All Blacks captain Sam Cane speaks to the media about his actions and the aftermath of tripping a pitch invader during a match against Argentina this past weekend.
OPINION:
There was, late last year, a reasonable chance that this Saturday’s test between the All Blacks and the Springboks wouldn’t be played at Mt Smart Stadium, but in Perth.
The Western Australian government had stuck some cash on the table, and with strong expat populations from both New Zealandand South Africa living in Perth, playing there actually made sense.
The double bonus for the Boks would have been that Perth is considerably easier for them to get to from South Africa, while from New Zealand’s perspective, the bumper payday would far outweigh the revenue they will generate playing at the relatively small Mt Smart.
But what persuaded New Zealand Rugby (NZR) to say no to Perth was the fear it would open it to accusations of not caring about the very people who have done the most to fund brand All Blacks.
The All Blacks only have two home tests this year, and if this Rugby Championship fixture had been taken offshore, it would have been just one.
The optics would have been terrible - giving home fans just one chance to see the team in action before the World Cup.
NZR was smart enough to see that having just brought Silver Lake on as an equity partner, the decision to play in Perth would have looked mercenary and opened it to accusations that making money was a higher priority than retaining and rewarding long-serving, loyal fans.
What also helped swing the decision back in favour of playing at Mt Smart was NZR’s knowledge it would get a second bite at the money-making cherry by organising another test against the Boks in London, two weeks before the World Cup.
That was a game it could legitimately take offshore without fear of fan recrimination and one from which it will undoubtedly make a serious amount of money to offset some of the financial pain that is being incurred because of only playing two home tests this year.
The All Blacks during the national anthem ahead of a Bledisloe Cup test at Eden Park in 2021. Photo / Photosport
World Cup years are never great for domestic fans because of the truncated Rugby Championship, and 2023 has come with the specific additional problem of the Fifa Women’s World Cup being in New Zealand and commandeering most of the major stadiums.
But this compromise between making money and putting the All Blacks in front of New Zealanders is going to increasingly become the norm.
New Zealanders may soon be feeling a little short-changed about how often they are able to see the All Blacks play in their own backyard, because it seems inevitable that there will be incremental creep in the number of tests that are played offshore to showcase the national team to new audiences.
The central plank of the Silver Lake investment thesis is this belief that there are millions of offshore All Blacks fans currently not fully aware they are All Blacks fans and certainly not paying any money to foster an association.
This isn’t an original idea as NZR has long harboured the same belief, which is why, for the better part of the last two decades, it has sporadically played tests in the USA and Asia.
But playing Ireland in Chicago and Bledisloe Cup fixtures in Japan and Hong Kong didn’t have any prolonged impact in either building the profile of the All Blacks or rugby as such.
These offshore tests generated revenue but there’s a growing consensus that for one-off games in foreign markets to have a deeper impact of engaging new fans longer-term, they need to carry greater context and meaning.
A lineout during the All Blacks' clash against Ireland in 2016 at Soldier Field in Chicago. Photo / Photosport
If these offshore games are part of a competition such as the Rugby Championship or soon-to-be launched Nations Cup, then they are more likely to hold greater appeal in the local market in which they are played.
NZR has given assurances that the arrival of Silver Lake will not see a significant rise in the number of tests the All Blacks play each year, but instead, the fund manager will focus on building compelling narratives around more tests - which might just be code for they are planning to play the occasional Rugby Championship game offshore.
Sometimes this could be at the cost of hosting a game in New Zealand, but so too is NZR likely to work with its Sanzaar partners to see if they would be willing to shift home games to neutral venues.
Playing Argentina, for example, in the USA remains a probability, as does returning to London to play the Springboks.
So too does it seem likely that the All Blacks and Ireland will be targeting a Nations Cup test in Boston or New York.
Fans were spared this year when NZR turned down the chance to play in Perth this weekend, but the thin end of the wedge is coming.
