Sav's Sidelines: 14-team NPC to remain, but...
Sav's Sidelines - the weekly column that looks at all things Southland sport, from the grassroots to the professional ranks.
In today’s Sav’s Sidelines column I again a look at New Zealand Rugby’s situation, and in particular the future of the NPC. There’s some very good news, but still some potential challenges ahead. I also delve into the bizarre introduction of an Indian team into the New Zealand Basketball League.
14 team NPC to remain, but…
There was some good news for provincial rugby lovers buried in a New Zealand Rugby media release this week.
It related to a report following a review of New Zealand Rugby’s men’s pathways and competitions.
NZR, in its media release, has said this: “The report does validate that the NPC is a valued competition for rugby in New Zealand and is set to retain the current 14 teams.”
Those who view the NPC as the best part of the rugby calendar have probably just breathed a sigh of relief.
It has followed a whole heap of speculation over many years around the future of the NPC.
In August last year NZR CEO Mark Robinson went as far as saying the NPC was “not fit for purpose” pointing to declining crowd numbers and other matters.
A year on from that “not fit for purpose” comment there’s been a 14% increase in NPC crowd attendance, and now an acknowledgement of the NPC’s importance to rugby in New Zealand.
But… Yes, there’s always a but.
I would be doing you a disservice if I just left it at that and painted a rosy picture of all to view.
As mentioned in last week’s Sav’s Sidelines column, New Zealand Rugby has some serious financial challenges. There are doubts the Silver Lake deal, that was supposed to help set rugby up financially, will deliver that.
There’s also a new TV deal to work through which potentially might not be the money spinner it has been.
While a 14-team NPC looks set to continue, NZR’s financial challenges may have some indirect impact on the NPC in the future.
Across the board provincial unions faced a $1.8m funding reduction from NZR this year and that reduction is expected to grow to over $3m next year. And who knows how low it might get to after that.
The potential long-term dilemma…
If I look at Rugby Southland, its biggest revenue stream each year comes from New Zealand Rugby funding.
Rugby Southland received $2.1m in New Zealand Rugby funding in its financial year ending December 31, 2023.
It should be noted that was up on the $1.8m Rugby Southland received from NZR a year earlier.
But the reduced funding this year, next year, and potentially into the future, will leave Rugby Southland - and all provinces for that matter - with some thinking to do.
Rugby Southland’s biggest expense is its high-performance programme. It spent $2m on its high performance programme last year.
Although that high performance programme (the Stags) is also a key driver for the organisation in attracting commercial revenue.
Rugby Southland has dramatically reduced its Stags player budget over the past 10-plus years. Southland has gone from spending $2m on player payments at one point, to around the $800,000-$900,000 mark in recent years.
That is one of the lowest amounts in the entire 14-team competition.
How long will funding cuts need to go on for before it all doesn’t stack up?
There will be suggestions from some rugby followers that the NPC be returned to a largely amateur competition and financial resourcing focused on the community game.
It would see the players working all year round and training on Tuesday and Thursday nights during the NPC season, rather than taking a few months off work for the NPC season, as they do now.
The NPC would become the Heartland Championship.
The amateur tag sounds romantic, and an easy fix to suggest. But it actually raises a whole heap more questions than providing answers or solutions for New Zealand Rugby.
Would we end up with, say, a Southland team filled with fulltime builders, farmers, teachers etc - with a few Super Rugby players in the mix - coming against NPC teams stacked with fulltime Super Rugby players who don’t have to juggle work and rugby throughout the NPC season?
Is that actually realistic option?
That might prompt some to say take Super Rugby players out of the NPC. Play it at the same time as Super Rugby as a reserve grade type competition.
But the NPC competition would become a shadow of itself. That 14% increase in attendance achieved this year would quickly vanish.
And how would New Zealand Rugby fare without the semi-pro stepping stone between club rugby and first XV rugby and Super Rugby?
Where would that leave a player like Semisi Tupou Taeiloa in his rugby development?
New Zealand Rugby, at the moment, is basically looking at a giant Jenga game and trying to figure out what block to push or pull without the whole thing tumbling down.
A series of meetings are currently being run by NZR with various stakeholders -including provincial CEOs and board chairs.
Rugby Southland’s reps headed to Christchurch on Wednesday for one of those meetings with further get togethers to be held in Wellington and Auckland.
It appears there was a lot of info covered through various presentations. It included NZR’s future financial sustainability and the men’s pathways and competition review.
Some potential recommendations have been offered up but no decisions yet.
First New Zealand Rugby needs to get is new board in place. That’s expected to happen next month.
Indian teams in NZ’s top basketball leagues, really?…
It was a confirmed this week that an Indian group will line up teams in New Zealand’s top men’s and women’s basketball competitions.
The Indian Panthers will be based out of South Auckland and feature leading national team players from India, along with internationals from America and Australia. The Panthers can also sign Kiwi players
My first instinct is to rip this apart and point out how naff it is, while also offering up reasons why it probably won’t work.
Afterall Basketball New Zealand announced in 2018 - with great fanfare - that Tasmanian team the Southern Huskies would join the NZ league. The message was that they would bring with them significant opportunities.
After a season the Tasmania team was gone. Never to be seen again in NZ.
But all of that said, I struggle to fire written potshots at an NZNBL competition that is aspirational and prepared to innovate.
Other sports feel like they are riding around on a penny farthing while basketball leaders set its sights on hoping on to an e-bike, in terms of trying to generate attention for its competitions.
Mid-season player trades, the Rapid League, and now the Indian venture - NZNBL officials are certainly prepared to try something.
While I have my doubts whether the Indian move will attract the stated benefits, there is a compelling case that can be made for basketball to at least roll the dice on this Indian connection.
According to Stats NZ’s most recent census, India citizens are the largest group of migrants in New Zealand (a population of 50,800 in 2023), with the number of Indian migrants living in New Zealand is estimated to rise above 500,000 by 2036 (figure.nz).
There’s a growing potential fan market there to tap into.
We’d be kidding ourselves if we pretended the real attraction for New Zealand’s leading basketball competitions weren’t financial.
India has a population of 1.4 billion and only a fraction of interest from that market - and in turn a television Indian deal - could provide financial spinoffs for New Zealand basketball.
Time will tell if it becomes a reality, but at the very least basketball’s leaders continue to find ways to get people talking about their national leagues.
The 2025 Sal’s NBL schedule is set to be released in the coming weeks, while free agency for player signing will commence in early November.
Blast from the Past…
Today we rewind the clock to 2018 when Southland celebrate national titles to the Southern Steel, Southland Sharks and Southland Hawke Cup cricket team with a street parade in the streets of Invercargill. Check out this video story from that day.
