Wellington Phoenix Football Club ("NIX")
The Warriors
The New Zealand Breakers
The Australian National Basketball League champion SKYCITY Breakers are heads down in preparation for their upcoming iiNet Championship campaign which tips off on the Gold Coast on October 7 but will be watching with great interest on Sunday night as the Vodafone Warriors look to bring home another Australian sporting championship when they play Manly in the NRL Grand Final.
Having broken that ceiling in becoming the first team to win a trans Tasman championship, there is no doubt the players, coaches and staff at the SKYCITY Breakers are willing the Warriors on to emulate their success with victory on Sunday night.
The New Zealand Warriors
Courtesy of Ray Gatt The Australian
WHEN the Warriors take the field against Manly in tomorrow's grand final, they'll do it in front of a sell-out crowd of about 82,000 and watched by an estimated combined television audience in Australia and New Zealand approaching four million.
But while the match and television statistics make impressive reading, they pale in comparison to the amount of money generated just by having the New Zealanders in the National Rugby League.
According to experts in the field of television rights, marketing, sponsorship and advertising, having a club from New Zealand in a national competition in Australia, be it the NRL, soccer's A-League or the National Basketball League, can add between 10-20 per cent to that code's bottom line.
How much money does that translate to? Working only on the basis of broadcast rights, if the NRL clinches a $1 billion, five-year deal then the New Zealand component would be estimated at a minimum $20 million a year.
Little wonder there has been a rush by sports administrators in the past 15 years to embrace our neighbours across the ditch.
Leading media buyer Harold Mitchell has no doubts as to the importance of New Zealand to the Australian sporting landscape.
"The world is shrinking," Mitchell said. "Television revenues from provincial rugby has increased enormously and will only grow with the introduction of Argentina in a new Four Nations competition. You only have to look at how the television revenues for the AFL have skyrocketed since it moved from being an insular southern states dominated sport to one that is now played in every state.
"As a rule of thumb, having the likes of the Warriors in the NRL, a soccer team and a basketball franchise playing out of New Zealand adds 20 per cent at least to a code's bottom line."
Colin Smith, who is helping the NRL with negotiations on its next broadcast deal, said it is "vitally important" for all sports to embrace New Zealand.
"You have got two important factors," Smith said. "You have two economies that are very close together and a wonderful sporting rivalry.
"New Zealand has a population the size of Victoria (about 4 million). If you add in the 23 million here then that adds another 10 per cent, that's really important."
Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley, NBL chief executive Larry Sengstock and John Brady, director media and communications for the NRL, all agreed New Zealand plays a huge part in their respective competitions.
The A-League has had a Kiwi presence since it kicked off in 2005. While the Auckland Kingz eventually went belly up after two seasons, Wellington Phoenix has risen from the ashes and has made the finals for the past two seasons while the NBL's NZ Breakers won a historic first championship last season.
"A New Zealand team adds a whole new landscape to the A-League and brings a freshness and level of diversity to the competition," Buckley said. "It also brings an extra level of international flavour."
The flow-on effect for NZ soccer has been huge, especially on the field. The national team, the All Whites, qualified for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa and, although eliminated, drew all three group matches.
Sengstock said the Breakers' championship success is a win-win for the sport.
"The Breakers winning the championship for the first time last season has given the sport a stronger bargaining chip with our New Zealand television partner," Sengstock said. "What our market research shows is the Breakers' run to the championship has suddenly opened up a whole new and valuable market for the NBL across all media platforms."
There is some downside, however. While there is a large New Zealand population in Sydney, it sometimes doesn't translate to attendances when the Warriors are playing.
Clubs such as Canterbury and Wests Tigers regularly take home games to New Zealand. Parramatta and Cronulla have also done so in a bid to maximise financial returns. Those problems, however, are minor when taking in to account the other factors.
"The Kiwi presence has been a really positive thing for the game and it clearly adds an important dimension to the competition," Brady said. "The Warriors give rugby league week in and week out engagement with an important market and their presence generates revenue opportunities through media rights and additional sponsorship markets."
While the AFL has a grass roots development program slowly building across the Tasman, it is a long way from having a New Zealand side in its competition.
The Western Bulldogs hope to play one or two home games a season in New Zealand. The matches would be timed to coincide with Australian wine and trade shows.
Toku korero ki te tima o nga tangata PAKARI...Kia kaha e hoa ma...The Warriors.
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