All Blacks captain Sam Cane with fans after a Bledisloe Cup test. Photo / Photosport
All Blacks captain Sam Cane with fans after a Bledisloe Cup test. Photo / Photosport
On Thursday, New Zealand Rugby is expected to sign off on a $200 million partnership with US investment firm Silver Lake. In the second of a five-part series, Gregor Paul looks at what it means for the fans.
If there is potentially going to be one undisputed winner in theSilver Lake deal, then it is most likely going to be the paying fan.
At the heart of the agreement with Silver Lake is an acknowledgment that for too long the game in New Zealand has taken the consumer for granted.
The deal is built on the foundation premise that the game must rebuild and reinvent the fan experience: invigorate competitions, improve the in-ground experience, make innovative rule changes, improve marketing and promotion and provide better access to the athletes for media to deliver insightful and meaningful coverage to build the profile of the sport.
And possibly most importantly, New Zealand Rugby believes the game is on the cusp of a digital revolution and it wants to be the global leader in changing the fan experience through technology.
"I think the reflection over the course of professionalism is that we could have done a lot of things better with the fan," says New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson.
"This is not a criticism of the past or any individuals – but in a country like New Zealand there has been a sense in both the professional and community game that this is our product and you either decide if you like it or not. We haven't moved with the times as quickly as we should have.
"We have to find a way to have the fan right at the centre of all the decisions we make."
All Black Rieko Ioane with fans. Photo / Photosport
The idea is to create a virtuous circle by sharpening the on-field product, telling a better story around it and then opening multiple channels to enable fans to consume content, buy merchandise and engage with the athletes.
In essence, a partnership with Silver Lake is about trying to Americanise rugby in this country: to give the fan a more consumer-friendly in-stadia and at-home experience and to build the athletes into more recognisable and relatable brands.
Win the fan first and the money will follow is the new thinking. NZR says a major factor in choosing to partner with Silver Lake is its expertise in using technology to capture data about prospective audience and then harness that information to widen the appeal of the sport and the athletes.
Silver Lake's preliminary assessment is that there could be as many as 60 million All Blacks fans around the world, currently aware of who the team are but not spending any money on the brand.
NZR believes Silver Lake, with its network of connections into Silicon Valley, can facilitate the means to find these people, engage them in rugby generally – and the All Blacks specifically – and unlock the hidden millions that could be made by better understanding digital assets.
The areas that Silver Lake will target are gaming, virtual signage, e-sports, e-commerce and the creation of an All Blacks OTT streaming platform where subscribers will be able to watch live games and access exclusive content.
Long-form digital content is another potentially rich source of revenue, as evidenced by the boom in popularity Formula One has enjoyed on the back of its docuseries Drive to Survive.
NZR believes it needs Silver Lake on board not just to procure talent to build the channels that distribute the content, but to help push a change of culture internally to grant better access to the players.
"Ultimately a lot of this is underpinned by how we create access to elite athletes so we can build more content that builds interest more broadly," says Robinson.
"Gaining access, creating heroes, creating strong storytelling opportunities has the ability to connect with fans and get close to the sport and how they then might want to invest in the sport.
"We will work through with our partners to determine what can be the most effective way of achieving that while keeping that focus on performance and winning as well."
New Zealand fans will also have the means to participate more directly in the financial success of the All Blacks as local institutions – major KiwiSaver funds – will be able to invest up to $100 million in a separate capital raise on a date yet to be determined.
This will open the door to mum and dad investors owning a stake in the national game via their retirement income and possibly in time, more directly still, through buying publicly offered shares as a stock market flotation has been listed as one of the ways Silver Lake can exit its investment after five years.
"By allowing New Zealand-based institutional investors to participate, New Zealanders will able to invest in and benefit financially from the very game they have supported and built into what it is today," says New Zealand Rugby Players' Association chief executive Rob Nichol.
