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The Bay of Plenty Rugby Union (BOPRU) has undergone a dramatic financial turnaround after losing nearly $850,000 last year.
The union will reveal a $190,000 profit at its annual meeting this weekend, a $1.03 million reversal in 12 months.
That profit has been topped up by a large New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) grant, made to all provincial unions last year, but even without it Bay of Plenty would have been in the black for the first time since 2005.
The Bay of Plenty Times newspaper today reported that union had also managed to reign in the spiralling costs of running the Bay of Plenty representative team, who last year finished fourth after the round robin in the Air NZ Cup.
More than $335,000 was shaved off the team's costs last season, with players cooking their own meals and staying in lesser grade hotels on away trips.
BOPRU chief executive Jeremy Curragh is adamant officials are not about to take their hands off the purse strings this year either.
"We've pulled back on costs yet again - the Steamers budget is basically the same and we've managed to contract 32 players for roughly the same money as last year when we had 26 players," Curragh told the newspaper.
"But we've got more games this year so we'll have to be mindful of that."
Just 12 months ago, the BOPRU was crippled by the loss of major sponsor Blue Chip, who defaulted on $250,000 worth of sponsorship.
With the union books in chaos, a statutory manager was brought in by the NZRU, the majority of the board stepped aside and staffing levels at the union were subsequently slashed.
Curragh said the main priority now was to find another major sponsor.
"It would be nice to get a permanent front-of-jersey sponsor but we're also trying to think outside the square and look at ways to break that into more than one package.
"It might be that we have two front-of-jersey sponsors; one for the Rotorua games, one for Tauranga games, or something along those lines."
- NZPA
