Back in September, in what was a quite stunning financial flex, the Rugby Football Union sold naming rights to Twickenham in a 10-year deal to German insurance group Allianz worth $200m.
To put that into perspective, New Zealand Rugby sold a 5% equity stake in their entire business to US fund manager Silver Lake for $200m back in 2022 and called it the most valuable transaction the game had ever seen.
That hardly seems remotely accurate now that England have taken the same cash investment for doing nothing more than sticking up a bit of signage and corporate branding.
The English deal, unlike New Zealand’s, doesn’t come with any interest payments and its validity is not contingent on meeting any specific growth targets.
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And while it’s not an apples-with-apples comparison – investment in a stadium compared with investment in a suite of commercial assets – it does illustrate the point that while the All Blacks have recognition and mystique, they are limited in their ability to convert that brand awareness and brand value into cash.
The economic power base of the world game remains in Europe where there are 180 million people split between the UK, France and Italy.
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A sold-out Twickenham – capacity 80,000 – will net the RFU around $20m, and New Zealand just can’t compete with those sorts of numbers.
This makes it genuinely intriguing to see how the Six Nations and Sanzaar nations agree to split the proceeds from the soon-to-be-agreed Nations Cup that will begin in 2026.
The basic premise of this tournament is that it will give the November and July test windows greater context and meaning by ensuring that each Six Nations side plays each Rugby Championship side once in a calendar year with the respective winners from each playing off in a final.
How the money gets divvied up will be all-important because for decades New Zealand has pushed for a different revenue-sharing model rather than the existing one of reciprocity where the North keep all the proceeds of what they generate in November and the South keep their haul from July.
New Zealand’s argument has always been that the All Blacks sell out stadiums wherever they go in the world yet their cashflow is restricted to the income they take from selling tickets to games in their smaller, domestic stadiums.
They want a pooled system where each country is assigned a share of the total pot generated.
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But it seems highly unlikely that any country in the North would agree to that. England have landed a $200m sponsorship deal for Twickenham but they have invested more than $1 billion in it over the years and have said they need to spend another $1.2b to redevelop it over the next few years to ensure it remains fit for purpose.
With Wales, Scotland and Ireland also having invested enormous sums in their stadiums, New Zealand have zero chance of claiming rights to income generated out of other country’s prized assets, especially when no similar commitment to bricks and mortar has been made.
London Calling: All Blacks cash in on rugby’s richest market
New Zealand Rugby has become a little hung up about Japan and the USA being the two most important and potentially lucrative sporting markets for it to explore.
There is some truth to that, with last week’s test in Yokohama likely to have brought a $2m pay-day while engaging thousands of fans.
But this week in London has been a powerful reminder that it remains the biggest and most lucrative rugby market in the world.
The payday for playing at Twickenham for the All Blacks – this game falls outside the international window – is thought to be around $4m.
The game may be dwarfed by football in England but the fan base is still comparatively huge in comparison with anywhere in the Pacific rim, engaged and affluent.
The game has a long tradition in England, and is linked to big corporations as many captains of industry will have come through the private schools system and played rugby, there is a strong, but albeit diminishing media corps diligently covering the sport and enough of a population base to have major, global broadcasters sniffing around.
With all this going on, don’t be surprised if the All Blacks and South Africa agree to play a fourth test in their 2026 series – with the last one at Twickenham.
North v South: The battle for World Rugby’s top job
The vote to elect the next chair of World Rugby will shortly take place (November 14) with Australia’s Brett Robinson thought to be the slight favourite.
But that may well be a Southern Hemisphere perception about Robinson because the North, conscious that they are the power base of the game, may not be as enamoured with the former Wallaby as their Southern counterparts.
The North are not all yet of the view that the game is ready for its first Southern Hemisphere leader, and the other two candidates, Abdelatif Benazzi of France and Andrea Rinaldo of Italy, may have considerably more support than realised.
Some of it will be coming simply because many in the Northern Hemisphere fear the idea of an Australian taking charge and shaking up the game in ways they may not necessarily like.
The things that matter to New Zealand – building a faster, more aerobic, higher-skilled, less collision-based game are not necessarily seen as a high priority across Europe.
The French, in particular, by opposing the shift to globally adopt the 20-minute red card, have highlighted the level of paranoia that exists when presented with dynamic change proposals.
The last step for Nations Cup approval
The commercial split remains the only hurdle to clear in giving the Nations Cup the greenlight now that concerns about player welfare have been satisfied.
There had been some questions raised mid-way through this year about how much travel the Northern sides could potentially have to do in July if say, one was drawn to play Argentina, Japan and New Zealand.
But it is understood that Fiji have agreed that they will play home tests in 2026 wherever it best makes sense to play them to cut down the travel burden of their opposition.
There has been some suggestion that Japan will then be asked to play their home games on the road in 2028, but that may yet be changed given the commercial opportunities attached to playing tests in Asia.
Eden Park record to go on the line
On the subject of Twickenham, the All Blacks will return to London in November next year as part of a Grand Slam tour that will kick off against Ireland in Chicago.
And New Zealand Rugby is also believed to be close to finalising the remainder of its fixtures for next year which will almost see the Eden Park record go on the line against South Africa.
The Boks are coming for two tests – with Wellington and Auckland believed to be the likely venues.
The All Blacks reached 50 games undefeated at Eden Park this year when they hammered Argentina 42-10, but playing the world champion Boks will present arguably the toughest challenge the home side has faced in maintaining a record that dates back to 1994.
France are coming to New Zealand in July for a three-test series that will likely see Eden Park, Dunedin and Hamilton host.
The French have already said in a needlessly belligerent and damaging statement that they won’t be taking their top players to New Zealand because they need to stay home and rest or risk being burned out long before the 2027 World Cup.
The Wallabies, who have already confirmed that they will host the All Blacks in Perth, will round out the programme with Wellington as the likely venue.
South Africa hand New Zealand a lesson
New Zealand were given another lesson on the commercial front this last week – this time by South Africa who showed the value of a simple plan in the quest to build the Springboks brand.
The world champions have been training on the Channel Island of Jersey for the past week to prepare for their tests against England, Scotland and Wales.
They not only held open training sessions but they flew a handful of key rugby media to the island and gave them full access to interview whoever they wanted.
For the cost of some flights and accommodation, they will gain prime editorial space in some of the world’s biggest and best-known newspapers – stories that will compel by giving a deeper insight into the key players and the mentality of the squad.
Compare this with New Zealand Rugby’s strategy while in Japan, where it pushed out a press release to say: “Ahead of the All Blacks test against Japan this Saturday, NZR+ has teamed up with Japanese YouTube sensation, Fischer’s, in a content series like no other.
“Known for their fun yet wacky content filled with games including Ultimate Tag which has over 18 billion YouTube views, Fischer’s challenged All Blacks and Black Ferns Sevens stars in a series of games at Eden Park.
“Watch the All Blacks and Black Ferns Sevens compete head-to-head with Fischer’s in Ultimate Tag, Giant Tic-Tac-Toe, as well as share iconic snacks from Japan and New Zealandon All Blacks YouTube, NZR+ and Fischer’s YouTube.”
The South Africans seem to get that traditional media is not broken and nor do marketers need to try to reinvent the wheel to get traction.
It probably cost the South Africans about $10,000 to get mass editorial coverage in mainstream papers and NZR about $100,000 to make a video that seems to be trying hard to explain why it’s funny.
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