Announced today at Fubar Stadium
The University of Otago is the first university in New Zealand to sponsor a super rugby franchise.
The partners will exploit co-marketing initiatives and the Highlanders will be expected to participate in more university activities. The University logo will be painted on the stadium “grass” and added to the back of players’ jerseys alongside the Speight’s logo.
Does anyone realise Thugby is a dying art. YAWN.
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### ODT Online Mon, 10 Feb 2014
Otago University to sponsor Highlanders
The University of Otago has become one of the major sponsors of the Dunedin-based Highlanders rugby team. Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne said the move is designed to raise the university’s profile. “[Forsyth Barr] Stadium and the Highlanders will be a canvas to highlight the University of Otago, which is located literally on the doorstep of this world-class facility,” she says. “Rugby is not just a game on a Saturday night – it’s a business as well.
Read more
### dunedintv.co.nz February 10, 2014 – 7:11pm
Local institutions partner up in a sponsorship deal the first of its kind
The University of Otago has become the first university in New Zealand to sign on as a major sponsor of a Super Rugby franchise. The deal between the university and the Highlanders was announced at Forsyth Barr Stadium this afternoon. Many of the Highlanders staff and players have studied at Otago, and both organisations feel the partnership will be beneficial.
Video
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THIS IS WHY A NEW “TRAINING POOL” IS NEEDED AT MOSGIEL
Names of “Stadium Councillors” (past and present) allegedly associated with driving the New Mosgiel Pool project:
● Syd Brown
● Colin Weatherall
● Peter Chin
● John Bezett
See pp14-15 of the following DCC document, and in particular point 4 (page 15):
http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/401303/ma_council_m_2014_01_23,24,27.pdf
It’s easier to get a training pool for Professional Rugby built at Mosgiel (under the guise of it being a community pool) than it would be to have DCC ratepayers and general public get behind a pool at the Stadium/Logan Park, as mooted a few years back to go with the High Performance Sport New Zealand Dunedin Centre… the latter was foisted on Dunedin ratepayers with little if any consultation.
### ODT Online Tue, 20 Dec 2011
New centre to churn out champions
By Nigel Benson
A multimillion-dollar Dunedin sports excellence academy could be a factory for future world champions. The High Performance Sport New Zealand Dunedin Centre of Excellence was officially opened at Forsyth Barr Stadium yesterday. The $4.8 million building will be a hub for Otago athletes and house HPSNZ and its tenants – the Highlanders, Sports Medicine New Zealand and New Zealand Turf – which formerly occupied the old Logan Park art gallery building.
Read more
This NEW POOL project also “benefits” the likes of Martin Dillon and Co at Mosgiel because it will be built in the main street and attract more business to the shopping centre, and be a selling point (amenity!) for housing subdivisions in the area [forget noble district plan and spatial plan objectives to protect high class soils, said local developers].
KILLING many birds with one stone.
THE NEW POOL IS PROFESSIONAL RUGBY DRIVEN.
That is why it’s steaming ahead under the radar.
It’s a VERY cunning project that appears to have “not much resistance to it” at DCC because most plodders and desk huggers, councillors, and maybe even the chief executive, think it’s just a nice little community pool that’s out there to be benignly funded by the community –
CORRECTION: The thing is worth maybe $16 million AND MORE —definitely expensive enough for exclusive swim time booked for UNIVERSITY-RUGBY, all funded by the poor Mosgiel-Taieri ratepayers !!!!!!
The rorting RUGBY bastards. Imagine a (prestige) car firm will sponsor the RUGBY 4WDs and peoplemovers, on that new hot highway from DUD to MSG.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Now they have bought the Highlanders, I hope that someone smart enough has hooked them into buying the stadium.
Give us a Dollaaaarrr, PLEAAAASE
Neat eh? Another lick at the public purse. Since when did the University have the right to use Education vote monies for promotion of private businesses which have no direct connection to any scientific or research outcomes for the University? Bloody disgusting! A letter to the ODT would go nowhere so would be pointless, and the Government would be silent on the matter as well.
After all, it’s RUGBY!
It was one of the Anonymous’s here that said the university is an Enterprise… Oh hey, there is the School of Physical Education, Sports Medicine, Marketing, and any other number of connected research disciplines to avail for Rugby.
