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Mark Robinson: NZ Rugby chief executive on NZ Rugby posting its third consecutive deficit · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand Rugby has posted a new nineteen point five
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  Speaker 2: million dollar loss for twenty twenty four. This is the
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  Speaker 2: third loss in a row and it's despite Rugby bringing
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  Speaker 2: in record income of two hundred and eighty five million
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  Speaker 2: dollars was up seven percent.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 2: The boss of New Zealand Rugby is Mark Robinson. Hey Mark, afternoon, Heather,
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  Speaker 2: So what are you spending this money on?
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  Speaker 4: Well, we're investing in all levels of the game.
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  Speaker 3: We've also also said that we've got an investment model
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  Speaker 3: that has been in place for a long time that
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  Speaker 3: we are working in the second half of this year
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  Speaker 3: to step back and have a really good look at
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  Speaker 3: and we spend a lot of time this afternoon with
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  Speaker 3: our stakeholders talking about the sheared vision for the game
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  Speaker 3: and the opportunity we have to reset that model.
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  Speaker 4: So you know, we're really looking forward to that, to
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  Speaker 4: that opportunity.
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  Speaker 3: But the investment has gone into record levels, investment in
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  Speaker 3: the Women and Girls game, to the work we're doing
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  Speaker 3: in content and digital strategy game development. You know, we've
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  Speaker 3: never had higher levels of investment in the community game.
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  Speaker 3: But there's also some things with the model that we
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  Speaker 3: need to spend some time working with everyone in the
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  Speaker 3: game to try and improve.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so are you spare? Are you getting any returns
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  Speaker 2: from this investment in the women's game, like is it
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  Speaker 2: washing its face or not yet?
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  Speaker 3: Well, when we say the Woman's game, it's a whole
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  Speaker 3: a game strategy, isn't it. Well, over twenty million dollars
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  Speaker 3: per year now into women and girls and when we
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  Speaker 3: see the increase in participation we've had, you know, over
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  Speaker 3: fourteen percent of participation at all levels of the game.
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  Speaker 3: That is an incredibly positive return on investment. But we
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  Speaker 3: have been very open that it will take time in
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  Speaker 3: terms of pure standalone commercial model to work for the
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  Speaker 3: women's game, but we're happy to take that long term
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  Speaker 3: view and continue to invest in it.
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  Speaker 4: If you look at what we did last year.
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  Speaker 3: At the Twickenham game, you know, almost fifty thousand people
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  Speaker 3: turned up to watch that game Black Friends versus England.
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  Speaker 3: There's never been more tickets being sold. As we go
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  Speaker 3: into Rugby World Cup twenty twenty five in England, So look,
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  Speaker 3: it's going to take some time, but if you follow
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  Speaker 3: the trends around the world as it relates to women's
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  Speaker 3: professional sport.
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  Speaker 4: We think we'll get there in time.
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  Speaker 2: Mark, I mean, I think it's admirable that you guys
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  Speaker 2: are investing in, you know, areas that you see potential growth,
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  Speaker 2: like the women's game, like even you ended our Plus
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  Speaker 2: channel and all that kind of stuff. But at some
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  Speaker 2: point you can't keep doing this right. You are going
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  Speaker 2: to have to cut the fat. When is that point?
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  Speaker 3: Well, if you step back and look at the last
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  Speaker 3: four years, we've raised over a billion dollars in revenue,
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  Speaker 3: and if you put aside those big investments that we've
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  Speaker 3: made that we're always planned, you know, about forty million
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  Speaker 3: dollars into stakeholders in twenty twenty two to recapitalize the
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  Speaker 3: game and kickstart some really key initiatives with our stakeholders.
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  Speaker 3: And then I think it's just over twenty million dollars.
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  Speaker 3: As it relates to content and digital ended our Plus.
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  Speaker 3: They are by far the you know, the biggest representative
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  Speaker 3: of the losses you refer to. If you put those aside,
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  Speaker 3: the actual operational losses for the business has been around
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  Speaker 3: It's been just under six million dollars for that time,
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  Speaker 3: so as a business in terms of the way we're running.
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  Speaker 2: But even then, I mean business, I take your point right,
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  Speaker 2: you're putting all this investment in so you can't you
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  Speaker 2: know that that might bear fruit at some point, but
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  Speaker 2: you have just recorded the largest income that you've ever
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  Speaker 2: had and you still can't break even. Even if you
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  Speaker 2: take that story, well, well, that goes to.
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  Speaker 3: A combination of things, the choices we made. You know,
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  Speaker 3: if you look at the loss, if you put aside
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  Speaker 3: the investment in digital and content and basically commercial growth,
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  Speaker 3: and then in effects issue which are raised emerge. At
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  Speaker 3: the back end of last year, we were basically had
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  Speaker 3: a break even for this year. So and we've been
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  Speaker 3: able to invest in all of those areas which are
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  Speaker 3: starting to show. If you look at the signing an
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  Speaker 3: announcement of Toyota this week, they're definitely signaling that that
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  Speaker 3: improved and growing digital reach that we have and the
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  Speaker 3: ability to connect with fans and understand them more right
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  Speaker 3: across New Zealand and the world for that matter.
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  Speaker 4: Is a big part of their involvement with us.
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  Speaker 3: So we do think that we're starting to see real
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  Speaker 3: green shoots in a few of these areas. We have
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  Speaker 3: had second second year of consecutive growth in the community game.
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  Speaker 3: But as you say, you know the combination of the
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  Speaker 3: ambition we have to invest in future growth at a
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  Speaker 3: number of levels, combined with the I guess, the historic
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  Speaker 3: model we have in terms of our funding and funding
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  Speaker 3: an investment framework means that we were struggling to meet
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  Speaker 3: that break even year on year and this is why
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  Speaker 3: the opportunity for the next six months is so exciting.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, it's good to talk to you, Marke. I really
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  Speaker 2: appreciate it. Mark Robinson, Chief executive at New Zealand Rugby.
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