Time to kick booze barons into touch
Standing up to the brewing industry will take courage in reimagined world
A big night on the grog is still viewed as a reward — a special treat for a job well done.
New Zealand Rugby revealed this week it has a plan to reimagine the sport in this country.
If the game is to survive and thrive in the modern world, NZR says it needs to embrace inclusivity, diversity, player welfare, digital technologies and put rugby back at the heart of communities.
NZR chief executive Mark Robinson has promised to be bold as he seeks to lead this mission, and he’s warned he and his organisation will inevitably endure some failures along the way as they try to reinvent the sport’s place in society and New Zealand’s cultural landscape.
As strategic visions go, this is 10 out of 10 territory, but the execution is destined to fail unless NZR is prepared to take the most radical and unthinkable step of cutting all ties with the booze industry and breaking — forever — the sport’s long and troubled relationship with alcohol.
Robinson says he’ll be bold but will he have the bravery to reimagine rugby in this country with no links, financial or cultural, to the brewing giants?
Can he usher in a new world where NZR says it will no longer allow any team — club, provincial, Super Rugby or international — to accept alcohol sponsorship, and even more radically, is the national body prepared to deny Lion and Heineken the pouring rights they so crave by insisting rugby games and events in this country be dry?
It may seem puritanical and unrealistic to imagine a world where no one is allowed to drink at the footy, or brewers aren’t able to sponsor any team or competition, but it is the only way NZR can realistically achieve the goals it has set itself.
NZR says it wants to build a sport that welcomes everyone regardless of gender, ethnicity or religious belief.
Yet while there are beer company logos splattered over so much kit and beer flowing as freely as it does through changing rooms, it would seem the chances of engaging the Muslim community are zero.
Everyone involved in rugby claims the sport is not burdened with the toxic drinking culture it once was but the brewing industry is still the game’s most prevalent sponsor.
A big night on the grog is still viewed as a reward — a special treat for a job well done.
The irony is that booze has long been sold as a means to create inclusivity — of breaking down barriers and building bonds between teammates — but it has, in fact, created exclusivity, as an increasing number of New Zealanders simply don’t want to have to sink six pints to be one of the gang.
Winning with mana is a big part of NZR’s reimagined world, and that extends to how players conduct themselves off the field as much as it does on it.
NZR must be honest enough to accept that when there have been high-profile, off-field indiscretions in the past decade, almost always it’s because the player in question has been intoxicated.
NZR can scream personal responsibility and cite the education it provides to players to help them understand alcohol and foster good drinking habits, but when the July tests against Ireland are called the Steinlager Series, it sends the most conflicting messages on the issue.
It is not enough for NZR to say the players are a product of their nonrugby environment and that their drinking habits are reflective of the country’s poor relationship with alcohol, because the point of this reimagined world is for the sport to elevate itself to a higher code of ethics.
Heavy drinking is a societal problem but it doesn’t need to also be rugby’s problem.
And there really is no point in NZR investing in all sorts of digital ways to enhance the stadium experience when the single greatest impediment to anyone enjoying being at a test remains the likelihood of finding themselves sat next to a group of obnoxiously drunk morons.
Standing up to the brewing industry will take courage, as beer brands are invested in all levels of the game.
The power of big breweries is such that security staff at stadiums search fans on their way into a test match with the authority to confiscate any alcohol they find.
But this isn’t to protect the experience from drunkenness — this is to protect the breweries’ pouring rights.
Some will say that to kick out the major brewers will be the death knell for community rugby, as so many clubs and unions depend on beer sponsorships to remain viable.
But 30 years ago, everyone feared that banning tobacco sponsorship would kill community sport.
It didn’t because there were other corporates ready to step in, just as there will be if NZR can reimagine its new world being one that does not feature alcohol or alcohol sponsorship.