CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Reigning champion South Africa will not be staging a men’s Rugby World Cup any time soon, SA Rugby chief executive Rian Oberholzer said on Monday.
New Zealand won’t be either.
Together, the countries have won seven of the 10 Rugby World Cups and contested the most recent men’s final in 2023. But Oberholzer believed neither of the game’s greatest nations can make hosting financially viable and generate the World Cup revenue needed by the game.
“We have moved away from that philosophy that everybody must get an equal chance to host a World Cup,” Oberholzer said at a news conference.
“New Zealand and South Africa will not make the money out of a World Cup that World Rugby needs. I don’t think it is a negative on us, it is more what is more important for the best interests of World Rugby.
“The World Cup is the only revenue streak for World Rugby. It must fund the game’s entire ecosystem.”
In their most recent financial reports for 2024, New Zealand Rugby had a deficit of US$11.5 million and SA Rugby a deficit of US$5.3 million.
New Zealand co-hosted the first World Cup in 1987 and hosted alone in 2011. South Africa staged the tournament in 1995, the last before the game turned professional. All three tournaments were highly acclaimed festivals of the game but not great money-makers.
South Africa bid unsuccessfully for the World Cups in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023. France in 2023 reportedly generated revenue of 500 million euros for World Rugby, the most lucrative ever.
“I can never see that the same money can be generated in South Africa as it can in Europe, or maybe somewhere in the Middle East,” Oberholzer said. “World Rugby will drive World Cups to where they believe they can make the most money, and we all have to understand that.
“You cannot complain and ask for a World Cup in your country, make less money, and then want the biggest slice of the cake when it comes to the annual grant that we get from World Rugby.”
Australia stages the next men’s tournament in 2027 and the United States in 2031.
Oberholzer believed South Africa should do more in the U.S. to establish its brand.
“Us as SA Rugby, to keep on creating financial stability for us we have to start taking our brand wider than just South Africa,” he said.
“We know about the support we have in London, for example. America is a very important market for us in the runup to ’31 World Cup. We want to establish ourselves there as a team that is known to the majority of the Americans that will support the game.”
The Springboks will play in the U.S. for only the third time in this century when they tackle the All Blacks in Baltimore in September in the fourth test of their series.
The Boks previously played the U.S. in Houston in 2001 and Wales in Washington, D.C. in 2018.
Oberholzer said the Baltimore game at the home of the NFL’s Ravens was nearly sold out.
“A lot of people said, ‘Are you sure that the Americans will want to come and watch South Africa (and) New Zealand play?’ and its very clear that they do.”
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