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NZR predict staggering NZ$30 million losses

The All Blacks perform the Haka (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

The New Zealand Rugby Union has posted a NZ$1.9 (£900,000) million loss for 2018 and is predicted to be facing a massive NZ$30m (£15.5m) cumulative deficit over the next five years raising more concerns over the financial health of the sport.

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While the 2018 loss was $1.4m better than the $3.3m it had budgeted for, New Zealand media reported that Colin Groves – the Waikato Rugby Union chairman – used his speech at Wednesday’s annual general meeting to highlight that NZR has a projected $30m deficit coming over the next five years.

In 2018, there was a record $63m (£32m) on player payments, $31m (£16m) spent on “game development” and $8m(£4m) invested solely in the women’s game.

NZR chief executive Steve Tew insisted it was something they expected to be able to overcome and said: “We prepare long-term financial projections which we share with the provincial unions on a regular basis and if nothing changes we will have a deficit over that period, but as we’ve shown in the last 10 years we’ve worked very hard to fill those gaps.

“Part of it is driven by foreign exchange gains. When we signed AIG and Adidas [sponsorships] and some of the broadcasting contracts we were able to secure some long-term foreign exchange positions, which have been very beneficial.

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“We’ve been spending that income, but that income is not going to be repeated because the dollar is in a different position and the next time we sign long-term contracts we may not get those gains. That’s money we have to replace or stop spending.”

NZR earned $189m (£98m)in 2018, which was up 17 percent from 2016, but significantly down from the $257m (£132m)the 2017 Lions tour helped generate. The increase in revenue from 2016 to 2018 was mainly driven by the increase in commercial sponsorship and licensing income to $68m(£35m).

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Tew was adamant 2018’s result was a positive sign and added: “We’re very pleased with our result. As you know, 2017 was a record profit because of the British and Irish Lions, and we have to effectively spread that out over a period of time. So we are deliberately budgeting a loss in 2019, as we did in 2018. We’re spending money that we’ve earned one year that has to last ideally for 12 [years], but it won’t.”

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J
JW 5 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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