Alan Gilpin is chief executive of World Rugby. He spent nine years at IMG negotiating the commercial rights to the 2003, 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups. So when he says next year’s tournament in Australia brings him full circle, he means it literally: he’s selling the same tournament from the other side of the table. The men’s quadrennial World Cup brings in around 85 to 90 per cent of World Rugby’s total income. And he’s set himself a big number. World Rugby’s plan targets a surplus of more than a billion dollars from the 2031 World Cup in America, in a market where it can’t make FIFA’s demands of NFL owners and where, as he admits, putting on an event is far more expensive. But the most striking thing is how candid he is about his own sport. Rugby’s biggest problem, he says, is self-inflicted: “we’re competing amongst ourselves.” We talk about FIFA, R360 and LIV, private equity, the women’s Lions, what the streamers want, and whether sevens can ever pay its way. Chapters 00:00 Football, North America and everything else 01:50 What rugby learned from FIFA’s World Cup summer in the US 04:30 Hiring FIFA’s people and the host-city process 05:40 Narrow NFL pitches and the venue shortlist 07:00 Why rugby can’t demand commercially clean venues 08:50 Margin over revenue, and 68,000 in Baltimore 10:00 The NFL owners and “should the NFL buy rugby?” 11:00 Why the US: the Japan 2019 precedent 12:00 France 2023’s losses and the end of the outsourced hosting model 16:20 A £1bn tournament: six revenue streams, one dependency 18:40 The federated model: who gets the money 23:30 Private equity, Prem Rugby and institutional capital 28:00 “We’re competing amongst ourselves”: rugby’s fragmentation problem 30:00 R360, LIV Golf and “disrupt from within” 31:20 The player welfare pitch and the national-team moat 35:00 Player wages and the professional women’s game 38:40 Same or different? The women’s British and Irish Lions 43:00 Streamers, eventisation and rugby’s product suite 48:00 RugbyPass, digital numbers and the wrong metrics 49:50 Clips, grazing and going the wrong way up the funnel 52:00 Sevens, T20 and the Olympic effect 57:30 What’s next: the shape of the game and the road to 2031 Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.
