Thanks But No Thanks To Super Rugby

By Ted Hardy

The big talk around the water cooler yesterday revolved around comments made by SANZAR boss Greg Peters in regards to possible expansion of Super Rugby into North America.

Super Rugby is, without doubt, one of the top professional competitions on the planet and the concept is not new to fans of American rugby. Any fan of rugby can appreciate and enjoy the standard of play in Super Rugby and the continued high-performance of the SANZAR nations at the international level is astounding. There have been many great points made over the years as to how they can benefit American rugby.

SANZAR has been talking about bringing Super Rugby to America for many years and has made repeated comments on the subject. The fact of the matter is they need new markets. Super Rugby is on a downward trend and when their TV contract ends in the next couple of years, their dwindling fan base may cost them a fair amount of TV revenue. 


Since 2006, Super Rugby attendance figures have dropped steadily. In 2006, South Africa averaged about 34,000 fans per game, Australia around 24,000, and New Zealand around 22,000. As of 2012, South African teams continue to be the best draw of the bunch averaging roughly 28,000 per game. Australia follows with 20,000 and New Zealand has dropped to around 16,000 per game. Television viewing numbers of Super Rugby has remained strong, but with a limited number of possible viewers Super Rugby may have reached their apex in South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.

New Zealand’s population is around 4.4 million people, which would place them behind 25 US states in population size. The population of both California and Texas are higher than Australia. In total, the SANZAR nations represent around 76 million people. Recent data places the population of the United States at 315 million. Canada has another 34 million.

 

Now you can see why they need America. Even with an already saturated sports market, America has room for growth. It is obvious that they see packed sports stadiums across the land and salivate at tapping into our vast sports-mad society. Make no bones about it; SANZAR and Super Rugby only want America for one reason… money.

If SANZAR wasn’t worried about money, then why haven’t they tried to expand Super Rugby into Argentina? Argentina already has ties to SANZAR and has more players ready for professional level rugby than North America. They could easily fill a franchise that would be competitive and logistically better than a team on the West Coast.

SANZAR boss Peters said it best in a recent comment to the Australian, “Ultimately it all comes down to what is in the best interests of the three SANZAR parties."

That’s right… the three SANZAR parties. He didn’t say one word about what is in the best interest of Japan, Canada, or the USA. That is because, in their minds, we are not part of the discussion. They will choose when they are ready for North America, not the other way around. After all, they have our best interests in mind.

No, wait. They don’t.

Think about it. Super Rugby currently sits at 15 teams. South Africa is ready to add one more team to bring the number to 16 teams. Super Rugby plans are to expand to 18 total teams and have Japan and America in mind for the two additional franchises.

Therefore, North America gets one team. With a roster of approximately 30 players, that means only about 10-15 Americans get a job in Super Rugby. Another 5-10 will go to Canadian players and you can bet the remaining roster spots are reserved for current Super Rugby players that they will use to “bolster” the team since they have concerns about our ability to compete.

 

Of the roster spots reserved for Americans, it is probably a safe bet that Super Rugby officials will request players that are already playing professionally so that their standards are met. Therefore, it isn’t likely to create many new professional opportunities for American rugby players.

How is that helping the development of rugby in North America?

Reliable sources state that USA Rugby and Rugby Canada have identified approximately 100-120 players of professional caliber between the two unions. This identification process has taken place in preparation for professional rugby. That number will only grow in the coming years with recent high-performance developments and the Olympics drawing and/or keeping high-caliber athletes to rugby.

What will one Super Rugby team accomplish towards helping those players? Again, Super Rugby is not concerned with anything outside of improving their negotiating advantage with TV broadcasters.

If they want to saturate the American sports market, placing one team on the West Coast is not going to get the job done. The team’s schedule will be a logistical nightmare involving extensive travel. The likelihood of the team getting many home matches is remote. With a 16 game Super Rugby schedule, there is a great chance that the team will be relegated to playing a series of mini-tours or games in “neutral” locations.

The logistics alone point towards putting two teams in Japan as a better option for Super Rugby. SANZAR boss Peters also noted player welfare as being a concern for Super Rugby. If they were truly concerned about player welfare, then North America would not even be a consideration for Super Rugby.

If they want to break into North America, they are going to need an entire conference full of teams in the market and not just one or even four teams, but more like 8-10. Even then, the idea of a multi-country competition, spanning half the globe, will be a tough sell to sports fans that are used to continental bragging rights.

Which brings us to the next point. It has been said many times over… the American rugby enthusiast only makes up a fraction of the audience that it will take to sustain professional rugby in America. Casual rugby fans and the average American sports fan have to fill in the void. The average American sports fan is the wild card and the largest segment of the puzzle. Studies show that sports fans are very open to the idea of watching and following rugby. There is plenty of evidence to support the notion that rugby is growing in America. This demographic is game altering. They also care very little about international competitions other than the Olympics.

This is where Super Rugby has already failed if they are looking at expansion as early as 2016. They assume that everyone will immediately fall in love with their competition because it is some of the highest-level rugby played on the planet. It really is… no argument there. However, the average American sports fan feeds on domestic rivalries and a Crusaders/Hurricanes battle will not get any attention unless ESPN tells them to watch it. If SANZAR was interested in winning over North America, they should have been giving away content to outlets like ESPN years ago to test the market. Taking one step further, they should have already played a few games on American soil.

While SANZAR has commented on expansion into America, USA Rugby has remained relatively mum on the subject. Years ago, when the idea was bandied about, it received a fairly warm reception from USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville as they were keen to keep their options open at a time where professional prospects were still way off. This time around… not so much.

Yesterday Melville commented on twitter:

“Interesting to hear we are on Super Rugby’s radar - but are they on ours?”

The tides have seemingly changed as USA Rugby is growing at an exponential rate and attendance at events continues to trend upward. With at least two separate groups currently working on building a domestic professional rugby competition, the glamour of having a Super Rugby franchise on the West Coast has lost its luster. The same can be said of placing a East Coast team in a European competition.

At this point, focusing on getting a domestic competition standing on a sound foundation has to be of the utmost importance for North America. It is the way forward to sustainable and concrete growth of rugby on levels in both the United States and Canada. With that in mind, it is hard to imagine a scenario where there was a Super Rugby franchise in America at the same time as a newborn domestic professional rugby competition. 

That is not to say that there isn’t room for some outside of the box thinking and collaboration. Such as a Heineken Cup style tournament with teams from Super Rugby, North America, and Japan played prior to the fall international window. That will provide Super Rugby a much-coveted outlet into North America without undermining efforts to build professional rugby in the USA and Canada. Yesterday, someone commented on placing a combined PNC squad in Hawaii. On the other side of the pond, a North American team or two could participate in the Heineken Cup.

Ideas, such as those mentioned and others, have potential for all parties involved. Note: “All Parties Involved”… not just SANZAR. This is no longer a one-way street. The time has come where SANZAR needs North America more than we need them. That is called leverage. Pray that it gets used to the benefit of all levels of the game in North America.