The announcement makes me very glad I didn’t graduate from Otago. Thank God I had the presence of mind to do architecture degrees at Auckland where Rugby had no shoe in. Phew.
The university is funded by public money. The public is entitled to know what this commercial deal with the Highlanders is exactly and why public money, for education purposes, is being redirected to a rugby team which should be spending its own money to promote itself instead of bludging – again – from the public purse via the university.
This deal begs the question. What has happened to the Highlanders’ other sponsors? Have some of them silently dropped out and is the university plugging the gap? Is Forsyth Barr about to announce it is not continuing its naming rights beyond the first five years? Is this sponsorship of the Highlanders a first step for the university to take over the naming rights?
University teachers unhappy with university sponsorship of Highlanders. Vice Chancellor has made a formal response by email to Radio New Zealand Nationals Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan. VC has also stated the value of the sponsorship is “commercially sensitive”. More soon.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/235775/university-rugby-deal-'a-gimmick‘
“Mayor Dave Cull said the university has always seen the stadium as a great asset, and now it is supporting one of the facility’s main users. He said the deal would quell rumours the Highlanders might be attracted elsewhere and he is confident they will lift their game.”
If only Cull knew.
“Otago University vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne said the university is a business, and like any business marketing is a core activity. “There’s absolutely no way that we could ever develop a sponsorship deal that absolutely everyone would agree with. But it’s my job as the vice-chancellor and the CEO of this business to make the best decision I possibly can about value for money and exposure, and I’m pretty convinced this is a really good decision.”
If only Hayne knew.
Note: Cull and Hayne are co-directors of a Dunedin company.
Dunedin now has New Zealand’s first “Mc” University, Mc Otago. As if it is not dumbed down enough? Have you ever met anyone who’s failed lately? It will become like the African universities. You will ask someone, “do you have a degree, where is it from, what year?”
David Skegg’s ludicrous support for the stadium set the scene for this. It was a cynical self-serving move for the University of Otago to dupe yet even more ratepayers’ money. The $266 M ratepayer debt funded stadium will end up in the university’s hands. They won’t pay anything for it. The miserable $10 M they indicated they would contribute didn’t even eventuate. Add to the mix the university basically pays no rates at all. Add to that, every time they expand the properties they purchase cease to pay rates and Ma and Pa ratepayers are shafted yet again.
Jeff, if the University get it for $1, $10 or ten million it is a win for the ratepayers who will immediately lose a $20 million dollar annual “tax” bill.
As the university was a driving force it SHOULD take it over, after all Eion and Malcolm won’t.
Alternatively, Jeff, they could call it Rugbyversity and change the gratuating mortar boards to the shape of a rugby ball and the black academic gowns from black to blue and gold. Why not go the whole hog!
They’re not selling cola to the masses. They should be concentrating their “marketing” on the highest end. The most prestigious academics, the most able, intellectually curious students. A reputation for turning out excellent research, discoveries like this: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/290491/otago-research-could-be-life-saver
that would encourage the best of both to come here. To whom does a half-mast sports team in a money-sucking stadium to appeal? Hint: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/sevens/9702511/Sin-bin-for-Wellington-Sevens-after-drunken-antics
Haven’t we got enough “fun” at OU already, enough vomit and broken glass on the streets?
Have we got enough research funding, can our most gifted and dedicated researchers get on with their work without stop-start short-termist insecurity and time taken away from productive work for funding applications?
What are OU’s priorities? Anyone spotting them please ask them to go home, the University is missing them.
More at RNZ National Nine to Noon… [audio files]
Criticism of Otago University’s new sponsorship deal
Originally aired on Nine To Noon, Tuesday 11 February 2014
With Nanette Cormack – Tertiary Education Union.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (7:34)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2585292/criticism-of-otago-university's-new-sponsorship-deal
“Otago University vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne said the university is a business, and like any business marketing is a core activity.” WRONG!!!! It is not a business, it is a learning institution funded out of the government education vote, which is in turn funded by the taxpayer. If a person paid $456,000pa can’t figure that out then I am forced to recant. It is not a learning institution, it is a home for ‘zombies’ totally divorced from the realities of life, cocooned in isolation firmly fixed to the ‘hind teat’ of the welfare system so beneficently funded by the long suffering taxpayer. Again.
My message to Harlene is: Get a life! Grow up and get a proper job!
