NZ rugby prepares for major talkfest

Rugby Heaven | NZPA |Tuesday, 25 March 2008

The sustainability of rugby in New Zealand comes under the microscope at a two-day forum starting in Wellington on Wednesday.

Even the most traditional vestiges of the national game, such as the provincial championship, will not be safe from dissection as a wide array of rugby shareholders seek to boost sagging elements of the sport.

An apparent slump in interest over the past two years - measured by falling crowd and television viewing figures - and the departure of top players to big-spending overseas clubs are prominent issues to be addressed.

Perhaps even more pressing are the mounting financial problems faced by provincial unions, many of which reported significant financial losses last year.

Officials from each of the 26 unions and five Super 14 franchises will address the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) about changes needed at all levels to improve rugby's health over the next five years.

Joining them will be invited players and coaches and other rugby thinkers such as John Hart and Grant Fox.

At the heart of discussions will be how to fund professional rugby in a world market dominated by the massive finances of French and English clubs, while also managing the need of the amateur game here.

NZRU chief executive Steve Tew said he could sense an appetite for innovation, with his organisation to act as a facilitator for all manner of ideas.

Changes to the way players are contracted and a tweak to All Blacks' eligibility rules may be forthcoming while the introduction of overseas franchises and venues for professional rugby competitions could not be discounted.

The domestic Air NZ Cup enters its third year under an expanded 14-team format this year, after which it was to be reviewed.

Several provinces have felt the financial squeeze, having to pay players sums they cannot afford to remain competitive, and have reported losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Otago, Northland and Southland have voiced particular concern while last week the ailing Bay of Plenty union announced an assistance package from the NZRU, something critics fear could become an ongoing scenario.

New Otago chief executive Richard Reid walked into enormous financial problems at his union.

"We've got to make sure we've got the money to pay for everything, clearly that's a big one, generating income," he told RugbyHeaven, pointing out that income only came from four sources.

"If that fluctuates, whether it be sponsorship, gaming machine funding, grants from New Zealand rugby or test match allocation, it doesn't have to move far for you to have a pretty average year."

Struggling unions have already started cutting back on contracted player numbers to the national minimum of 26 and reducing their wage budgets which are mostly well under the salary cap.

By contrast, the bigger unions such as Canterbury have voiced concern about a competition that doesn't allow it to maximise its earning potential.

Some solutions already raised include reducing the number of teams in the provincial championship - possibly through amalgamation - the involvement of Australian teams or running it as an amateur competition concurrently underneath the Super 14.

New Zealand Rugby Players' Association head Rob Nichol recently warned that New Zealand was on the verge of becoming a "feeder" nation to the northern hemisphere if changes to the New Zealand structure were not forthcoming.

Nichol has touted private ownership of Super 14 franchises as the next step to inject money into a limited market.

Since rugby turned professional in 1995 those franchises have been run by the NZRU and the players all centrally contracted.

Former All Blacks coach Hart supports Nichol's view, believing it is the only way to keep pace with the northern juggernaut.

"Suddenly, their (English and French) models are looking far superior as they are beginning to evolve the partnerships that will take their game forward, while ours stagnates," Hart said.

"European football has proved that money can be made from the club game and there are now billionaires from the US lining up to buy their way into British football."

Hart is concerned by figures that test rugby in Europe generates about three times the money of the tests in the southern hemisphere.

He said those disparities would only grow under current structures.

However, Craig Norgate, a prominent New Zealand businessman and a former director of the NZRU, believes privatisation surrenders a strategic advantage of New Zealand rugby.

He fears the franchises will all fall into rich foreign hands and spark the onset of a war over who has first rights on players, something that has plagued the French and English games since 1995.

Norgate instead advocates scrapping the Air NZ Cup, which he believes no longer has a place in the professional game and was decimating provincial financial accounts.

He will get support on that front from Australian rugby boss John O'Neill, who wants Super rugby to cover half the year, with mid-year inter-hemisphere tests turned into midweek fixtures.