Blues chief executive Andrew Hore insists NZ Rugby could retain its top players, if Super Rugby Pacific franchises were allowed to run their own businesses, instead of the central governance structure currently in place.
The Blues and NZR are celebrating the re-signing of star midfielder Rieko Ioane through the 2027 World Cup - the second All Black to commit for four years, after hooker Samisoni Taukei'aho last week - but still face a tough task try to retain all the talent on their books against the lure of lucrative overseas contracts.
While NZR general manager of professional rugby Chris Lendrum concedes there is simply not enough money to keep them all in New Zealand, Hore maintains Super Rugby is not fulfilling its money-earning potential and won't under the current model.
"If you look at NFL, NRL, AFL... NRL was earning $15 million in 1996 and now earns over $400 million a year," Hore told Sky Sport's Breakdown. "If you look at our revenues, with the five Supers working hard together, we've increased our revenues substantially.
"The key to it though... I believe it's going to take that separation of governance, so it's still national body-owned but run independently. That's going to be really important.
"We need competitive fixtures, so looking at the way we even the teams up will be vitally important. We desperately underspend in events and marketing, when you compare us to those other competitions."
Hore claims Super Rugby contributes NZ$28 million to the high performance programme, but the franchises are currently serving merely as NZ Rugby hubs throughout the country.
"We need to sell the opportunity to our national bodies that, if they give us license and ability to do the things we need to do and investment into the competition, I genuinely believe we can get Super Rugby back to being the No.1 competition in the world."
Hore says the southern hemisphere has the resources to build revenue and hints Japan must return to the competition, after the Sunwolves were disbanded in 2020.
"We can't think like we're just five clubs working through to NZR or five to Australia," he told Breakdown. "We've got to think of ourselves as a competition, and we've got to think about how to make our competition appealing to the public and the fan.
"That's moving away from our traditional roots of being a high performance-only sort of product."
The franchises have driven law changes this season in an attempt to make Super Rugby more fan friendly, but increasing ball-in-play time.
"I think that's a wonderful example of how that whole process worked," said Hore. "First of all, I think the rule changes have been great - all the metrics for success are showing that's been successful.
"That came about from the 12 clubs getting together with the national bodies and working through 'what rules aren't helping us create a spectacle for our fans, what do we need to change'.
"We then had World Rugby also at that meeting, so when they went to the World Rugby table, there was logic to at least trial them. I think that's the power in looking at it as a competition and working together on how we make it better, as opposed to how do we make our nation better."
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