Calvin, this will come back to bite Hayne on the bum. It’s the nastiest cheapest “business partnership” the so-called leading academic institution could possibly foster and it’s not to its ‘advertising’ credit. Quite the opposite. However I do see this in respect of Jeff’s comments as one step on the deliberate pathway civic leaders have to place ownership of the stadium in the tertiary sector’s rates free hands. A two-year sponsorship deal will either widen eyes and investigation of the stadium rort or we’ll see an impressively scaled cover up of past financial misdeeds of ORFU, CWP, CST and DCC – and the continuing corruption and fraud by was it… this multiparty marriage of stealth.
So – the Patsie has bought a dog! Well done University – you are getting there.
Strongly suggest people write or email to Vice Chancellor Harlene Hayne – some bluestockings can be so stupid – and the University Council expressing your views, in no uncertain terms.
POLL
Otago University to sponsor Highlanders – is this a good fit?
Yes
No
http://www.odt.co.nz/news
Ask Harlene about senior managers from University Union getting tickets/trips to All Blacks tests and whether or not Frucor still makes loyalty payments.
It will of course offer up opportunities for collaborations between the Highlanders and researchers. I have a research proposal to increase the market communication efficiency of the Highlanders. As you may know post match interviews usually involve semi-coherent mumblings from participants. It might be possible to expedite this mutually painful process by teaching these gents a set of 100 numbered rugby post-match commentary cliches for use in these situations. This list, along with their numbers, could then be posted on the NZRFU website. It may look as follows:
1) The ref, had a shocker
2) We were poisoned by the caterers
3) The lads gave it their all
4) The other team spoiled the flow of the game…
37) The lock had a bereavement…
49) Hi (commentator)….
64) It was a game of two halves…
78) All credit to the other side…
82) but…
89) The lads were a credit to the jersey…
92) The lads are gutted…
97) and…
98) We are grateful to our sponsors…
100) Thank you (commentator)
When encountered by a post-match TV interviewer, these gents could then save everybody’s time by swiftly and crisply rapping out something like: “49 (commentator), 64, 97, 4, 3, 82, 2, 97, 1, 92, 82, 78, 89, 97, 98, 100 (commentator)”.
This list could then appear as a subtitle with the players’ names for a couple of minutes. If it was subsequently used on the national news it might not be necessary to show the actual interview at all, but merely spool the name and numbers as a subtitle during the sports section.
Those very few who were actually interested in what was actually said could then jot the numbers down, log onto the NZRFU website and consult the 100 post-match comment cliché list and match up the numbers with the clichés – which would yield the following passage:
“Hi (commentator). It was a game of two halves and the other team spoiled the flow of the game. The lads gave it their all but we were poisoned by the caterers and the ref. had a shocker. The lads are gutted, but all credit to the other side. The lads were a credit to the jersey and we are grateful to our sponsors. Thank you (commentator).”
All of which saves the majority who aren’t interested time, effort and patience – So some good may come of it…..?
In which Harlene Hayne just sounds stupid, inept or shallow, and completely foreign.
RNZ National Checkpoint with Mary Wilson
Audio from Monday 10 February 2014
Otago University sponsors Highlanders rugby team
Additional reporting by Otago correspondent Ian Telfer
17:45 Otago has become the first university to sponsor a super rugby team, signing a two year deal with the Highlanders who narrowly dodged the wooden spoon in last year’s competition.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 ( 3:57)
The sponsorship is coming out of the University’s existing marketing budgets (in the past the marketing budget has been reported at about $2 million).
[So how many international rugby players does this place at UoO for a free tertiary education?]
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### ODT Online Tue, 11 Feb 2014
Otago University backs Highlanders
By Vaughan Elder
The University of Otago has announced a two-year sponsorship of the Highlanders, becoming New Zealand’s first university to back a Super Rugby franchise. The agreement, aimed at increasing the university’s global exposure, means its name will be printed on the back of Highlanders’ jerseys, on medics’ bibs, and its logo painted on the Forsyth Barr Stadium field and put on digital signage during home games.
Read more + Video
Harlene Hayne, I’m sure, will regret opening up this can of worms. Everything seemed to be going well for her as she settled into her new job. Till now. I can’t understand how an intelligent woman with a PhD in psychology could fall into this stadium/Highlanders minefield when she surely would have realised that things are not going well for the stadium nor the Highlanders and not likely to in the future. Even the rugby people acknowledge the university has thrown them a lifeline which tells you the product is crap.
