Taranaki will play next year
Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:20
Taranaki chief executive Mark Robinson has assured the union's rugby fans that their team will be part of next year's Air New Zealand Cup competition. While the Bay of Plenty and Southland unions have made murmurings about dropping out of the premier domestic rugby competition because of financial hardship, Taranaki Rugby Union would "most definitely" be there in 2008. "There's always going to be financial pressures, there are in any business," Robinson told NZPA. "They are real challenges facing unions of our size. It's a matter of working through them and, from our perspective, being prudent with our spending." While it would be nice to have all the top players, it was not possible. "It's all about being smarter when we spend our money on players. It's better to spend it on players who have potential and develop the ones we have in the province." It was too early to comment on Taranaki's financial position for 2007, Robinson said. According to reports this week, Southland will decide in December whether financial pressure is going to force the Stags out of next year's competition. Bay of Plenty Rugby chief executive Paul Abbot has also said his union was considering dropping down to the amateur Heartland Championship. Southland boss Roger Clark confirmed an independent report from accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers would outline whether Southland could sustain a team in next year's premier division. The cash-strapped Tasman Rugby Union has also voiced concerns. But Tasman chief executive Lee Germon said that, despite ongoing financial difficulties, the union fully intended to remain in the competition. Tasman suffered a $553,388 loss last year. "The board hasn't discussed pulling out of the Air New Zealand Cup, but there's no doubt we need to keep improving our financial position," said Germon. "We didn't have a great first year and we're still recovering from that, but we're going to have a much better performance this year than last year." The New Zealand Rugby Union recently released figures showing Southland was the sixth-biggest spender in terms of player payments with a total of $1.54m, while Tasman was 11th at about $1.2m. The salary cap for the Air New Zealand Cup is set at $2m. Non Super 14-based unions are lobbying the New Zealand Rugby Union to bring the salary cap down to provide an even playing field across the competition.
