What’s happened to the Bledisloe Cup?
Roar Rookie By Worlds Biggest, 25 Jul 2012 Worlds Biggest is a Roar Rookie
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- All Blacks, Bledisloe Cup, Rugby Union, wallabies
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Australia's Quade Cooper kicks midfield in front of Daniel Carter during the Investec Tri Nations rugby match between Australia Wallabies and New Zealand All Blacks for the Bledisloe Cup at Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday August 6 2011. (AAP Images/NZPA, Stephen Barker).
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The Sydney Bledisloe Cup is three and a half weeks away, but where is the buzz and promotion? This is one of my favourite sporting events of the year.
However, it doesn’t seem to hold the prestige it once did, at least on this side of the ditch.
Rugby supporters in Sydney complained when the ARU took the Bledisloe interstate in 2006 and 2007. When it returned to Sydney in 2008, rugby fans showed their support for the fixture by almost selling out the ground. Again in 2009, the ground was almost at capacity.
In 2010, the Australian Bledisloe fixture was held in Melbourne and was in Brisbane for 2011.
Now the Bledisloe is back in Sydney. However, ticket sales are around the 50,000 mark and corporate sales are down from previous years.
In the not so distant past, the Bledisloe would be sold out in an hour.
These days a crowd of 70-75,000 is the norm, leaving a lot of empty seats at the former Olympic venue. Why?
One of the great rugby events each year in the biggest city in our nation and we can’t fill the stadium. It’s a real concern for the game.
This raises a lot of questions. Is it ticket prices? Is it lack of promotion? Is it the state of the game which seems to get belted from pillar to post in the media?
Is it the fact that the Wallabies haven’t won the Bledisloe in 10 years?
The NSW Blues haven’t won the Origin series in seven years, yet their supporters turn up every year to almost sell out the stadium on a Wednesday night, sometimes twice a year.
If Australia has any chance of winning back the Bledisloe, they need a strong home crowd behind them.
Why are rugby supporters abandoning the Wallabies in the biggest event of the year?
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July 25th 2012 @ 5:39am
Johnno said | July 25th 2012 @ 5:39am | Report comment
-Too me the reduction if you in the importance of the Bledisloe cup is a success, and a sign and signal that aussy/nz rugby is heading in the right direction not the wrong one.
-And rugby league’s equivalent the state of origin in rugby league, .
-That SOO is still the pinnacle a tri series 3 test series each year played between only 2 states is the highlight for the code. That is a worry for the code of rugby league , and a winner for the code of rugby union that rugby has evolved and aussy and NZ rugby’s highlight is not longer a yearly bledsiloe and a british lions series every 12 years.
-The evolution of the tri-nations with the books and now the rugby championship with argentina, plus 7evens rugby , and the junior under-20 world cup show , rugby no longer needs a bledisloe cup in reality. In reality it has outgrown it and gone global, and a rugby world cup which is the 3rd biggest sports event in the world after the soccer world cup and the olympics.
-So for me the evolution and down grading of the bledsiloe cup for the reasons i have given above, and rugby league’s continued reliance of state of origing a series only played between 2 states in OZ, forget even being played between 2 countries like the bledisloe or the ASHES, to me shows rugby has gone more global than rugby league and the state of origin.
-I would imagine the rugby championship this year (12 matches) will have a combined higher tv audience than 3 state of origin matches this year overall. And for example Argentina-south africa test combined population of 80 million plus expats in UK and USA, more will tune in to that than any of the state of origin matches. And just as state of origin gets a few viewers from USA so will south africa and argentina get viewers in USA,Canada, and uk, and australia and NZ in expat viewers.
-So the bledisloe being downgraded devalued less meaningful , whatever spin or words you want to put on it show in reality rugby union has evolved and changed for the better and has expanded into new markets for aussy/NZ rugby most notably south africa and now argentina and the world cup.
Not like rugby league where it’s show piece for the code or sport being a series played between just 2 states 3 times a year.
-So bledisloe basically rugby doesn’t need the beledisloe returned to it’s former glory as rugby has expanded and evolved and it would be a step backwards if it was up graded , rather than downgraded or watered down which has happened.
-I mean is the calcutta cup that important to England VS Scotland anymore. The grand slam is to them in the 6 nations to the him unions still valuable a bit but winning the 6nations is no 1. Just like winning the tri nations or winning the rugby championship is no1 not winning the bledisloe cup.
July 25th 2012 @ 7:37am
mania said | July 25th 2012 @ 7:37am | Report comment
johnno – u sure u not making pre-excuses for not winning the cup this season?
i scoff at your position that the bledisloe is not important anymore. your argument is logical and well thought out but following your rugby team isnt about logic its about passion. bledisloe adds colour to the rugby world. nz values the bledisloe more than the RC. last year henry stated that other than the WC the bledisloe was the most important silverware.
this isnt about world rugby, this is about rivalry in a small pond that only has NZ and aus facing off vs each other. its got history and emotional involvement.