She will have created problems with many university staff who will no longer respect her judgement. Surely she is aware there is a lot more antipathy at the university about the stadium. (They struggled to get departments wanting to be based down there in their own building – including the PE Department.)
I’m not sure why Skegg went unexpectedly, but Harlene might find her own desire to exit – without interviews – might be closer than what she thinks as this toxic relationship between the university and Otago rugby takes inevitably ugly turns.
Yup Peter. Feels like a giant “whoopsie”, the kind you wake up from sweating because leaving all your clothes in the car before you went into the supermarket was worse than weird, and then O the relief when you realise it was a bad dream.
Only, Harlene Hayne was awake – wasn’t she?
Sure enough in today’s ODT the backlash against Harlene Hayne and the university’s decision to partner with people who historically have proved they can’t manage their own financial affairs, has begun.
The university is now associating itself with knuckleheads and their booze culture….and this is good branding for the university? How does this kind of association help their credibility in battling the booze culture among its students? Young people are adept at identifying hypocrisy and can now validly point this out to the university when they try to place restrictions on liquor availability near, and on, campus.
The background on Roger Clark of the Highlanders (previously of the Southland Rugby Union) is less than inspiring….and she carries out university business with these kind of people? A shame Harlene didn’t do her homework.
Anyone else heard what happens at the Highlanders’ parties? I have.
Uni rugby contract attacked
The University of Otago has come under attack from its own staff for its decision to sponsor the Highlanders and for sharing a space on the team’s jersey with an alcohol company.
http://www.odt.co.nz/campus/university-otago/291324/uni-rugby-contract-attacked
Academics see opportunities for brain health research
The Highlanders-University of Otago rugby sponsorship deal could draw on the strengths of Dunedin brain research, and make the sport safer, two Otago University academics suggested yesterday.
http://www.odt.co.nz/campus/university-otago/291321/academics-see-opportunities-brain-health-research
Hype, what’s so bad about going to the supermarket naked? It seems quite befitting for the Emperor of the University.
Thugby? Thugee of Bengal is a ‘dying’ cult. It’s easy for enfants terrible to write ‘YAWN’. Not knowing it is acronym for Young Adults With Narcolepsy (true). Older ones have to attend YAWN Service, play Yawn Bowls.
What do the students think when instead of lowering the ever increasing student fees and their debt to the government, Otago University elect to throw money at the rugby elite who enjoy big fat salaries, perks and no student debt. What a sick joke and it could backfire!!!
Step back a little and form an objective view.
1. The University has almost alone been the success story of Dunedin growing its numbers and importance to Dunedin through good management. Now you folk are expert in their business, how they should market and how they should run the institution. Arrogant.
2. If it supports Otago rugby, then that is fine as it may mean the stadium costs us just that little bit less.
3. Liquor co-sponsor is an ok bedfellow for OU unless you are a wowser. It is the burning of the streets that bother us, not the fact students consume falling down lemonade.
Lighten up, leave the business of running the university to those who know and allow them to spend their marketing budget as they see fit.
Reporter; think this through a tad. Yes, the University is something of a success story of Dunedin. It also lives, by and large off the taxpayers’ purse. It also lives in a non competitive (in a commercial sense) environment with very comfortable remuneration levels for permanent staff, up to some $560,000pa for the Vice Chancellor. All this tends to distort a real sense of value when spending these funds. If by allowing them to spend their marketing budget as they see fit, this is the sort of decision they make then it is patently obvious that not a lot of cerebral force was brought to bear on the matter. A nice placement of a portion of student debt for sure, not likely to enhance the level of graduates one jot.
The stadium is still costing exactly the same amount of ratepayer money. Not a single thing changes there. The Highlanders, as a hirer of the venue pays the venue operator a fixed sum, given to the Highlanders by the NZRU. The only way that the financal situation of the Highlanders would affect the stadium is if the Highlanders would cease to exist and that, as has been pointed out on numerous occasions, would actually be of financial benefit to the stadium. Every time that the Highlanders play a match in the stadium, the stadium debt level increases as the operating costs for one match is greater than the match fee received from the NZRU.
