All Blacks ramp up Test price to £3m
New Zealand‘s fee for an out-of-window Test in London next year means they have doubled their charge since retaining the World Cup, from £1.5m to £3m.
The RFU dismissed the sum as exorbitant and the match will not take place.
Sources have spoken to The Rugby Paper about a ‘long-running battle’ between RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie and his New Zealand counterpart Steve Tew over a 50-50 split of the gate receipts generated by a sell-out crowd of 82,000.
The All Blacks are also believed to have snubbed the Barbarians because they want to make more money from an alternative fixture.
An invitation to play the traditional end-of-tour fixture at Twickenham next year has been declined despite guarantees of the usual seven-figure appearance fee.
A senior British figure said: “With no international fixtures yet arranged after the 2019 World Cup, the All Blacks are playing hardball. They’ve made their position clear: ‘We’re not coming to play you guys in the north unless we get the global season that suits us, ie from February to November.’
“They are exploring the American market. But whatever exposure they get from this year’s match against Ireland in Chicago will be nothing compared to the exposure they get as a brand in the UK and Europe.
“Their sponsors, AIG and Adidas, won’t be happy unless they are being promoted world-wide. They’re not going to get that if they price themselves out of the biggest market in England.”
Tew has warned the All Blacks “might go and negotiate one or two Test matches on the side and they’ll be very different financial arrangements than the ones we have now”.
A leading British administrator said: “They look at Twickenham and see 82,000 people paying top dollar. They see 75,000 in Cardiff and they want a bigger slice of the action. They forget how many hundreds of millions the Home Unions have spent building their stadia.”
The All Blacks have also rejected a proposal from the Barbarians to finish their European visit next year against the game’s most famous club. The All Blacks prefer to play a Rest of the World XV instead.
PETER JACKSON
