Wage subsidy helps CRFU stay in black

The Canterbury Rugby Football Union made a $265,029 profit in 2020, thanks to $807,300 in wage subsidies and financial support from Sport NZ.

If not for that significant injection of cash from the taxpayer, the CRFU would have recorded a $542,290 loss due to the impact of Covid-19.

Despite being one of the wealthier provincial unions in New Zealand, the CRFU has total equity and reserves of $7 million, CRFU chief executive Tony Smail said the wage subsidy wouldn’t be repaid.

‘‘We are comfortable taking the wage subsidy,’’ Smail said. ‘‘Without the funding from the government we have got a $530,000 loss there; it would have been pretty tough.

‘‘Even with the wage subsidies under Covid, when nothing was certain, we suffered redundancies and people have taken pay cuts.

‘‘So it was pretty grim there for a while. As the season went on, we didn’t even know if Mitre 10 would be played with crowds.’’

The CRFU was grateful fans could attend all but one of its Mitre 10 Cup games, even if Canterbury produced mediocre results and didn’t qualify for the playoffs in the premiership.

It was left to Canterbury women’s team to fly the flag for the province, and it beat Waikato in the Farah Palmer Cup final.

But the real issues that needed to be addressed were off the field. Income from gate takings, sponsorship, signage and hospitality all took a hit, despite staff and contracted players taking a drop in pay, and NZ Rugby also chopped its grants by 15 per cent.

Some loyal staff had to be let go, and there are no plans in the immediate future to reemploy them.

Smail expects the financial repercussions from the pandemic to continue for several years, and a negative return on the balance sheet for 2021 – he wouldn’t say how much – has been predicted.