Northland RU's profit hides concerns

In any other circumstances a $55,000 profit would be announced by Northland Rugby Union (NRU) officials with much fanfare.

However, an impressive financial performance from the NRU this year is unlikely to calm nervous administrators when they gather for the union's annual meeting in Whangarei tomorrow.

The NRU will declare a $55,288 profit for the year despite plummeting ticket sales and a payout from the Blues Super 12 franchise that was cut from $280,000 to $127,000 this year.

NRU chairman Shayne Heape said that while the profit was pleasing, the financial performance was overshadowed by the rapidly approaching deadline at New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) headquarters to enter the proposed inaugural premier provincial competition.

All provincial unions must submit proposals to the NZRU by Thursday if they want to be part of the proposed competition starting next year.

The effort to try and ensure Northland keeps its place in the top echelon is sure to be a major topic at the annual meeting.

"The fact that we budgeted for a considerable loss at the beginning of the year, taking into account that we were seriously down on our Blues payout, means we were pretty pleased with the infrastructures we have in place now and with the leadership from our chief executive Tim Hamilton," Heape said.

"That and the fact that we had a couple of new sponsors coming on board, Digital Mobile being one of them, was important," he said.

However the topic most prominent for Heape and Hamilton was the bid for premier status which, if successful, would mean Northland is guaranteed a spot at the top table for three years and if not successful would see the province demoted to play in a low profile second tier competition.

A 300-page proposal document is now complete and will be discussed by the NRU management council after the annual meeting. It will be couriered to NZRU headquarters in Wellington on Thursday.

Heape said it was difficult to emphasise how critical the proposal was to the future of Northland rugby but he was confident it was comprehensive and met all NZRU requirements to succeed.

"To say that we (the NRU) are totally confident we will be in the new premier competition would be totally arrogant to the extreme. But for Northland not to be in would be a tragedy for New Zealand rugby," Heape said.

"In all of the known statistics, Northland are in the top 10 provinces in the country.

"You can say what you like about how the team has gone in the past couple of years but we have been rated ninth for the last five years, our population base is ninth, our player numbers sixth and we are moving forward miles quicker when compared to the likes of Taranaki and Southland."

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)