July 25th 2012 @ 9:25am
CraigB said | July 25th 2012 @ 9:25am | Report comment
after 10 years of not seeing it and the 99% possibility of not seeing it for another 10 you quickly learn that their are more important things in life.
July 25th 2012 @ 9:29am
Jutsie said | July 25th 2012 @ 9:29am | Report comment
There isnt any thing more important we are just telling ourselves that because to make ourselves feel better!
July 25th 2012 @ 4:29pm
Johnno said | July 25th 2012 @ 4:29pm | Report comment
mania you really think Henry id love to know where he said that. The RC is harder to win than the bledisloe to you have to at least get 1 away win our of 3. plus win all your home games. I don’t know if JON and the aru , would agree with you. A RC trophy looks far more impressive than the grand old Bledsiloe. And NZ win last year in the world cup showed they i would think a more global attitude than just an obsession with beating the wallabies. Rugby league has suffered with the obsession of SOO just 2 states for crying out loud. Rugby is more global in it’s thinking and i love the bledisloe’s loved watching jonah loom play at sydney in 95 after the world cup when rugby was in it’s last days of amateur. And loved th e94 bledisloe under lights on a Monday or mid week night when a young george gregan made that great tackle. And loved the house of pain matches at an old carrisbrook of a saturday afternoon . love the new indoor stadium at dunedien, but there was something special about saturday rugby in dunedien and all the students and the whole town bating for the wallabies.
July 26th 2012 @ 5:47am
mania said | July 26th 2012 @ 5:47am | Report comment
johnno – henry said it at a press conference last year before the 3N kicked off.
yes NZRFU is big on expanding the game globally and kiwi’s love the history of the bledisloe, but why cant they exist together?
u have a passion for rugby johnno, dont let what should or shouldnt ruin whats happening in the now.
July 26th 2012 @ 1:35pm
Johnno said | July 26th 2012 @ 1:35pm | Report comment
Good points’ Mania. I love rugby like so many roarers do. Bledisloe can exist with the RC, and the rivalry is still special between AB’s VS Wallabies. I think for what it’s worth it has to be re-marketed someone at the ARU or NZRU have to make one of it’s priorities to remind people . Who knows how they will. And on the profit if they do it, it will be good money spinners 75,000 is more money than 55000-60000 so it is in the best financial interest too. And let’s be honest money is what talks the loudest in pro sports, so they would be silly if they ignored the money spinner that the bledisloe is and they should promote it and make as much money as they can out of the bledisloe.
July 26th 2012 @ 4:03pm
kovana said | July 26th 2012 @ 4:03pm | Report comment
“NZRFU is big on expanding the game globally”
lol.. You must be joking. If anything, it is the NZRU which is holding back rugby from reaching its true potential.
July 26th 2012 @ 11:25pm
Demon Dez said | July 26th 2012 @ 11:25pm | Report comment
Why so, kovana?
July 27th 2012 @ 5:11am
mania said | July 27th 2012 @ 5:11am | Report comment
yeah kovana, why would NZRFU have a charter to not expand rugby? seems an odd comment to make considering AB’s are WC holders and #1 in the world.
johnno – a better song than ‘slice o heaven’ would be scribes ‘u cannot stop us’
July 25th 2012 @ 8:05pm
liam said | July 25th 2012 @ 8:05pm | Report comment
Johnno, you were schooo drunk writing that. surely?
July 25th 2012 @ 8:17pm
Johnno said | July 25th 2012 @ 8:17pm | Report comment
liam how point out how. Give me a reason why you would make such comments.
July 25th 2012 @ 9:03pm
liam said | July 25th 2012 @ 9:03pm | Report comment
honestly im not knocking your views, you make some good points mate. i just got the sense that it had been written very quickly with a lot of ideas pouring forth at once and ive done the same on occasion in the same way after a few beers while feeling passionate about something!
July 25th 2012 @ 9:49pm
Johnno said | July 25th 2012 @ 9:49pm | Report comment
okay cool mate. But for what is worth the rugby championship generates or will generate more turnover than a 3 test bledisloe just like origin. RC will be able to have 12 matches where as bledisloe and SOO, just 3 each. And argentina, south africa, Aust/NZ, about 105 million people to acces. where as bledisloe is just Aust/NZ.
