$500,000 setback for ARU

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Hit with a loss of around $500,000 for the past season, Auckland rugby chief executive David White promises a leaner, meaner operation for next year.

While not prepared to reveal exactly how much the union had lost, White yesterday said the deficit was a "combination of a number of things."

Next month's annual meeting would be told of "significant costs incurred from the previous year" and of substantially lower-than-expected NPC gates.

It is also understood that the payments to players in the professional era - Super 12 and NPC - have put the union's finances under considerable strain.

The union had a turnover of more than $10 million, but White said the budgeted figures presented to the last annual meeting were well wide of the mark.

White, who has been in the job for eight months after taking over from Geoff Hipkins, said the big deficit - the first for the union since the mid-1990s - had presented him, his board and executive with a challenge.

"We have to turn it into a positive," White said.

"We have been going through the figures for the past six weeks looking at every expenditure. Encouragingly, the budget for next year shows a significant surplus.

"We might have been somewhat extravagant in the past, but it's now time to look at the entire operation.

"On-field performance obviously relates to financial returns. The Super 12 showed a slight profit."

White is keen to press the New Zealand Rugby Union for more afternoon matches at Eden Park.

White said the annual meeting, usually held in February, had been brought forward to December 10 so that the union could "hit the new season running."