CHICAGO, IL – NOVEMBER 05: Ireland players celebrate their 40-29 victory as the final whistle blows during the international match between Ireland and New Zealand at Soldier Field on November 5, 2016 in Chicago, United States. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
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On Saturday, November 1st, Ireland face the All Blacks in Chicago for the first time in nine years. Between their visits to the Windy City, the All Blacks and Ireland have played ten times, splitting the spoils. The most notable of those was New Zealand’s 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final 28-23 win over Ireland. The Chicago rematch — dubbed the Gallagher Cup because of All Blacks sponsor and Chicago-based insurance firm Gallagher — will be the biggest match between the two since the Rugby World Cup, and certainly the most lucrative.
The Ireland and All Blacks Rivalry
Until 2016, there was no rivalry. Through the first 111 years of playing each other, the All Blacks won every single test match. Be it convincing blowout victories on home soil — including a record 60-0 win in which current All Black flyhalf Beauden Barrett made his debut — or last-minute wins in Dublin, the All Blacks never faltered against Ireland. For Kiwi fans, the fixture was a guaranteed victory.
However, on November 5th 2016, Ireland did the impossible. In front of a largely partisan crowd at Soldier Field, the Irish defeated the then back-to-back World Champions 40-29, ending an All Blacks’ win streak of eighteen games.
Former All Blacks hooker Dane Coles, played in the 2016 match, and says “it was like someone had passed away. You felt like you’d let down the All Black jersey, the legacy and all that.”
Since 2016, both teams have won five of the ten matchups between the two sides. Ireland scored a historic series victory in New Zealand in 2022, but the All Blacks defeated the Irish in consecutive Rugby World Cup quarter-finals in 2019 and 2023.
Current All Black fullback Will Jordan, was still a teenager in 2016. “I would have been in my first year at university in the Crusaders Academy as a nineteen year old,” Jordan told me in Chicago. He recalls watching the game and credits it for sparking the newfound rivalry between New Zealand and Ireland.
However, Jordan insisted the rematch was not a revenge game. “I guess for the guys who played in that game, you don’t forget your thoughts on it,” he told me. “It’s something that’s part of the All Blacks’ history, but we’re not necessarily touching on it too much, other than learning off the experiences of it. So it’s a bit of a clean slate around that.”
Days before the rematch, All Blacks winger Caleb Clarke did say, “I think it’s a real exciting opportunity to sort of have our chance to rewrite history.” Later he clarified that the team “had a look at the past” but is taking the end-of-season tour game by game and focusing on the great chance to play in Chicago.
All Black Peter Lakai is excited for his first test against Ireland, and his first time playing in Chicago at Soldier Field.
Courtesy of New Zealand Rugby
Ireland v All Blacks Ticket Information
Tickets flew off the shelf for the Gallagher Cup rematch, with nearly 50,000 tickets selling in the first 24 hours, before the game eventually sold out. Prices were as low as $100, but according to ticketing technology company Victory Live, the average tickets sold for $432, more than the average Bears’ ticket in 2024.
Fans living in all 50 U.S. states and all ten Canadian provinces purchased tickets. In total, people from forty-three countries will attend the game. Roughly 11,000 fans flew in from Ireland for the game, while several hundred made the long journey from New Zealand.
Seventy-eight percent of ticket sales were in the U.S., twenty-two percent were international, and thirty-one percent came from Illinois, demonstrating a strong display of local interest, even if much of the crowd is expected to be Irish expats.
The price points and speed of sales are evidence that is domestic and international demand for premiere rugby events being hosted in the U.S. Something which rugby’s major unions and World Rugby will hang their hats on ahead of the 2031 and 2033 Rugby World Cups.
In the crowd there will also be two hundred fifty All Blacks fans who booked their matchday tickets and Chicago itinerary through All Blacks Travel and Hospitality (ABTH), the official travel partner of New Zealand Rugby.
Through ABTH — an entity born out of a partnership between New Zealand Rugby and Miami-based hospitality firm STH Group — those two hundred plus fans not only got tickets to the game, they also get to attend pre-match functions, dine at the best restaurants in town, and meet current and former All Blacks.
At other locations, All Blacks fans booking through ABTH have had the opportunity to do things like tour Silverstone, and go to Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant. ABTH tickets for Chicago cost 3,500 New Zealand Dollars ($2,000) not including airfare, although packages can range depending on the venue and experience fans are looking for.
CHICAGO, IL – NOVEMBER 05: Dejected New Zealand players look on following their team’s 40-29 defeat during the international match between Ireland and New Zealand at Soldier Field on November 5, 2016 in Chicago, United States. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
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The Gallagher Cup Finances
Although no direct figures are being released to the media, the match between Ireland and the All Blacks at Soldier Field will deliver substantial revenue for both sides. The bulk of the gate will be split evenly between the two teams, with a smaller percentage going to TEG, the in-market event organizer. No appearance fees for either side have been disclosed.
New Zealand Rugby is expecting the Gallagher Cup rematch to yield the highest ever return of any of their offshore matches, as well as a profit margin unakin to anything but a British and Irish Lions series. Put simply, U.S. economics are a huge driver for both sides, but particularly for New Zealand, who’s domestic market’s returns are limited by size and population.
Speaking at World Rugby’s United by Rugby summit in Chicago on November 1st, Irish Rugby (IRFU) Chief Executive Kevin Potts, said Ireland does not make more money playing matches in the U.S. compared to at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Given the price points and stadium capacities in the United States it seems unlikely that hosting matches in Ireland could generate more revenue.