The news of Kennedy Simon’s four year deal this week should have been a cause for celebration but I read the news and instead felt concerned. It is true that it’s progress to have an offer in the fifteens game that goes beyond an annual renewal that most players receive. It is also progress to have a Black Ferns captain be treated with the respect she deserves, after we all saw what happened to the last two. It is a step forward but is it a step in the right direction?
When men’s rugby professionalised in 1995, it wasn’t reliant on trickle down economics. The formation of SANZAR through the collaboration of South Africa, New Zealand and Australian men’s rugby, created a domestic competition to underpin their strategy. They sold the broadcast rights of their newly minted Super Rugby competition to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for 555 million US dollars. This deal underwrote the wages that were paid to these new professional men. Making the average starting wage of a Super Rugby player in the inaugural 1996 season, $65,000.
That’s $15,000 more than the retainer rate of an under 25 year old Black Fern today.
This competition still makes up part of the equation for men’s rugby wages in New Zealand today. The basic maths for them goes Super Rugby Component + New Zealand Rugby Component = retainer. For the men, the minimum is set at $75,000 for the Super Rugby Component. That’s $5000 more than the top retainer a Black Fern can be paid.
The maximum a man can earn from a Super Rugby contract is $195,000. Women meanwhile are paid a flat rate of $17,000 for playing in Super Rugby Aupiki. Then our top 35 players pick up a contract with the Black Ferns. Black Fern retainers are more transparent than All Blacks, going up in increments of $5000. From tier 5 at $50,000 to tier 1 at $70,000. There is no room for negotiation in these contracts. There are predetermined rates whereas professional men have salary caps to play within.
But the biggest disparity is in our domestic baseline, both in terms of wages and our playing time.
The source of these numbers is the NZRPA’s website.
What does all this have to do with Kennedy’s contract? Well for me it’s not doing anything to address this gap. We are told we do not have the resources right now in the women’s game to do that. So we are boxed into a scarcity mindset. It’s through that view that I see this announcement. And rather than being able to celebrate the step toward security it is offering one player and signalling to others, I am fixated on the fact that for the next four years there are now only 34 contracts potentially up for grabs.
34 contracts to develop all the potential we have in this country. 34 contracts to retain our talent from advances of other codes and countries. 34 contracts to carry our game into the professional era.
The men at this moment were given at least 150. Faced with the same circumstance, they didn’t just professionalise the All Blacks but all the men they would need to play amongst in order to find their best. How is it we copy so many things from their example except these fundamentals? If we focus on one batch of players at a time, we build a team not an infrastructure. Legends, not a legacy. A moment, not a movement.
I want more.
When I am asked what this looks like, it is simply that a young girl steps into our game and sees her pathway all the way to the top. And that our administrators too, have a clear line of sight back to her. That she is a valued member of every club she joins. That she is provided the same level of coaching and the same time on the grass. She is trained to be a professional so that one day she might be paid like one.
Had I been in New Zealand Rugby’s position when professionalism entered the chat, my investment would have focused first on the environment. To ensure we were consistently producing players that would be able to carry this conversation forwards. Instead, we have put that weight on the shoulders of individuals within our team sport. It is their success which all of our futures depend on.
This is the path they have chosen so enough pussyfooting. Go all in or turn around. This watered down men’s model will lead to nothing but watered down results. Put real money in to effect real change or start over. With a blank sheet and the lessons of the last 30 years of professional rugby in Aotearoa.
Give me vision. Give me resource. Give me the big picture and an understanding of the part we play in it. Please don’t give me any one off announcements. I want something to really celebrate.
Okay, that’s all very depressing but in sunnier news, OLYMPIC SEVENS IS ALMOST HERE!!
I’ve put together all these graphics for you to get up to speed.
And here are all the team’s previews for you… this broke my brain to put together today so I don’t want to know about any mistake.
Followed by Pool B
And finally, Pool C.
That’s all!
With you,
Alice
Love the previews! So handy.