The New Zealand Rugby Union have recorded a loss of $7,379,000 before tax in their latest accounts. Robert Rees breaks down the report to bring you the latest from down under.
NZRU loss a ‘worry sign of the times’
An increase of losses by more than $5.5m is a worrying sign for the New Zealand Rugby Union as they head into a financial year which will take the hit of the Coronavirus pandemic within it.
Here are the key incomes and expenditures from the Year Ending 2019.
- Turnover down to $57.4m (YE18:$73.3m)
- Sponsorship up $4m
- $12m down on last year’s matchday income
- Expenditure rose by $3m
- Board remunerations were over $586,000
- Payment of $187,021 to suppliers and employees of ‘operating activities’
- 161 employees of the New Zealand Rugby Union
Two playing goals missed
Only two goals set out for YE19 were missed. They were failing to reach the 2019 Rugby World Cup final, and thus not winning it which was goal two missed.
Some of the goals that were achieved were the Black Ferns retaining world number one status, winning the Bledisloe Cup, U20s to Super Rugby at 50% conversion rate and women’s Sevens qualify for Olympics through Sevens Series.
An average of 1.3m people tuned into the World Cup warm-up tests with all three tests performing well financially.
They did however, fail to achieve an average of 290,000 viewers for Super Rugby regular season matches and crowds at matches failed to exceed the average of 14,312, which was set out in ’18.
Diverse environment
The NZRU pride themselves on a diverse working environment saying, “A continued key focus for us at NZR, diversity and inclusion is defined as a key strategic priority in our annual scoreboard. Whilst we have a good gender balance across the business holistically, we have a continued focus and clear goals to address the gender balance in senior leadership and executive roles and are happy to report that we have made some ground in this area with nearly 40% of leadership roles at NZR held by females. We have implemented structured talent and succession planning and are developing programmes to support our current and aspiring female leaders.”
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