Is the sport of Rugby a Business in New Zealand?
Peter Nathan
Success Author helping aspiring Business Leaders gain the knowledge to drive their business to success. Using my extensive experience, with valuable insights and strategies to guide you on your Learning Journey.
To examine the Business base for New Zealand Rugby let us first talk about its history.
In 1845, the first laws were written by pupils at?Rugby School; other significant events in the early development of rugby include the decision by Blackheath F.C?to leave?The Football Assn in 1863 and, in 1895, the?split between Rugby Union and Rugby League. Historically Rugby Union was an amateur sport.
Charles John Monro, born in Nelson on April 5 1851, was responsible for the beginning of rugby in New Zealand. At the age of 16 he travelled to England to finish his schooling. Monro was a very independent and sporty boy who attended Christ College, where he played rugby for the second XV. 7 In January 1870 Monro returned to his hometown of Nelson after being told he was not strong enough to pursue his army career. He brought the game of rugby with him.
1870. When the Nelson Rugby Football Club was established Monro suggested that the club adopt rugby under his tuition, and he taught the club members and students of Nelson College the new game of rugby. Monro played in the first game of rugby at the Botanics for the Nelson club. On a trip to Wellington in 1870, Monro picked and trained a team to play against the Nelson Rugby Football Club. This game, played on 12 May 1870 and won by the Nelson Club, was the first-ever interprovincial match of club rugby in New Zealand. Shortly afterwards, on May 12 1871 the Wellington Rugby Club was formed.
Rugby in New Zealand continued to grow considerably. By 1890 the game of rugby had been established all over the colony in New Zealand, with over 700 active clubs. The first British team to visit New Zealand to play rugby arrived in 1884. This was the start of rugby as an international sport for New Zealand.
The New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) was formed in?1892?to administer the game of rugby union at the national level. At that time, the national union was known as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union or NZRFU. The name was officially shortened in 2006 with the removal of the word "Football".
In 1995 formal restrictions on payments to players were removed, making the game openly professional at the highest level for the first time.
Rugby union?in?New Zealand?is structured into four tiers. The top tier is composed of the national representative teams, with the men's team – known as the All Blacks – and the women's team - known as the Black Ferns, at the top, followed by other representative sides such as the?Junior All Blacks?and?Maori All Blacks. These national sides are administered by the New Zealand Rugby Union?(NZRU).
Level 2 ?Super Rugby where there are five New Zealand sides, each representing a different region of the country.
Level 3 Provincial rugby – each province has a representative side that plays in either the semi-professional?Mitre 10 Cup, or amateur?Heartland Championship. These provincial sides are selected of Super Rugby players, and club players from within the province.
Level 4. Club rugby is the fourth and lowest tier, and consists of clubs competing in local leagues organised by a provincial union.
There are 26 provincial unions?and each administrates their own club competitions. Within these provinces there are over 520 clubs?who are affiliated both to their province and the NZRU. The number of clubs in each province varies from six for the smallest unions such as West Coast to more than 30 for bigger unions such as Canterbury and Auckland. Many clubs pre-date the existence of the provincial or national unions.
In recent years the sports industry in New Zealand and elsewhere, has grown exponentially and become increasingly business-orientated. Its development extends across many sectors of the economy from sports-oriented marketing, law and tourism, and event management to the personal fitness industry and athlete/sport management. There is a growing need for qualified managers for sport, recreation and leisure organisations and businesses - careers available to students who are enthusiastic about sport, and academically qualified in both business and sport-related subjects.
The reason why rugby is so important in New Zealand. New Zealand's unheralded success in world rugby across all levels is due to the Kiwi culture - where rugby is an ingrained aspect of everyday life.
Themes of community, identity, of the connections between people and the game of sport go beyond the pitch itself.
