New Zealand Super XV franchises up for sale!

On the back of the debacle about New Zeland and the SANZAR nations putting pressure on the IRB to revisit the monetary flow of income and distibution of the money to compensate for losses during world cup years, I read this morning in the New Zealand Herlad that the 5 Super XV Franchises in New Zealand is up for sale.

However the Franchises will still be owned by NZRU and the players will remian centrally contracted to them. This is their reasoning.

"We are short of fresh capital or equity in these businesses and we have to find some way of injecting that into it," Tew said.

"We've got an issue around the long-term financial survival of the franchises if the current economic environment continues and we've got to find a way of improving that."

The licence-holders would be able to try to recoup money through merchandising and commercial deals, though those would no doubt be vetted by the NZRU so as not to conflict with deals they already have in place.

This doesn't make a lot of sense for me, I understand that they need capital input. But by selling the merchandising arm won't this effect them longterm?

Why not just appoint specialists that can manage the merchandising and commercial deals and get interim finance via bank?

How much potential income can be lost longterm, and eventually what if they want to buy it back?

On the back of this it seems to me that NZRU is in some financial strife, and is struggling to sustain their professional model. It just makes me wonder after SA has agreed to share television revenue equally amongst the three nations, what will happen if they actually do withdraw from Super XV at some stage?

Who would buy them? You'd be essentially buying a business that you have no control over. Your assets would be co-owned by another organisation (NZRU).

Yeah, don't really understand it myself, apparantly the football clubs in Oz works on this basis, so maybe that is where they got the idea from.

Qantas Wallabies!

Its a chance to get your name out there, shameful advertising.

NEC Harlequins!

Thats true actually Hersh. The name behind a winning franchise. Coca Cola Crusaders. McDonalds Hurricanes etc

red_stag wrote:Thats true actually Hersh. The name behind a winning franchise. Coca Cola Crusaders. McDonalds Hurricanes etc

Those names will be just so wrong...

Not a fan of it but it will happen, almost as bad as the Aviva Stadium, yuk!

Id say not so long ago it was a big step to say Auckland BLUES, Wellington HURRICANES etc. Then they dropped the place names altogether. This would unfort be the next step

Leicester Tigers could become the Tampax Tigers.

Though Queensland Reds could become Mitre Reds, not too bad a name I reckon..

HERSH wrote:Leicester Tigers could become the Tampax Tigers.

Well theres an obvious song which could become their anthem!


Don't a few of the South African sides now officially have sponsers names? Ie the DHL Stormers and Toyota Cheetahs? Can't say I like it at all but thats going to happen!

Cant see how the proposal in the orginal post will be attractive to investors, you will effectively have your hands tied and most likely won't see any return on your investment. The NZRFU cant have it both ways with full control yet make it attractive to external investors.

HERSH wrote:Not a fan of it but it will happen, almost as bad as the Aviva Stadium, yuk!

Particularly bad now that aviva are effectively pulling out of ireland and letting nearly 1000 people go.

i most certainly will never call it by its corporate name again

"The Aviva Blues" has a ring to it. "The Anchor Blues". "The Cadbury's Crusaders". "The Orange Highlanders".



The "Quantas (fill in gap)"

How can rugby in New Zealand be in such a precarious financial state, supposedly a rugby mad country, super 15, the tri-natins, the biggest international team - "The All Black Brand" on tour, do they take adminstrative lessons from the RFU ?

Irish Londoner wrote:How can rugby in New Zealand be in such a precarious financial state, supposedly a rugby mad country, super 15, the tri-natins, the biggest international team - "The All Black Brand" on tour, do they take adminstrative lessons from the RFU ?

No they simply did something very stupid... and that was to try and compete with the money France and Japan can offer to rugby players. You can't spend what you haven't got and stay solvent and New Zealand is paying the price in tough economic times.

Good luck to them on this idea, but basically they want some idiot to pump their money into players wages but to have little say in the control and usage on the player and the economics of the province...
You only have to look at the havoc that has been caused in Welsh rugby to see this really doesn't work, the NZRFU already has the best and most stable system, the truth is they need to have 4 professional teams not 5 and then maybe they can stabilise their finances.
Losing the Celtic Warriors in Wales was painful but necessary, New Zealand need to bite the bullet like Wales did and live to their means.
4 teams really is enough for a country the size of New Zealand anyway.
They could also not contract anyone professionally who isn't available for their country.

The NZRFU are trying every trick in the book to get money but all their doing is annoying a lot of other countries, they incensed the celts last season by wanting a share of the gate recipts for any game they participate in, knowing that European sides could sell out 70,000-80,000 arenas for major games. Thankfully they were told to sod off. They already get £1m for every game they play in November anyway, which is their standard match fee.