Big push begins to create US market for All Black magic

Are the New Zealand now bigger than the sport of rugby itself?

Just days after breaking Irish hearts, several All-Blacks popped up in New York, in

part to take in the sights and a few days leisure after the miraculous conclusion to

their perfect season and in part because New York is the spiritual home of the team

sponsor, AIG. So they visited a 9/11 fire station, they posed for photos at New York

Stock exchange and they spent an evening watching the Brooklyn Nets disgrace their

favourite colour – the Nets seem intent on illustrating you can also wear black and

lose almost all of the time.

The intention is the visit will mark the beginning of a new relationship between the

All-Blacks and untapped rugby market in the US. As a spokesperson for AIG put it,

the company wants to “play its part in introducing the USA to the greatest sports

team in the world”.

Over the past few weeks, as the New Zealanders gradually ticked off challenges from

France, England and Ireland to complete their perfect season, there seemed to be

something different about them. At first glance, they were as familiar as ever: yes,

Ma’a Nonu remains the most physically imposing sports man since Mike Tyson was at

his peak and yes, Richie McCaw’s face seems to belong to a Dorothea Lange catalogue

and no, you are never going to see Steve Hansen “betraying emotion” as he watches

his team demonstrate their invincibility. It was only afterwards the penny dropped

and you realised those three letters, AIG, was what was different. For once, the

silver fern was not the most prominent motif on the jersey. Not since the heady days

of Hank Paulson and the $85 billion dollar bail out has the financial giant been so

prominent in our lives.

Glamorous recognition
When the All-Blacks arrived in Dublin for their last game of the season, they were

quickly shepherded along to meet with the stars of the Dublin GAA firmament. The

event was a glamorous recognition of Dublin GAA’s new four-million sponsorship with

AIG. It was a neat turn – members of the international AIG sporting family mingling

and exchanging cultural nuggets etc. So McCaw and the boys did their bit with a hurl

and made the right noises and the camera bulbs flashed and it was success. Still, it

was strange to see the New Zealand stars on the hamster wheel of corporate

sponsorship.

Any All-Blacks press event I ever attended was noticeably professional and organised

and ran to schedule. But there was always the sense those days were designed by the

management and for the team: that the All-Blacks controlled where they went and what

they did and how long for. The same was true of their famous trip to Donegal to

visit the birthplace of John Gallaher, captain of the Originals. Tana Umaga and

others who made that journey were brilliant with the locals but there was little

doubt they were there because they wanted to be rather than to partake in a public

relations exercise.

The signs on this tour suggest that in future, the All-Blacks schedule will be

designed with the brand in mind. The inclusion of Japan as an opponent on this

year’s autumn schedule was the noticeable departure from the quality of opponent

they played in their 14-game winning streak and the 54-6 score line reflected that.

They were, of course, merely following the brand leaders of NBA basketball and

English Premier League football to the East, where a lucrative market lies and where

interest in rugby will grow as the years tick on towards the 2019 world cup.