The All Blacks during a training session. Photo / Brett Phibbs
The All Blacks during a training session. Photo / Brett Phibbs
If the All Blacks need a reality check during their bid for the Rugby World Cup they need look no further than the latest Forbes list of the world's 50 most valuable sports franchises.
According to Forbes, the Dallas Cowboys, with a net value of US$4 billion ($6.29 billion), have just overtaken Real Madrid, US$3.26 billion, to top sport's money tree.
Forbes doesn't include rugby entities in its calculations. It probably knows it doesn't need to bother.
With a peerless on-the-field record, huge global reach and lucrative sponsorship deals with the likes of corporate heavyweights adidas and AIG, the All Blacks are undoubtedly rugby's top brand. But in global terms they are financial small fry.
In 2011, global brand valuation firm Brand Finance predicted an All Blacks victory in the Rugby World Cup final would boost their value to $108 million.
Simon Arkwright, the chief executive of Wellington-based Sports Research Group, believes off-field successes over the subsequent four years - which include a sponsorship deal with major American corporate AIG and a major upgrade of television broadcast rights fees - may have doubled the value of the All Blacks since they lifted the Webb Ellis Cup.
"Pulling a number out of the air, I'd say it's probably over $200 million," said Mr Arkwright.
Even that generous estimate would leave the All Blacks almost a billion dollars short of cracking Forbes' top 50. The average team value on Forbes' list is US$1.75 billion. The cutoff is US$1.15 billion, the estimated value of the Atlanta Braves (baseball), Dallas Mavericks (basketball), and Minnesota Vikings (NFL).
"The only way the All Blacks are going to hit the jackpot will be if they can crack America," Mr Arkwright said. "The existing markets just won't do it. The big opportunity is and has always been the United States."
A comparison of bottom lines shows why. The Cowboys' annual revenue is nearly US$1 billion. Last year New Zealand Rugby generated $120 million, not all of which came from the All Blacks.
The Cowboys' 100,000-seat stadium adds more than $1 billion to the team's value. The All Blacks don't own a stadium.
The Cowboys' home city of Dallas boasts a population of 6.9 million, but the team's reach extends beyond the near 319 million people of the United States and into global markets.
And while the All Blacks' deals with adidas and AIG are hardly chump change, they pale in comparison with the US$100 million the Cowboys milk each year from AT&T, Bank of America, Pepsi, Coors and Ford.
The only area where the All Blacks can claim superiority - on-field performance - doesn't appear to be a pre-requisite for spectacular financial growth. The Cowboys' climb to the top of the rich list has coincided with just one playoff win in 18 years.
No wonder, then, that New Zealand rugby is looking increasingly longingly at Uncle Sam.
"Three or four years ago if we were having this discussion it would have been 'if' rugby ever cracks the US," said Mr Arkwright. "Gut feel now is that it is probably when."
The success of last year's All Blacks match in Chicago and the United States' increasingly successful incursion into sevens rugby suggest the land of the free and home of the spectacularly wealthy may indeed be the promised land.
