KEY POINTS:
World Cup obsession. Boring competition formats. Player drain. The Great Reconditioning Error. Confusing rules.
It seems rugby bosses have a multitude of excuses to explain why rugby has failed to engage the public this season.
Here's the one that seems to escape them: the public are not stupid.
And because they're not stupid you shouldn't expect them to rush to the phones to purchase season tickets in anticipation of the New Zealand Rugby Union's latest whiz-bang idea - an even bigger Super Rugby format. After all rugby is not a hamburger, suddenly transformed into an iconic Big Mac with just another slice of beef and cheese. There's something altogether more fundamental at play here and it will continue to cripple the NZRU unless they successfully leverage off the 2011 World Cup.
It is simply this: rugby now equates to a Bad Night Out.
Yes, all the reasons listed above are contributors to this phenomenon, but it is much wider than that.
Going to the rugby just no longer makes sense for many families, both economically and socially.
To take your family is not cheap, and with matches invariably played at night it either means finding a babysitter or dragging along a semi-willing participant. Let's face facts: if you're going to the trouble of finding a babysitter, are you going to go to the rugby or take your beloved out to the movies or dinner, where you know you'll be dry and warm?
It is not convenient going to the rugby. Few grounds in New Zealand have anywhere near close to adequate parking facilities. To guarantee a park within a 10 kilometre walk to the major stadiums, you have to plan your evening like a military operation and leave early enough to watch the groundsmen painting the lines. Where's the fun in that?
The ticketing is often haphazard and slow, and once inside the grounds there is little in the way of entertainment.
Stadium design in New Zealand has either been so poor, or the stadiums themselves are so antiquated, thousands are exposed to the elements.
Then there's the grossly over-priced food and beverage with menus that seem not to have moved on from the 1950s pie carts except for the costs. You want mothers to bring their kids to the rugby? Well read the papers, recognise that not all parents are comfortable with shoving hotdogs and chips into their children.
Night rugby hasn't worked in New Zealand, with the possible exception of Auckland. It is too cold, too wet.
If the NZRU continues to bow to the almighty broadcasting gods on this one it must suffer the inevitable consequences at the gate. If they are happy for players to ply their trade in front of half-empty stadiums as long as people are engaging their decoders then so be it. This is all basic stuff but no one seems to get it. The cinema industry did, way back in the early '90s. When theatres were closing up and down the country some bright spark thought, 'hey, how about making the seats a little bit more comfortable, how about offering more than pop corn and tangy fruits'. Now there is a thriving boutique cinema industry sitting alongside the huge multiplexes. All tastes are catered for. That's why 2011 is going to be so important for rugby. All the stadiums must be upgraded, as must the attitude of stadium managers to their patrons.
If the public finally start getting comfort, choice, and value for money, they will come back despite the confusing rules, the boring format, the player drain ...