The University may be claiming that their sponsorship money is private money and not public money but the reality is that the private money would not exist without the significant public funding that the university receives each year. As the taxpayers of NZ are directly responsible for the generation of any private funds held by the university, then the taxpayers (as stakeholders) have the right to say what happens to that money. I suspect that not many of them expected to be paying taxes in order to support a rugby team.
Let’s promote ourselves even further as the Pisshead learning capital of the country. That’s exactly the calibre of student that we need to keep aiming for and have been so successful in securing in the past. The other universities around the country must be thoroughly annoyed at losing the drunkard community to us. Must be tough for them being stuck with all the wowsers who, for some weird and disfunctional reason, choose to go to university in order to learn.
Ask Harlene, 15/2/2014 (this will be a weekly feature)
How many staff are being made redundant from Marketing and Communications? What are the proposed retrenchments in the current year? Have any staff been threatened with termination for non-performance on medical grounds?
Weekly inquisition says a lot about the Vice-Chancellor and university power leaders. An unwelcome recipe for the university’s somewhat lumpy reputation.
{Prepared to set up a post if the questions keep flowing. Can’t guarantee any answers though. -Eds}
Ask Harlene, 16/2/2014
Do you approve?
The day Harlene musters a riot squad and buys a water cannon is the day imprinted memory will mean something.
Copied from another thread.
I hope the Grow Dunedin ‘partnership’ will release its full set of accounts for public accountability and transparency.
When will the council’s EDU be disestablished.
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### ODT Online Mon, 17 Feb 2014
Push to attract overseas students
By Debbie Porteous
The Dunedin City Council has employed a person to help attract international students to the city to study.
Sarah Gauthier will start work today. Her position is funded through the Dunedin Economic Development Strategy project budget, which is funded by the council’s Grow Dunedin partnership, Otago University, Otago Polytechnic, Otago Chamber of Commerce, Ngai Tahu and the Otago Southland Employers’ Association.
Read more
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The touchyfeely bullshit that is EDU, the ’employment agency’, continues unabated.
First, there was the Gigatown Coordinator (budget $60,000). Now this.
Dunedin City Council Media Release
Export Education Co-ordinator Starts Next Week
This item was published on 14 Feb 2014.
Export Education Co-ordinator Sarah Gauthier starts on Monday. Her position is being funded through the Dunedin Economic Development Strategy project budget and she will be based in the Dunedin City Council’s Economic Development Unit.
Grow Dunedin Partnership Chairman Chris Staynes says creating this new position is a key part of delivering on Strategy aims. Ms Gauthier will implement the Export Education Strategy that was developed during 2013 with the help of Tim Rogers, a leading international expert. The Strategy is designed to position the city as New Zealand’s premier destination for international students.
The position is to support education providers to attract international students, to support local education businesses and providers, and to leverage export education to attract and retain talent and support other sectors, including tourism, in Dunedin.
Economic Development Unit Manager Des Adamson says Ms Gauthier has had extensive work experience within the international education sector, at both institution and government levels. Her most recent position was International Market Manager (South East Asia) at Education New Zealand in Wellington.
Ms Gauthier’s educational qualifications include a Masters of International Studies (with credit) from the University of Otago.
Otago Polytechnic Chief Executive Phil Ker says, “I am thrilled to see this project now move into the implementation phase, after months of careful planning. I look forward to seeing the Dunedin community getting in behind the Strategy and really welcoming and supporting the international students who come to study here. And also our employers helping out with lots more work experience and internship opportunities – these will really make a difference to the success of the project.”
University of Otago Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Helen Nicholson says, “We are looking forward to working with Sarah on this important strand of Dunedin’s Economic Development Strategy. As well as international experience, she brings to the role invaluable first-hand knowledge of what it is like to study here in Dunedin.”
The Dunedin Economic Development Strategy is a 10-year blueprint for increasing incomes and job opportunities for Dunedin residents. It was created from a partnership between the Dunedin City Council, the Otago Chamber of Commerce, the Otago Southland Employers Association, the Otago Polytechnic, the University of Otago and Ngāi Tahu.
The Strategy was adopted in September 2012. Further details about the Strategy can be found at http://www.dunedineconomy.co.nz/
Contact Economic Development Unit Manager on 03 477 4000.
DCC Link
Diverting academic funds to prop up professional rugby today creates the Homers and Harlenes of tomorrow.
