All Blacks and Fiji play a test in San Diego as rugby tries to crack the American market

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The All Blacks will play Fiji in San Diego on Friday night in the latest step in an effort by New Zealand Rugby to penetrate the U.S. sporting market.

The match was initially scheduled to be played at Hamilton, New Zealand, but the sport’s national organizers made the decision to move it to the United States as part of a concerted effort win fans to rugby.

The three-time world champion All Blacks have played several matches in the United States in the last decade, notably in 2016 when they lost to Ireland in front of a near capacity crowd at Soldier Field in Chicago. A sellout crowd of around 35,000 is expected again at Snapdragon Stadium on Friday.

New Zealand most recently played the U.S. men’s national team in 2021 at Fed Ex Field in Maryland and won 104-14, which may not have been the greatest sales pitch to American fans.

But New Zealand’s approach to the United States has since become more broad-based than simply playing occasional matches there. New Zealand Rugby has stepped up its social media presence and content creation and is working with online video influencers to raise the sport’s profile.

“There are lots of different facets to how we might approach the United States,” New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson said in an interview earlier this year. “There’s a lot of work to do but this is a great start.”

In the leadup to the match on Friday, the New Zealand and Fiji players have conducted activities involving fans and sponsors and have done more than the usual media interviews.

San Diego was chosen as the match venue because the city has a significant population of people from the Pacific Islands and is close to large Pacific populations in the Bay area and Hawaii.

New Zealand’s moves and wider action by World Rugby has become more urgent because the United States has been chosen to host the men’s World Cup in 2031 and the women’s World Cup two years later.

The match on Friday can be seen as part of an advance guard of measures to win more local support for rugby ahead of those tournaments.

“I guess if you look at the years to 2031 we’ve got the chance to create a roadmap to how we might to work with our teams in black to create more awareness for the game, a deeper understanding of New Zealand rugby, the All Blacks and all of our teams,” Robinson said.

At the same time, New Zealand Rugby recently sold a percentage of its commercial revenues to California-based private equity firm Silver Lake and that carries an implicit responsibility to build its revenues, partly by exploring new rugby markets.

Other sports also are eyeing the United States’ massive audience and commercial opportunities. Cricket staged matches in the Twenty20 World Cup in the United States last month and Australia’s National Rugby League played a match in Las Vegas in March and will do so again next year.

Robinson said Fiji also has the chance to capture a new audience for its exciting brand of rugby. Fiji’s men’s team has won both Olympic rugby sevens gold medals contested so far and the country is a long-time leader in that version of the game.

The country is a growing force in the traditional 15-a-side game.

“It’s really important to state that this is a massive opportunity for Fiji and the All Blacks,” Robinson said. “I was at the Rugby World Cup sevens in San Francisco in 2018 and 75-80% of the crowd on those two or three days was a Fijian crowd.

“So we know there’s a huge fan base there and they have their own commercial aspirations where there are some strong connections for them on the West Coast.”

From a rugby point of view, New Zealand is coming off mediocre performances in two home wins against England this month, and Fiji off a 20-12 win over Georgia. Both teams will be aiming for improvement in this match.

The All Blacks will field a new-look team with six uncapped players and their performances will be important as head coach Scott Robertson looks for improvement ahead of the Rugby Championship starting next month.

___

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby