Tim Cronin from RugbyShirts.net reckons his fellow All Black fans shouldn’t be going OMG over the letters AIG…
“NZRU, you make me sick."
“…completely disrespectful”
“You have ruined all the history and class of the black jersey”
This is just a small sampling of the venomous response the NZRU received when it unveiled the All Blacks’ latest jersey, complete with new sponsor, AIG’s logo on the front.
The 5 year deal sees a sponsor’s logo plastered front-and-centre on the All Blacks’ jersey for the first time in New Zealand’s rugby history, but are fans being just a little too precious?
To be honest, I think we’ve been lucky to date that our past sponsors have been so lenient and willing to be flexible. There was paranoia when adidas first came on board, with fans suspecting the famous three stripes would be emblazoned down the sleeves. But adidas were respectful to the traditions of the jersey, with the only ‘major’ change to the kit being the addition of one extra stripe on the socks (the old CCC kit had two stripes on the socks.)
And AIG have followed suit. From what I’ve heard the initial design had a larger logo, with a white box around the letters A-I-G, but feedback from players suggested it was slightly over the top, and when the All Blacks trot the new kit out for the first time this weekend against Australia there will be no box around the lettering, and the text will be smaller than initially planned.
When defending the NZRU’s decision to side with the American Insurance giant, CEO Steve Tew made mention of the fact that it costs $100 million to run rugby in New Zealand, and it had now become a fact of life that to secure that funding, a major shirt sponsor was needed. I think people need to consider the funding side of things a lot more before they go public with their outrage – it’s one thing to cherish the All Blacks; to watch every game, live and breathe every moment of every test match etc, but the reality is that running a team in the professional era, in a country as small as New Zealand, and still managing to compete at the very highest level, takes resources, and resources cost money. Fans simply can’t have it both ways – we can’t retain the ‘romantic’ amateur nature of our game whilst being competitive at the top level, and the New Zealand rugby community will just have to get used to that fact, and move with the times.
It’s not the first time the shirt has featured a corporate sponsor, with prominent beer manufacturer Steinlager having a smaller logo on the shirt, and the shorts, in the mid 90’s. And the revenue that can be generate from a shirt sponsor deal is something that has been recognised by every other test playing nation for some time, so the other side of the argument would suggest that we’ve actually been doing the game in New Zealand a dis-service be refusing to accept the money on offer by major sponsors in the past.
Don’t get me wrong – I love the black jersey, and I would vehemently oppose any major change to the design – the addition of stripes, another colour being thrown in the mix, etc. But I think the financial benefits of the AIG deal outweigh any negatives, and I think we’ll all survive this ‘ordeal’, despite the inclusion of three white letters on our beloved jersey!
