NZR generated 285 million bucks last year. Sweet. They also manged to flush $305 million. Oops.  

A quick flick of the abacus tells us that $20 million slid down the back of the couch.  

Somewhere along the way, something has gone horribly wrong. I’m sure the bean counters are working their way through the figures, looking at the expenditure, trying to shave a bit here and a bit there, but shaving won’t achieve a thing, they need an axe, not a Gilette.   

Gregor Paul from the NZ Herald continues to write revealing pieces on the issue, and he’s far from complimentary around NZR’s ham-fisted money management. His dive into these matters is far deeper than mine and revels some fairly alarming numbers associated with NZR’s expenditure.   

His Silver Lake work points to what numerous folk were concerned about when NZR sold their pound of flesh to the American fund manager. To put it simply, Silver Lake care about profit, they couldn’t care less about NZ rugby. They just saw some straw-chewing, dungaree-wearing farmers, spun them some grandiose yarns and walked off with a slice of their operation. Boom. Silver Lake will Shylock NZR, and Shakespeare will shake his head.  

Part of NZR and SLs brave new world involves the media platform NZR+. It’s costing a bucket load as it gingerly steps its way into the vicious world of streaming. A world that NZR has no experience in and no right or point to be directly engaged with.  

I’m sure in time it will be revealed that the inner workings of NZR+ are, well, not working.  

Courier companies have one job. Prisons have one job. Focus on that task and I’d say job done. Granted, some courier companies lose packages and some prisoners escape, which beggars belief, maybe pure focus on one exercise would help them out.  

NZR have one job. Look after rugby from the grassroots to the superstar ABs.  

Stick to your knitting guys, leave broadcasting platforms to broadcasters, and maybe buy yourselves an abacus or two instead of more first-class flights and 5 star hotels for your ruling class.  

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