Crusaders' decision a 'wake-up' for fans

Story by: ADAM ROBERTS - Nelson Mail - Photo by: Chris Symes

The Crusaders' decision to skip Nelson in favour of Napier for a March Super Rugby game should serve as a wake-up call for the region and its rugby fans, the Tasman Rugby Union's operations manager says.

Yesterday Napier's McLean Park was officially announced as the venue for the Crusaders' first home game against the Chiefs on March 9, beating Nelson and Timaru for the fixture.

Crusaders chief executive Hamish Riach said that in an ideal world they would have loved to have played the match in Timaru or Nelson, but "cold hard financial facts" pointed to Napier.

"Having lost $700,000 last year, we are extremely conscious of the financial implications of all our decisions this year, and the extra return from playing at McLean Park is significant.

"We played there last season and had fantastic support, and we believe that support will be there again this year," he said.

He had been humbled by the wonderful support Nelson had given last season, but after four games in the city that had begun to taper off, and this year the franchise needed to put its financial situation first.

"We were immensely grateful to everybody in Nelson for the manner in which they supported us."

Tasman Rugby Union operations manager Mike Kerrisk said the decision was disappointing, but not surprising.

"But as we've said all along we understand the franchise's situation, if anyone does we do.

"They have always had [our] full support for every decision they make."

Dismal numbers for the four Super 15 games held in Nelson last year would certainly have been a factor in the decision, he said.

The Tasman union had made no secret of the fact that they needed at least 12,500 fans to make the games financially viable, and it was disappointing when the numbers fell short. The loss of the fixture should serve as a wake-up call to the region, he said. "We need to take a look at ourselves."

He had fielded a number of calls and emails in the last week from people who were disappointed with the decision, but in some cases when he asked how many games they attended last year, they said none.

"For me, those people really haven't got a case to argue."The problem was bigger than rugby, with concerts and performances that had been cancelled after numbers fell short.

"At the end of the day it costs an enormous amount of money to hold a fixture and run a Super Rugby campaign."

But Nelson mayor Aldo Miccio disagreed with the notion that Nelsonians had failed to turn out to the games last year.

He said he blamed the lower turnouts on the fact that the region had hosted seven top flight rugby games – the four Crusaders games plus three Rugby World Cup games – in addition to the ITM Cup, and fans could not afford to go to every single one. If the March Super game had been moved to Nelson, he was confident Nelsonians would have sold it out, and he had made that view clear to the Crusaders' board, he said.