this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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Rugby Union
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Its amazing Scotland has done as well as they have recently with that foundation to the international game. It'd be like if the NPC in New Zealand was reduced from 14 to 6 and the Super Rugby teams bank rolled by NZR dropped from 6 to 2! But in a way the financial foundation between the two countries is identical.
All Blacks success and sponsorship bank rolls most of the game here. Super rugby is mostly subsidised by the central contracting of players - I doubt any club could possibly break even on game day receipts & their own sponsorships.
There's a big problem at the NPC level which ranges from semi to mostly pro depending on the union. It had been holding its own up until Covid; but year after year of down scaling, fiddling and demoting its importance has seen attendances even for the popular unions down.
There was a reasonable influx of cash from the Silver Lake partnership with NZR selling a stake in their new commercial entity, but by the sounds of things some provincial unions have pissed that away on short term player contracts trying to buy titles rather than using it to invest in the game at club, junior & women's levels.
Again similarly to Scotland at the high school level its essentially well funded schools spending lots of money competing against each other and so young players are identified given scholarships to schools and from there it flows into academies. So if you miss out when you're 15-16, you might as well try to get into another pro sport like football, basketball, league or cricket as your ability to make a living in Rugby can dissipate quickly if you don't make those age grade squads.
MLR has helped a bit though; there's some players who're stars over there, like Jayson Potroz who has never been a chance for a Super Rugby. Those lads get a full time gig by playing an MLR season followed by an NPC season.
The SRU have a stake in Old Glory DC of the MLR, so a few players go out there each year who aren't quite ready for the URC. We also have a scholarship for a couple of players to go and soak in rugby for a year or two, often our most promising players have had this
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macphail_Scholarship
But the last few names on this haven't really broken through. Since the switch to SA...
So yes, a lot of similarities between the two countries. One day I'll make it down, I dream of going to watch us get pumped in Eden Park
My partner & I were supposed to be over in 2020; visiting her family & then doing a roadie around the top, but something happened that year, I forget what.
Unlike European Rugby NZR schedule test matches all around the country, usually based on how many people they think a match will attract. It's hard to say now given how Aussie have fallen so far and Scotland have risen so much in the rankings, but it would have been Scotland in say Dunedin back in the day. In terms of an actual building, that ground is top 2 for Rugby (along with Rugby Park in Hamilton) in NZ.
Other than Christchurch's current temporary stadium, all the other big ones - Eden Park, Wellington, pre earthquake Lancaster Park etc are multi purpose grounds so because of the space requirements for cricket you can end up a long way from the sidelines in a footie game.
More & more though NZR are scheduling games at Eden Park just financially it makes sense I suppose. They do risk saturating the market a bit, and further pissing off us provincials - but until Christchurch gets a 45k+ stadium only Wellington really has a stadium + population that can compete with Auckland.
Surely if Scotland ever do tour NZ, Dunedin has to be a stop, it's literally Gaidhlig for Edinburgh
6717 announced for Edinburgh tonight. A great figure for Edinburgh
Is that for a URC game? If it was at Murrayfield it must have looked empty!
Super Rugby's attendances are hard to guess and will change a bunch based on the home team and who they're playing. I'd guess some of the NZ home games against the weaker Aussie teams might only get around that many into the stands. But the big NZ derby matches would still be pulling over 15k regularly.
Hawkes Bay pre covid times would have been pulling in 6-8k crowds for the NPC fairly regularly. McLean Park is a 12-15k ground, and the stand opposite the camera isn't huge so even only half full it looks & sounds like a much bigger crowd.
There is a semi-permanent stadium behind Murrayfield now for 7.5K. So it must have been pretty busy. Edinburgh used to regularly struggle to break 4
But we're now 3 from 4 and so crowds might well stay this season!
Oh right, so they'd only put a URC game in Murrayfield if it was a big one like a playoff where the extra capacity is warranted?
One thing that was kinda cool about the NPC this year is the bigger unions that have struggled to fill their Super Rugby / International sized stadiums were forced to play games elsewhere because of the FIFA Womens World Cup taking over those stadiums. It made a lot more sense having NPC sized crowds in smaller grounds including a return to the Onewa Domain for the Battle of the Bridge this year. That ground hadn't hosted a match that big in 30 years.