Netball: Repeat bailout for Pulse triggers more instability

Chris McNay. Photo / Supplied

Another six-figure loss. Another bailout from Netball New Zealand. And another chief executive pulls the pin.

The fortunes of the Central Pulse may have improved on the court this season but their back office remains as shambolic as ever, with the national body once again forced to step in and bail out the debt-ridden franchise, which is set to post a loss of more than $150,000 for the 2011 season.

But the lifeline offered by Netball New Zealand (NNZ) has led to further instability in the leadership of the Pulse.

As reported in the Herald on Wednesday, Pulse chief executive Chris McNay, who also heads the Netball Wellington Region, yesterday confirmed he had resigned from his twin roles after just five months because of tensions with NNZ.

"Netball New Zealand has agreed to fund the Central Pulse under certain conditions. While Chris agreed that this was inevitable, he was uncomfortable with these conditions as he felt it impacted his ability to run the Central Pulse," McNay said in a press release.

McNay refused further comment.

His predicament is unlikely to get any sympathy from leaders of the four other franchises around the country.

While none was willing to comment on the record, the general feeling was that the Pulse could not expect to go cap in hand to the national body year after year and expect to be left to their own devices.

NNZ chief executive Raelene Castle said the conditions on the loan were fairly standard, rejecting speculation that the governing body was trying to exert undue influence on the Pulse.

"The conditions are just any conditions you would put in place if you were lending someone money - clear financial reporting, sign-off on budgets, signing off on sponsorship plans and setting some standards that we have seen work successfully in other franchises," said Castle.

News of the latest loan raises serious questions over the financial sustainability of the franchise. The Pulse have been NNZ's problem since the inception of the competition, with the national body forced to bail out the franchise for $400,000 in 2008 and $300,000 in 2009.

Castle said that from NNZ's perspective there was no other option.

"It's a very difficult situation we find ourselves in, because it's fundamentally important to the high-performance strategy of Netball New Zealand to have five franchise teams.

"So we absolutely needed to get a working plan in place to ensure they have some cashflow so they can continue on in the ANZ Championship."

Last year a levy was charged to netballers in the Pulse's four regions - Western, Eastern, Wellington and Tasman - to repay their debts.

The move proved hugely unpopular and while levies would continue to be charged for the amount still owing, Castle said grassroots netballers "won't necessarily" be left to pick up the tab of the latest loan.

"It's early days in the discussions of how we are going to deal with this current year's deficit."

Anthony Everard, chief executive of the transtasman league, said the Pulse needed to address why they were consistently posting six-figure losses.

Everard said that with the Pulse organisation run fairly leanly, spending was not the problem, it was their inability to generate revenue in a government town where there was little corporate sponsorship to go around.

"I think it would be fair to say they have found it a real challenge to generate revenue. Some of their sponsorship deals are not of comparable size to their counterparts' in New Zealand."