
But while things have progressed women's rugby finds itself trapped in a netherworld where it is neither fully professional nor entirely amateur and while stuck here, it is a significant cost on the balance sheet where money out exceeds money in.
As much as the world loves New Zealand's dairy produce, the All Blacks rank as the country's highest profile export commodity.
The national rugby team puts the country on the global map, giving New Zealand a presence in the minds of millions if not billions who would otherwise not know of its existence.
The All Blacks are a brilliant brand ambassador and that has intangible value.
If the Government invests directly in the America's Cup, then why not the All Blacks?
