Latest / Best of Business / Mark Robinson: NZ Rugby CEO on the company posting an $8.9 million loss for 2023

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Mark Robinson: NZ Rugby CEO on the company posting an $8.9 million loss for 2023 · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk ZEDB. Follow
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand rugby has posted a nearly nine million dollar
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  Speaker 2: loss for last year. Match day income was down twenty
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  Speaker 2: eight million, down to seventeen million dollars compared to the
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  Speaker 2: year before, and broadcast income to a dive as well.
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  Speaker 2: It's the second loss making year in a row, but
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  Speaker 2: at least it's an improvement on the forty seven million
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  Speaker 2: dollar loss the year before. Mark Robinson is in z
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  Speaker 2: RCEEO and with us now, Hey.
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  Speaker 3: Mark, Hi, Heather, how are you well?
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  Speaker 2: Thank you? Why is the broadcasting come down? You had
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  Speaker 2: more people watching?
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, this is a World Cup year obviously, twenty
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  Speaker 3: twenty three. So traditionally our revenues around broadcast and match
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  Speaker 3: day down and that's because there's less content in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: We don't play, for example, a traditional rugby championship series,
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  Speaker 3: so we lose a bit of content out of our
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  Speaker 3: own domestic markets, which impacts on on their revenue pretty.
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  Speaker 2: Much the same I would imagine with a match.
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  Speaker 3: Day income, Yeah, exactly the same.
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  Speaker 2: So now that we don't have a World Cup in
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  Speaker 2: this upcoming year, do you reckon it'll be it'll be
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  Speaker 2: boosted enough to actually make a profit.
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  Speaker 3: Well, obviously those revenues will bounce back, but you know,
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  Speaker 3: we have a long standing sort of financial model that
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  Speaker 3: I think is well well understood here. That that means
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  Speaker 3: that we've got a lot of fixed costs in the model,
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  Speaker 3: and it is a challenging environment we're working in. But
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  Speaker 3: we're you know, we're certainly making a lot of attempts
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  Speaker 3: to change what that model looks like. We've been pretty
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  Speaker 3: open about the fact that although it served the game
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  Speaker 3: incredibly well for a long period of time with a
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  Speaker 3: growth and revenue, we do need to look at a
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  Speaker 3: range of different areas. So I've actually just got to Napier.
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  Speaker 3: We're meeting with all of our provincial union CEOs to
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  Speaker 3: talk about what the future model could look like. And
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  Speaker 3: that's to do with our funding arrangements, our competition models,
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  Speaker 3: our pathway models, and overall, I think everyone acknowledges we
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  Speaker 3: could do a few of these things bear and that
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  Speaker 3: we could work towards a more optimal model. So that's
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  Speaker 3: what we're spending a lot of time on at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: So have you got some idea of where else you
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  Speaker 2: can make money. Is that what you're saying.
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  Speaker 3: No, I mean, broadly speaking, we don't think revenues in
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  Speaker 3: the game at the moment. The issue we've got a model.
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  Speaker 3: What I'm saying is we've got a model that doesn't
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  Speaker 3: quite suit where the game is heating. So the revenues
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  Speaker 3: across the game, you know, if you combine our revenue
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  Speaker 3: with our provincial union, provincial union revenue and super revenue,
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  Speaker 3: is probably close to three hundred and fifty million dollars
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  Speaker 3: across the game. But what we're spending more time on
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  Speaker 3: is looking at our strategy and the role that each
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  Speaker 3: of our different stakeholder groups has to play in the
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  Speaker 3: game and trying to build more alignment on that and
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  Speaker 3: therefore align the spending and the investment in different levels
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  Speaker 3: so that we.
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  Speaker 2: Can believes the revenue. You got to cut some things
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  Speaker 2: out of your budget. Is that what you're talking about.
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  Speaker 3: Well, some of it might rationalize costs, some some more
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  Speaker 3: apportion investment from one area to another, but yeah, the
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  Speaker 3: overall we're looking at both of those opportunities.
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  Speaker 2: Really, are you talking about shifting who pays the salaries
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  Speaker 2: of the in the wages of the players.
