Kiwi finances in great shape
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) have announced an ambitious set of goals for the next four years as well as reporting a profit improvement for the 2012 financial year.
The NZR have set up the 'Towards 2016' campaign which sees them eyeing out a number of big achievements for the year of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
"It’s important that our organisation has a vision of what success looks like in 2016 so the goals of Towards 2016 are critical to guiding our work over the next four years.
"It is vital we are prepared and motivated so we can put our resources towards goals which matter most to keeping the game we love special and relevant to the widest cross-section of New Zealanders," New Zealand Rugby Chairman Mike Eagle said.
The NZR have outlined six main goals in their Toward 2016 campaign, they include; The All Blacks winning back to back World Cups, two Olympic golds at the Rio De Janeiro games, rugby in New zealand being healthy and well led, that the game is the sport of choice in the greater Auckland area, it is the sport of choice for teenagers and that New Zealand rugby has a positive global presence.
With these goals being made known and outlined, everything done by NZR is geared towards this campaign.
"All our planning and daily activities are now geared towards achieving these ambitious goals.
"Success will mean we not only reach our goals, but also deliver on our broad vision of ensuring rugby continues to inspire and unify New Zealanders," Eagle mentioned.
An important element that Eagles mentioned was the fact that NZR recorded an operating profit of $3.2 million for 2012, this is the first time they have turned a profit since 2008.
"This is an extremely satisfying result and underlines our success in driving greater commercial revenue and containing our costs.
"We had budgeted for a break-even result after recording an operating loss of $3.1m in 2011 so this is a significant improvement," said New Zealand Rugby Chief Executive Steve Tew.
A major influence, it seems, has been the inclusion of a jersey sponsor in the shape of insurance company AIG who have helped NZR into a much more stable financial position.
"The new partnership with insurance company AIG has made a difference.
"Significantly, we have secured a major portion of our commercial revenues over the medium term through the relationships with Principal Partner Adidas, broadcast partner SKY and now AIG," Tew explained.