July 26th 2012 @ 4:20pm
Emric said | July 26th 2012 @ 4:20pm | Report comment
Truth be told is that SA/NZ – Arg/SA are going to be the biggest tv ratings
July 25th 2012 @ 6:08am
mania said | July 25th 2012 @ 6:08am | Report comment
its still exciting in NZ
July 25th 2012 @ 7:29am
Worlds Biggest said | July 25th 2012 @ 7:29am | Report comment
Johnno, personally after 10 years I would take winning the Bledisloe over the Rugby Championship any day of the week. You mentioned the game is expanding globally and therefor we don’t need the Bledisloe Cup of old. That’s well and good the game is expanding into new markets etc…but what of the game in this country ? This fixture has not sold out in Sydney or gone close to it since 2008 and that is a concern. Let’s fill the Stadium and get behind the Wallabies.
July 25th 2012 @ 7:49am
Red Kev said | July 25th 2012 @ 7:49am | Report comment
The supporters aren’t abandoning the Wallabies, the Wallabies have abandoned them by playing boring, risk averse, crash-ball midfield rugby with players that lack form, fitness and creativity.
The real football codes in Australia (and by “real” I mean those with money and success and large followings – although I don’t like either myself) of AFL and NRL are into the business end of the season and are sorting out who will play in the finals. To draw sports fans away from their normal teams to the rugby you have to give them a reason to support the team. The Reds winning the Super Rugby last year and rolling into a World Cup just over the ditch was a perfect opportunity to showcase and grow the game that was squandered.
The Bledisloe advertisments on Foxtel are all well and good, but there is nothing on free-to-air television about it – if the ARU seriously wants to grow the game they have to push beyond pay tv for promotion.
Little wonder the public at large doesn’t care about the Bledisloe Cup in my opinion.
July 25th 2012 @ 9:33am
Jutsie said | July 25th 2012 @ 9:33am | Report comment
I cant fathom how the ARU have neglected FTA viewers for the last 10 years, such short sighted thinking. They give the screening rights to the highest bidder which gives them a short term revenue injection but there is no plan for increased market exposure which would result in more long term benefits.
I have foxtel purely for rugby but if i was casual supporter living in melbourne there would be little to no rugby available for me to see on tv.
July 26th 2012 @ 11:56am
RebelRanger said | July 26th 2012 @ 11:56am | Report comment
A few mates of mine have converted to league for this reason. 2 games a week is better than no rugby.
When I was in high school (obviously in Melbourne), not many of the kids even knew what rugby was or looked like. and thought the Storm played the All Blacks.
July 26th 2012 @ 9:50pm
The Werewolf said | July 26th 2012 @ 9:50pm | Report comment
‘The wallabies have abandoned the fans’. That is just an awful sentiment to be spouting. Its fans like you that will drive them to resent the fans ala the english football side. They hate each other and look at the results or lack thereof.
July 27th 2012 @ 6:05am
Ben S said | July 27th 2012 @ 6:05am | Report comment
What do you know about English football? Apparently nothing.
July 25th 2012 @ 8:00am
sheek said | July 25th 2012 @ 8:00am | Report comment
And some Roarers continue to tell the rest of us that we’re alarmists when we highlight problems with the game in Australia. If Australian rugby was a dutch dyke, then it’s got breaches & leaks all over the place. Sometimes it seems as if the whole thing might collapse at any moment.
Of course, Australian rugby won’t collapse, but it’s in danger of becoming a second tier sport unless those in charge, not only at the ARU, but also at the state level, change their thinking & their ways.
Many rugby fans still watch the rugby, but have become emotionally detached. And that’s sad……….
July 25th 2012 @ 9:18am
BennO said | July 25th 2012 @ 9:18am | Report comment
sheek, your last line sums me up pretty well. Some years ago I said to my wife that there are up to three days/nights a year when she is less important to me than what’s on TV – I couldn’t miss a Bledisloe test. Fortunately she took it well!
But I’ve missed a few in the past couple of years and surprisingly it hasn’t really bothered me. As someone mentioned above, I wondered if it’s the constant negativity in the Aussie rugby media that’s rubbed off on me or whether it’s actually the style and quality of play of the Wallabies. But what I think it is for me is that the players seem to have become emotionally detached as well.
You often see the players laughing and joking on the field, among themselves and the opposition, only minutes after the siren sounds on the loss. I used to feel gutted for a day or two after a Wallaby loss, but these days it doesn’t bother me at all. If they players don’t seem to care much, then I ‘m not likely to either.
July 26th 2012 @ 11:53am
RebelRanger said | July 26th 2012 @ 11:53am | Report comment
That last paragraph sounds spot on. Nothing worse than losing an International test and some of the players are having a merry old time. Ties back in with the intensity missing in Australian rugby.
I know I would have stopped supporting NSW if they were always having a laugh after losing SOO.
July 25th 2012 @ 8:15am
ohtani's jacket said | July 25th 2012 @ 8:15am | Report comment
Going from test matches to three rounds of Super Rugby plus finals doesn’t work for me. Three and a half weeks of no rugby would have me itching for a test match.
