KEY POINTS:
The national provincial rugby championship will be unchanged next year but its format will come under close examination.
That was the outcome of a meeting of provincial rugby chiefs here yesterday, called to discuss the sustainability of the 14-team Air New Zealand Cup.
It was prompted by the five biggest unions -- Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago -- concerned that the competition wasn't succeeding commercially and that smaller counterparts were struggling to stay afloat financially.
Incoming New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew said there was always going to be a review after the third year of the competition.
The NZRU's only concession yesterday was to bring the start of that review forward to January rather than waiting until the end of next year.
The structure of the competition was altered this year in terms of the playoff format.
But Tew said a major change such as reducing the number of teams after just two seasons was never on the agenda yesterday.
"To make changes for next year would have been an extremely big call. These things take time to bed down," Tew told Radio Sport.
"Good competitions worldwide are not formed overnight."
This year's competition clashed with the rugby World Cup and was dogged by small crowds, reduced television viewing figures and more one-sided matches.
Tew compared the financial disparity between the big and small unions to soccer's English Premier League.
He said unions such as Hawke's Bay, Northland and Manawatu had benefitted hugely from the expanded competition but there were issues to be addressed for others.
"There are two or three unions we know are struggling financially and are working hard to get themselves through that challenge," Tew said.
"The big unions are asking, and they have every right to, are they all able to be in the competition and is it sustainable long term."
Auckland Rugby Union chief executive Andy Dalton said yesterday's meeting was an important one.
Some alternatives had been looked at before it was decided to play at least one more season with 14 teams.
"It's fair to say there are frustrations in some quarters but there was agreement from everybody that that was the right thing to do for 2008," he said.
- NZPA
