When the Lions open their tour with a match in Whangarei tonight, they will be as close as they will probably come to New Zealand rugby as it used to be. They will be playing a selection of young, largely unknown players in a province that is not one of the power centres of the national game. They may hear some of the concerns expressed in the Herald's "Book of Rugby" series over the past week.
Frustrations were heard from clubs and country sub-unions that the game is top-heavy. By this they do not just mean that attention and investment is centred on the All Blacks, but that professionalism filters down as lower level teams buy in players to make themselves competitive, limiting opportunities for local youngsters to represent their province. Seeing this, keen young players who can not make the professional grade drift away from the game too soon. Clubs are declining and often disappearing. Schools produce the players recruited for professional contracts.
But if rugby is declining at the grassroots it is prospering at the top. Today we report that adidas has renewed its sponsorship of the All Blacks for another six years in a deal estimated to be worth $10 million a year. AIG has extended its sponsorship for another seven years, which is said to be worth $15 million a year. On top of those, the broadcasting rights are now bringing in about $75m a year. All told, our rugby writer Gregor Paul estimates New Zealand Rugby could earn close to $200m this year. As he says, it has become a big business indeed.
Bigger than New Zealand in one sense. It's major sponsors are based in Europe and the United States. It attracts their money because the All Blacks are a recognised name well beyond the countries where rugby is well established, probably known to people who have never seen a game of rugby and have only a vague idea what it is. The All Blacks are a "brand", a name, an image, a style, associated with powerful teamwork and success.
The only way to sustain that brand is by continuing success. As NZ Rugby chief executive Steve Tew observes, not many sporting teams of comparable fame are national teams. Most, such as Manchester United or Real Madrid, are clubs and as such, have fans everywhere who remain loyal through thick and thin. A national team cannot rely on that sort of loyalty outside its homeland. The All Blacks need to keep winning.
Provincial rugby, meanwhile, depends increasingly on grants that come from the top, earned by the All Blacks. NZ Rugby has become an extremely monolithic enterprise, owning even the regional Super Rugby franchises in this country. The dangers are obvious. The future of the game depends entirely on the wisdom of a few such as Tew. There are no competing centres of decision making as there would be if the Super Rugby franchises were independent companies.