The fiercely competitive and historic rivalry between Auckland Grammar and King's College is a prime example of the impact of rugby on New Zealand society. There are many games like it that are big, that are televised, that have a history in New Zealand, but by filming that game, and the obsession around that game, we showcase that this is what kids go through, this is what young men go through on their way to becoming All Blacks. They learn about representing their school, they learn about handling pressure, and they learn about what it means to wear a jersey, to have pride, and to represent other people.
The rugby culture in New Zealand is unmatched in the United Kingdom.
There's a huge rugby tradition in the UK, rugby was invented here in the UK, but if you take life in the UK, you can have all of your mates around who play the game and love the game, but the minute you step away from that field, or the minute that you leave a game at Twickenham, you only need to go two or three miles, and rugby disappears from in front of you, from around you, from the television, from the radio, it drifts off into the distance, and other things take its place.
As such a young country, Dave Gallagher and his Original All Blacks, were heroes that we could aspire to, as a country full of immigrants, at that point who didn't have heroes, who didn't know what it meant to be a New Zealander.
Dave Gallaher was captain of the 1905 Originals, the first to be known as the All Blacks. The Irish-born Gallaher played only six tests for New Zealand yet is regarded as an All Black legend. His death while fighting overseas during the First World War ensured that he acquired a mystique that transcended sport.
For the 1905 tour, the shorts were changed to black. The "Express & Echo in Devon appears to be the first to use the term All-Blacks when it recorded the day the 1905 touring side beat Devon 55-4 in their first game, "The All Blacks, as they are styled by reason of their sable and unrelieved costume, were under the guidance of their captain (Mr Gallaher), and their fine physique favourably impressed the spectators".
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With this as your starting point, it's pretty easy to understand how the story and the journey of rugby became so heavily interwoven with our sense of national identity.
How Much Do New Zealand Rugby Players Earn? It’s important to understand that individual salaries are private contracts and the details are seldom made public. However, details are sometimes leaked when New Zealand Rugby is in negotiation with clubs over salary caps and pay. New Zealand Rugby is the governing body of all professional and amateur rugby unions in the country.
NZRU pays the salaries of both Super Rugby players and the elite who make it to play for the All Blacks. This means that NZRU is the employer of the Super Rugby players, and contracts them to their Super Rugby teams.
There isn’t a single wage amount for these players. New Zealand Rugby negotiates pay rates with each player or their agent.
Third-party top-ups. The Super Rugby franchises compete for the best players. In recent years, they’ve been allowed to look for extra funding for individual players from outside the club budget and salary cap. These are third-party arrangements that have to be approved by NZR. The funds may come from sponsors or individual donors.
What makes up a Super Rugby player’s salary? It’s reasonable to assume that only a portion of the elite players gets third-party funding. But the players’ basic wage from the NZR isn’t the only part of their salary. Their entire salary can be made up of several income streams. These must all be reported to the NZR to ensure that salary caps aren’t being exceeded by franchises.
Players or their agents may also negotiate private endorsements and sponsorship.
What Is The Average Salary Of A NZ Super Rugby Player?
Salaries of New Zealand Super Rugby players range from a minimum of $75K to a maximum of $195K in New Zealand dollars. The Super Rugby clubs can also draft a small number of players on lower amounts of about $50K. These tend to be squad players who provide cover for injury. As players approach the end of their careers, their salaries will drop towards the lower range.
Individual salaries are negotiated with NZR,?who employs the players and contracts them to their clubs.
The club may pay additional bonuses for appearances and wins, but the entire playing budget must be kept beneath the agreed salary cap.
How Much Do All Blacks Earn? When players are called up to join an All Blacks tour or competition, they are paid an assembly fee of $7,500 NZD per week for the duration of the competition or tour. This is on top of the wages they are paid by New Zealand Rugby when contracted to a Super Rugby club. All Blacks on the regular Autumn tours to the Northern Hemisphere tend to travel over a period of five weeks. This earns each player about $37,500 USD.
There is no doubt, that not only is Rugby ingrained in the New Zealand Sports psyche, but it also has a prominent place in its Business expertise.