An anonymous conversation.
A. Was there rugby on TV?
B. Poor Harlene will regret the day she put the blue and gold jersey on.
A. There seems to be quite a lot of support for her rugby initiative. Not likely to be from people who are “into” tertiary education. They seem to be saying “getting OU’s name out there” is valuable.
No it ain’t.
The people who make the difference between a university and a degree mill are aware of, or when contemplating where to go they find out, how much excellence not how many rugby players the university has on tap!
B. Another polarising instance. If this wasn’t a losing team it wouldn’t be so tragic, academically.
A. Cheerleaders:
“Come on OU
We’re second rate too!”
….and the coloured girls were singing Woop-a-doop, a secondrate too-ba-doodoo….
(with apologies to Lou Reed)
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Biochemist’s work noted
Otago vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne, a former member of the Marsden Fund Council, was invited but could not attend.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/292152/biochemists-work-noted
What the sponsorship logos look like in combination.
Mmmmm, classy.
I applaud the thrift shown here by reusing the glittery headbands left behind back stage by the Abba impersonators, And the stand in player from Wings over Wanaka after the seating deal fell through.
Especially though the purchase and use of generic advertising slogans rather than inventing their own must be saving, well, dollars
What glorious sponsorship buys you.
A very long ODT jock spoof… on Highlander cribs.
Drenched in testosterone, swimmers and all.
http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/rugby/highlanders-tv/292222/video-exclusive-inside-ben-smiths-palatial-pad
More blokey ODT wanking:
(desperate to sell news to new students)
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/292482/photos-morning-after-night
More mind boggling inanities. A shame it isn’t funny. Just embarrassing.
Don’t you just love the way they speak. It’s like a tribal dialect.
‘Aw, fuck yeah, what a beauty, show ya my piss and chippies stash. Haw haw.’ (my piss take) etc etc
It’s like they don’t want to be mistaken for being ‘nancy girls’ so you walk like an ape and talk like an ape.
This clip was proudly brought to you by the University of Otago drama, marketing, psychology, applied sciences and physical education departments using science communication scholars to capture rugby thug/parasites in their native habitat. The English department lacked sufficient budget to participate in scripting and editing. After which ODT afixed their logo to the production, in freeloading vein.
Hype. Yeah, very classy, but one serious omission. How about Durex as a company sponsor? Seems to be the perfect combo.
I notice the “Match brought to you” spot goes to ‘Silver Fern’ farms. Seems appropriate enough, after all, they ‘are’ in the ‘meat business’.
It seems multiple radio stations are running with “Seven events in seven days” … “41,000 attendance” … “well done stadium team”… that’s looking suspiciously like PR marketing and bought time. Seven Days was cute in a try-hard way but they could have spread the students out a little instead of cramming them into one small stand. Had to chuckle each time the camera panned to the Otago Daily Times stand only to show empty seating below. Fitting somehow.
[url: “unis-sponsorship-reticence-slammed”]
### ODT Online Wed, 12 Mar 2014
University refuses to reveal Highlanders deal cost
By Vaughan Elder
The University of Otago spent $1.4 million on advertising last year, but has declined an official request for the cost of sponsoring the Highlanders. An Official Information Act request on the cost of the two-year sponsorship deal from the Otago Daily Times was declined on the grounds the information ”would prejudice the commercial position of the Highlanders and the university”.
Read more
Highlanders blip a worry
Questions for Highlanders to answer as fans ponder if season rot has set in already after loss to Force.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/9833291/Highlanders-blip-in-loss-a-worry
Late in getting to post this – Vodafone mobile network down since about 6pm tonight – had just read this before wipeout on the phone.
CLICK. To why UoO and Highlanders are “together” and why UoO ought to pick up the Stadium asset as the Blue GOBs see it !!! Note the PREMEDITATION !!!
█ John Key PM is in China — and HARK he is pushing not only “Safe Food” but also “Rugby Diplomacy” and referencing the great “NZRU quest” to explore the Chinese university rugby market….
burble burble Mr Key is a fan of sports diplomacy to build links between countries
‘No room for error’ – Key (read down to the meat, after all we are in Mickymouse Woodlouse territory, he of the silver fern flag flying on Cargill House kind, Key’s wee puppy-dog short-arse immigration rugger man)
█ http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/295768/no-room-error-key