July 25th 2012 @ 9:11am
sheek said | July 25th 2012 @ 9:11am | Report comment
Yes OJ,
That’s an issue worthy of another discussion on another day. I’m totally against the mid-SR comp hiatus, test window that occurred in June. This year it has been totally disjointed. And the 3 test series is really crap. it’s nothing more than a money raising exercise rather than a meaningful contest.
The Anglo-Saxon-Celtic teams, apart from the British & Irish Lions, have never been up for 3 test series. In any case, they don’t have sufficient “selling power”.
Look at Wales. How they didn’t win at least one test against the Wallabies says a lot about them, & not very good either. The Wallabies aren’t a great team, & this Welsh side was supposed to be its best in a long time.
Then you had a very experienced & talented Irish team get trounced in two tests by the ABs, & lose the other narrowly. Another whitewash all the same. The English only did marginally better, extracting one draw from 3 matches against the Boks.
So 3 northern hemisphere countries each playing a 3 tests series, for one draw & 8 losses. I’m afraid that’s pathetic. And people criticize me for daring to suggest the depth of international rugby is poor. But this is another story again.
Anyway, either the SR finishes in May, or June, & is then followed by the test window respectively in June, or July.
July 25th 2012 @ 1:23pm
Johnno said | July 25th 2012 @ 1:23pm | Report comment
I agree sheek to me the June test series was defiantly more respectable than this old 90′s NH test they were embarrassing . But something needs to bee done unless rugby goes to a global calendar i just can’t see the NH series winning the fans long term with the exception of the lions.
-Play super rugby then or some tests vs developing rugby nations perhaps. But id say keep the super rugby for those 3 weeks as the priority 3 weeks of revenue the super rugby clubs miss out on.
The other problems with rugby sheek, and more so than soccer i think, basically club/provincial rugby is pseudo in competition with test match rugby, so the ARU is trying to make money of both. I believe rugby will only go forwad when it follows the soccer model of making club rugby no 1 and international rugby no 2.
-Hvae money spinner friendlies maybe once a year plus the end of year 4 week europe tour, and the world cup of course, and the rugby championship, but june test window, hurts revenue more than helps it.
-Think about super rugby 15 teams 7 matches for SANZAR as opposed to just 3 over the weekend.
July 26th 2012 @ 12:35am
Ben S said | July 26th 2012 @ 12:35am | Report comment
How many series have NZ won in SA?
If Wales had won two of those last minute kick Tests you’d just be moaning about the structure and depth of Australian rugby. i think that the quality of Test football isn’t great at the minute, but then it never has been and never will be. 7 close Tests out of 9 are enough for me as a spectator.
July 25th 2012 @ 8:16am
Steve said | July 25th 2012 @ 8:16am | Report comment
Apart from the last 2 years the NSW SOO crowds have been terrible.
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July 25th 2012 @ 8:17am
chuck said | July 25th 2012 @ 8:17am | Report comment
BLEDISLOE CUP games will always generated interest and as a kiwi we give this cup the same aura as the RANFURLY SHEILD its ours and we will go to war too keep it 10 yrs is a long time for the WALLABIES you bet we not going to give it to ROBBIE DEANS wallabies and you dont want too be in a side that looses it Taine Randle didn’t have fond memory of these games and so have I getting the perverbal stick from your ozzie work mates.
Yes you right it would have been sold out why .
Is it PROMOTION- PRICE- ROBBIE DEANS FACTOR 50.000 sold tickets lets hope they get a full house I will be there.
GO THE ALLBLACKS.
July 25th 2012 @ 8:43am
Short-Blind said | July 25th 2012 @ 8:43am | Report comment
The hard core will be there – I’ve got 10 mates flying in from all over OZ for it as it is a real social event for rugby lovers. I hate ANZ stadium & it’s the only game I will attend there- a more soul less space to watch a rugby game I have not seen (have not been there since that awful kick a thon with the Saffas in 2006) Given that for JON to attract the non hard core the following needs to be considered :
Ticket prices (like everything else in OZ) are a real gouge – need to be lowered.
Promotion has been pathetic (as RK says) – JON seems to have his headspace in his next job. FFS get some FTA promotion going – compare it to what Ch 9 does with SOO.
wallabies turn up & win a game would be good and play an attractive style.
Clean the Waratahs out – rugby in Sydney is depressed because of their poor showing – actually turns people off (how many Tahs in Wallys?).
If a new board /CEO ever manage to turn around the titanic that is OZ rugby – the a purpose built Kings park type arena is needed, ANZ is that bad.
My nights and I will have a blinder though – Go the Wallys!
July 25th 2012 @ 8:56am
Sailosi said | July 25th 2012 @ 8:56am | Report comment
50.000, I thought you were going to say 10-20,000 had been sold. Fifty thousand is brilliant, it’s still 3 weeks away. I haven’t even thought about it yet. Come and get my attention when we are 7 days away then i’ll think about going.