NPC unions score with new partner
The 14 provincial rugby unions have landed global insurance company Gallagher, the sponsors of the English Premiership, as a partner in a new commercial strategy that will deliver a greater autonomy from New Zealand Rugby.
While Bunnings will remain as competition sponsor, Gallagher will become “official national partner” of all 14 provincial rugby unions on a four-year deal, with its logo displayed on team shirts, in stadiums and during match broadcasts.
Significantly, Gallagher will work directly with the NZ Provincial Rugby Union Group, not New Zealand Rugby, on marketing and promotion.
The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but it signals that the provincial unions have no intention of accepting a reduced role in the New Zealand rugby landscape, despite the New Zealand Governance Review finding last year that “few – if any – would contend that a country of 5 million people can support six professional [Super Rugby] franchises and 14 NPC teams”.
Auckland Rugby Union chief executive Jarrod Bear told Stuff that the Gallagher deal wouldn’t be the last under the new strategy, with more partners “in the pipeline”.
“Once the proposition was put together, there was a number of interested parties and there’s a pipeline of interest still remaining to want to get across the NPC and FPC properties, because what’s unique about those two competitions is that they really do span across New Zealand from, from Invercargill through to Northland,” Bear said.
“... It’s pretty significant, the pipeline, and we’re very hopeful that we will be announcing more before the start of the NPC competition.”
Bear said the provincial unions met in Christchurch last year, when it was decided to test the commercial market under an collective approach.
Hawke’s Bay Rugby chief executive Jay Campbell and Bay of Plenty chief executive Mike Rodgers have also been key players, and the unions used experienced sports marketer Warren Goddard – a former Highlanders part-owner – to bring potential sponsors to the table.
Bear also said that “over time” the plan was for the provinces to all have more revenue to spend on high performance, potentially evening out the competition.
“One deal alone is not going to be the answer, but as we grow that collective revenue the idea is that we want to see that all the provincial unions have more to invest in their high performance programs, their NPC and FPC programs, and community rugby,” he said.
Bear said that despite well-documented issues with crowd numbers in many NPC games, the underlying interest in the competition was still there: “I think there’s still a lot of interest within the competition and the opportunity for us to improve on is how do we collectively market it and promote it so that we get greater bang for our buck,” he said.
“If you look at the way that it’s being consumed, our broadcast numbers were well up last year versus previous years, and when you look at how it’s consumed across digital platforms, those numbers just continually grow.”
Gallagher Insurance – not be confused with the Gallagher group that sponsors the Chiefs in Super Rugby – are heavily involved in rugby in the northern hemisphere, and have sponsored the English Premiership since 2018.