NZ Rugby salary cap cut coming

[Flamethrower]

Rugby salary cap cut coming
Provincial players facing possible $1.5m pay chop
By GREG FORD - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 18 May 2008
Rugby salary cap cut coming - New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on Stuff.co.nz


A massive cut to rugby's salary cap is imminent.

It isn't a done deal yet but a whopping $1.5 million looks set to be shaved off the $2m cap meaning the days of our journey professionals rather than our star All Blacks earning big bucks for playing provincial rugby are nearly over.

Three different Sunday Star-Times sources, including the recently dumped New Zealand Rugby Union board member Warwick Syers, this week confirmed the accuracy of the figure. It would initiate one of the most dramatic changes to domestic rugby since the game went professional in 1995.

"It would mean that provincial players would need jobs,'' said Syers. "If they made the step up to super rugby only then would they become professional.
"The aim is to make domestic rugby semi amateur.''

A lot of water has to pass under the bridge before this comes to fruition but if it does the players will be the big losers.

New Zealand Rugby Players' Association chief executive Rob Nichol could not be reached for comment.

However, the horse may have already bolted.

Several provinces are in a dire financial position. Bay of Plenty is under the administration of its parent body the New Zealand Rugby Union which has set up three working committees, including one to look at the future structure of provincial rugby.

Their recommendations won't be made public for some time yet. But the committee is under considerable pressure from the provinces, where there is a general acceptance that player remuneration packages are unsustainable.

The latest salary cap spending figures show Waikato is the biggest spender among the provinces. It paid it players $1.81m in 2006. Next best was Canterbury $1.79m, then Wellington $1.78m, Auckland $1.75m, Otago $1.64m, Southland $1.54m, Northland $1.41m, Hawke's Bay $1.38m, North Harbour $1.3m, Bay of Plenty $1.19m, Tasman $1.19m, Taranaki $1.17m, Manawatu $1.08m and Counties $788,000.

Journeymen have become valuable commodities in the provinces in recent years. Their value has been enhanced because expansion to the Air New Zealand Cup meant their services were in demand. They also became the marquee players of the competition while the All Blacks were on test duty.
Syers said: ''Provincial player pay is totally out of kilter with what is affordable.''

The good news is stars such as Richie McCaw, Mils Muliaina and Keven Mealamu won't feel as much pain. Their salaries are topped up by the provinces but the lion's share of their pay comes from the New Zealand Rugby Union. If the Air New Zealand Cup was to become semi-amateur then the NZRU would have to shoulder the balance.

Exactly what format the competition will take and how many teams will play in the top division is still unclear. But Syers said inviting provincial sides to join in a new look competition a move being championed by some Auckland rugby administrators was likely to be rejected by his former colleagues on the NZRU board.

"Why would we want to give Australian rugby a leg up?''

[Burgs]

Be interested into any insight on the Sydney Club scene as to what players get paid in 1st Division?
I have a feeling it wouldn't anywhere near what they are talking in NZ.

[James]

Its just a guess but I'm putting money on this leading to a greater number of Kiwi rugby players (people like Sekope Kepu or Adam Clarke) using their Australian heritage where possible and pushing for Australian Super 14 spots.

I wonder too, Burgs, how much 1st graders get paid. Too often you hear people cry on about how the ARU is neglecting grassroots rugby in the traditional rugby heartlands and how a Perth team is already a waste of time because we haven't produced any star players yet. Makes me sick. But how much of the money the ARU gives the Sydney clubs actually goes to junior development and growing the game and how much goes to paying the players who play for teams like Sydney Uni or Randwick?

[Flamethrower]

Waikato rugby wants say on salary cap
Air NZ Cup funding slash reports surprise
By EVAN PEGDEN - Waikato Times | Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Waikato rugby wants say on salary cap - Rugby news & coverage - Stuff.co.nz


Waikato Rugby Union boss Graham Bowen believes the provincial rugby salary cap could be reduced to a manageable level in an eight-team NPC through some creative national policies rather than an arbitrary cut.

But whatever is decided, he is adamant future changes should be made based on the submissions of the provincial unions such as Waikato and not on something already determined by the New Zealand Rugby Union board.

Bowen reacted with surprise to a Sunday newspaper report that suggested the national board was planning to slash $1.5 million from the current $2 million salary cap for the Air New Zealand Cup in order to create a semi-amateur competition.

Bowen is putting together Waikato's submission on proposed changes to the national provincial championship, including the cap, which have to be with the NZRU by Friday. Submissions from all provincial unions on the future of Super rugby have a deadline of a week later.

"I was surprised because we're meant to be in the middle of a planning stage ... so I find it intriguing that before we've even got to when we have to have our submissions in that there's stuff in the paper about what might happen," Bowen said.

"If we are going to go through a true consultative process and be listened to then surely there's not minds made up already. That's what you'd hope. I'd be extremely disappointed if New Zealand Rugby Union have come to some conclusions before this process is even halfway through."

Waikato had the highest player payment bill of all provinces in 2006 at $1.81 million. The union managed to restructure its spending in line with other major provinces to reduce it to $1.63 million last year and expected to spend even less this year following the departure of some players overseas or to other unions. It is still expected to be among the top three or four in New Zealand.

Bowen said the salary cap could be lowered and the NPC made into a semi-professional competition simply by the NZRU picking up all the tab for All Blacks, rather than provincial unions having to pay them in addition to what they are paid by the national body for playing for the All Blacks and Super 14 teams. "Our six World Cup players (last year) we still paid them a salary from Waikato, even though they weren't available to play for us."

If the NZRU paid those All Blacks' entire salary and they did not have to be contracted by provincial unions for whom they were probably no longer going to play NPC rugby, then half a million dollars could be trimmed from the cap immediately without unduly affecting anyone. All Black, Super 14 and other national representative players already paid by the NZRU also attract notional values under the salary cap rules, which must be added to a provincial union's salary cap spending figure.

Bowen also believes set salaries should be paid throughout the country for first-year and second-year NPC players, which would guarantee some value for unions out of players they have developed in their academies before they are recruited by other provinces. Non-Super 14 players in the Waikato team were already regarded as semi-professional and many worked part-time or were students.

The Waikato union is proposing an eight-team Air NZ Cup and a total of three eight-team divisions, with promotion-relegation, but is prepared to compromise with a 10-team top division.

The WRU totally opposes the status quo of 14 teams and Bowen said it did not make much sense that proponents of a half-million dollar salary cap also wanted to retain the 14.

[TOCC]

Be interested into any insight on the Sydney Club scene as to what players get paid in 1st Division?
I have a feeling it wouldn't anywhere near what they are talking in NZ.

oh hell no, its nothing like what they get in NZ..

not sure about Sydney, but in Brisbane depending on the club its barely a few hundred dollares per game..

What they have in NZ is a professional league, basically the top 22 players are on $50'000 a year pay.

The competition is going to have to change from fully professional to semi-professional, with players now having to get jobs on top of playing rugby.