The Highlanders have not returned a profit since 2006…
### ODT Online Sat, 4 Jul 2009
Editorial: Rugby mad?
Doubtless there will be those on the Dunedin City Council and elsewhere to whom it makes complete sense, but to others, including those ratepayers already angered by and deeply opposed to the council’s backing of the new Forsyth Barr Stadium, this week’s revelations of a restructured Highlanders rugby board on which will sit a council-appointed director can only have come as a surprise.
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8 Comments
July 5, 2009 at 5:02 pm
### ODT Online Sat, 4 Jul 2009
The Last Word: What lies ahead for the Highlanders?
By Hayden Meikle
The struggling Highlanders . . .
It took a while for me to decide whether this NZRU bail-out plan was a welcome boost for the Highlanders or a sign the end is nigh. Actually, I’m still not sure…
. . . finally getting some help
This has to be seen as a start. But – and it’s a big but – changes at board level can do only so much for the Highlanders. They need players, and the NZRU must start funnelling more talent into Dunedin…
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July 5, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Anton Oliver on anthems and the secular society…
### stuff.co.nz Last updated 05:00 05/07/2009
Great expectations
Life as an All Black isn’t easy …
By Anton Oliver – Sunday Star Times
Do the All Blacks play for the New Zealand Rugby Union, an incorporated society to whom they are under contract? The NZRU has been around for so long it has acquired normative and cognitive legitimacy, a legitimacy which has seen it lever off our national identity embodied within the All Blacks to acquire financial interests to sustain its own needs. Are its values New Zealand’s values?
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July 6, 2009 at 12:15 pm
In the PriceWaterhouse Coopers report of 30 January 2009 it says on page 6 (report available at DCC website):
“The only change in forecast overheads is an increase of $0.1million per annum in marketing costs (to assist with marketing of the Highlanders) and a decrease of $0.1million per annum in governance costs, as the Council is assumed to be the owner of the Stadium, and will subsequently incur any related governance costs.”
If this remains the case, then DCC is helping the Highlanders financially.
http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/__data/assets/minutes_agenda/0003/52482/ma_r_council_AwateaStAttach2-2.pdf
July 8, 2009 at 11:12 pm
### ODT Online Sat, 4 Jul 2009
Opinion: Your say
Rugby Mad?
By russandbev
The Editorial of Saturday, 4th July asks some interesting questions, but it does continue this myth that professional rugby has something to do with sport. It doesn’t. Professional rugby is firmly entrenched in the entertainment business.
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July 8, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Cartoonist’s view – Tremain 7 July 2009
July 8, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I’d like Russ and Bev to show me any professional sporting competition in the world that isn’t firmly entrenched in the entertainment business?
Of course it’s bloody in the Entertainment business, and if these guys are only just waking up to this, then this perfectly illustrates the funda{mental} flaw in the thinking of these guys.
We ARE building an entertainment venue.
July 17, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Cartoonist’s view – Tremain 17 July 2009
July 18, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Reid: “We are the most frugal franchise by a considerable margin. Our costs would be at least 20% less than the next cheapest New Zealand franchise.”
### ODT Online Sat, 18 Jul 2009
Rugby: CEO Reid confident of franchise
By Steve Hepburn
The Highlanders should have a new board in place in the next two to four weeks but chief executive Richard Reid says the franchise is not going anywhere soon.
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