KEY POINTS:
One of the many New Zealand provincial unions in dire financial difficulties, Northland, is contemplating reducing staff numbers and cutting back on player payments in a desperate bid to return to the black in 2008.
Some high-profile positions are believed to be under review, though the union chief executive Rob Malone declined to discuss internal employment issues.
It is believed that as many as six staff could find their positions disestablished.
Malone did confirm that Northland rugby's entire organisation was being reviewed and that inevitably meant some big calls having to be made. One definite measure would be cutting back on player payments.
Malone said that at present the union was going through a detailed process on its budgeting and the extent of this year's loss would be probably known later this week.
Some estimates of the loss have been as high as $700,000 but Malone indicated that what he termed a reasonably educated guess would be more in the region of $350,000. Malone said it was obvious from the financial plight of not only his union but others of comparable size and numbers that a professional competition for the Air New Zealand Cup made up of 14 teams was not sustainable.
When unions had committed to the competition two years ago, they had been asked to guarantee they could generate more than $1 million from commercial sources within their regions but this had not been the case. Malone said one of the Northland union's biggest commitments was to its amateur arm, which comprised 58 clubs over a wide area from Wellsford to Kaitaia and 7000 registered players, half of whom were of Maori descent.
That commitment would remain but the union's professional arm, as it was at present, was "unaffordable".
Malone pointed out that other unions such as Counties Manukau, Southland and Bay of Plenty, with Northland, provided almost one-fifth of New Zealand players. So it was up to the New Zealand union to decide whether these unions warranted having a "flagship" side which would accommodate the aspirations of products from these regions such as Justin Collins and David Holwell.
He personally believed the answer was yes. One possible solution would be for more structured and tagged funding, which would not necessarily be spent on paying players.
Malone said the salary cap which the NZRU had introduced along with the Air New Zealand Cup was "fundamentally flawed", even if it had a good intention of trying to spread playing numbers. But the fact most unions had difficulty meeting the cap of $2 million meant it was largely irrelevant.
