South Africa’s three-Test series against New Zealand, which begins Saturday, carries significant financial pressure for the Springboks and South African rugby union.
Every seat must be filled across the Johannesburg and Cape Town venues, alongside healthy attendance at All Blacks warm-up matches against the Stormers, Sharks, Bulls, and Lions.
Some of those provincial matches have already drawn disappointing crowds, and tickets remain available for two of the three Test matches in the series.
The cheapest tickets for Saturday’s opener at the iconic Ellis Park start at £38, rising to £75 for the potential decider at the 95,000-capacity FNB Stadium on the other side of Johannesburg.
Were this series held in Europe, shifting millions of tickets at those prices or even double would present little difficulty, but South Africa’s economic realities add considerable nuance to the situation.
According to World Bank data, Africa’s second-biggest economy has seen a slow but unsteady GDP growth decline since the 1960s, falling from a high of nearly 8 per cent to much lower levels today.
The nation “remains too weak to materially improve jobs and poverty outcomes,” with unemployment sitting above 30 per cent as of 2025, affecting more than 8 million people.
This economic backdrop means rugby tickets cannot be priced at £150, and organisers have likely calibrated pricing about as well as circumstances allow, if not slightly too high.
New Zealand’s All Blacks supporters simply do not travel to South Africa in the same numbers as British and Irish Lions fans, who bring enormous economic benefit to host nations on tour.
The 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia injected over £200 million into that host nation’s economy, while Rugby Australia alone generated over £75 million from a single month of rugby.
South Africa’s union will not see comparable returns from the All Blacks series alone, making strong broadcaster numbers and late-arriving sponsorship deals critically important across the second and third Tests.
However, there is a significant ace in the pack for the Springboks, and it sits squarely in Baltimore, Maryland, home of NFL franchise the Ravens.
The Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium will host a fourth Test between South Africa and New Zealand, serving a dual purpose of topping up team coffers and exposing the rivalry to American audiences.
Those American audiences have already demonstrated extraordinary willingness to spend, with fans paying upwards of $10,000 to attend Fifa World Cup matches in recent months.
A search on Ticketmaster shows that Baltimore Test listed under “All Blacks tickets,” with entry starting at £130 and premium seats climbing well beyond £1,200.
That pricing structure represents a dramatic jump from South Africa’s ticket costs and signals where the real commercial opportunity in this series lies.
The US market could absorb rugby’s biggest occasions with ease if it chose to, and both South Africa and New Zealand deserve credit for actively pursuing a share of that commercial landscape.
South Africa’s union arguably needs the stability of long-term revenue more urgently than its already formidable team needs another series victory, though both outcomes would clearly be welcomed.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips, founder of Optimist Performance, suggests a tied series in South Africa followed by a deciding fourth Test on the US East Coast would deliver the most dramatic conclusion imaginable.
Whether the rugby delivers drama or not, the commercial experiment of taking the Springboks and All Blacks to American soil represents a calculated and potentially transformative step for the global game.