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  Speaker 3: Look, we're not We're not talking about any one particular moment.
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  Speaker 3: I guess we're talking about a whole range of things
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  Speaker 3: coming together. So we've got clearly the players and the
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  Speaker 3: RPA are really active partners as it relates to what
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  Speaker 3: our competitions look like.
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  Speaker 2: It's biggest cost, isn't it Actually paying these people to
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  Speaker 2: play the game is a significant cost for you, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: We have significant costs around lots of parts of the business.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we're an isolated country sitting, you know, a
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  Speaker 3: long way away from where we play a lot of
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  Speaker 3: our international rugby, so being involved in our competition is
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  Speaker 3: a significant cost. Retaining our best talent as a significant cost,
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  Speaker 3: investing in the community games as a significant cost we're
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  Speaker 3: looking at. I think we are in real position compared
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  Speaker 3: to a lot of the national unions. We're actually investing
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  Speaker 3: in growth as well, so we have a new commercial
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  Speaker 3: entity that we're we're looking at investing into the long
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  Speaker 3: term future growth of the game. So all of those
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  Speaker 3: things require investment, and I think what we are singling
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  Speaker 3: is we think the model can be a more optimal model.
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  Speaker 3: It's just going to take a bit of time. Like
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  Speaker 3: all things in you know, stakeholder organizations. It just takes
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  Speaker 3: a bit of time to work through.
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  Speaker 2: Fair enough. Hey, by the way, while I've got you,
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  Speaker 2: has Patsy really quit yet?
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  Speaker 3: No? No, absolutely not, No, she's I took that question
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  Speaker 3: a while ago and wasn't sure where it had to
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  Speaker 3: come from. But no, no, she's. She was in what
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  Speaker 3: was last night about?
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  Speaker 2: Mark? What are you talking about? She said if she
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  Speaker 2: didn't get proposal won through, she was quitting, and then
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  Speaker 2: she didn't propose through.
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  Speaker 3: I've been really clear on this, Heather, I'm not I'm
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  Speaker 3: not getting into talking about the government.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not talking about that either. I'm asking you where
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  Speaker 2: the pats did she quit?
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  Speaker 3: Not? That's a question. Well she's No, she hasn't, and
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  Speaker 3: and that's a question for tech. But she's she's very
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  Speaker 3: exni engaged in her own and hasn't resigned the old.
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  Speaker 2: Boy who cried Wolfe. By the way, having a look
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  Speaker 2: at that squad, are you confident?
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  Speaker 3: I'm excited? Isn't it great? Yeah? You know, I think
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  Speaker 3: an awesome balance of some real experienced talented players. It's
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  Speaker 3: an emerging talent. So now we're really looking forward to it.
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  Speaker 3: Dunedin has sold out. Auckland's sold out. I think we're
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  Speaker 3: looking the extra seats for Auckland and San Diego is
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  Speaker 3: close to selling out. So you combine that with Super
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  Speaker 3: Rugby Finals selling out last weekend and you know it's
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  Speaker 3: really exciting for the game. The products clearly grabbed the
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  Speaker 3: attention of fans and we're really excited.
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  Speaker 2: About first choice first five? Is it Bowden or is
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  Speaker 2: it Damien.
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  Speaker 3: I don't get into that sort of thing. That's well
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  Speaker 3: beyond my remit Heather, but I've got full confidence in
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  Speaker 3: this crew to pick the right people and we're lucky
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  Speaker 3: we've got great depth and number of So that's good stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, thank you very much. Make I really appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: Mark Robinson, New Zealand Rugby CEO. Patsy hasn't quit. What
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  Speaker 2: a surprise.
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  Speaker 3: Make.
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  Speaker 2: If you're gonna say, like, if you're gonna be all
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  Speaker 2: petulant and say that ain't getting away, I'm gonna quit,
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  Speaker 2: then you need to do the honorable thing and fall
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  Speaker 2: on your sword. Afterwards. I'll be hanging around like a
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  Speaker 2: bad smell. Patsy just saying.
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