Waaka’s cross-code deal puts her on NZ sport rich list
Two World Cup victories, an Olympic sevens gold medal — and possibly another one to come in Paris this year; Stacey Waaka is a bona fide Kiwi sports superstar.
Yes, the likes of Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, Ruby Tui, Michaela Blyde and Sarah Hirini are also impressive rugby performers. Jorja Miller may go on to become our greatest women’s player.
But Waaka (or previously Stacey Fluhler, her married name), her skill (remember that pass off the ground to set up a crucial Black Ferns try in the 2022 World Cup final?) and that infectious smile and sunny personality make her a standout.
So it’s probably not surprising that Waaka is emerging as a pioneer.
After the Paris Olympics, she will join the Brisbane Broncos to play a shortened season in Australia’s burgeoning National Rugby League Women’s Premiership (NRLW).
She’s not the first Black Fern to jump codes to the increasingly popular NRLW. Former Ferns teammate Gayle Broughton is already at the Broncos, Olympics teammate Tyla King (nee Nathan-Wong) played a full season for the Dragons last year and Sonny Bill Williams’ sister Niall Williams-Guthrie turned out for the Titans last year.
But what’s interesting about Waaka’s deal is she goes with New Zealand Rugby’s blessing and will return to Aotearoa next year on a full NZR contract.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about joining the Broncos family this season, because I know the success they’ve had in the past, but I’m also so thrilled about this new and exciting opportunity,” said Waaka, who has never played league.
“I know I’ll get the best support from this club during the year to help with the switch once I join the Broncos post-Olympics.
“I’ve watched this team with a lot of interest from afar, especially with my good mate Gayle [Broughton] in the squad. She, alongside other former rugby teammates, have all inspired me to take up this new sport but I’m really looking forward to new friendships/connections, more personal growth on and off the pitch.”
The flexibility NZR is showing in allowing Waaka’s cross-code venture is pragmatic — but also high-risk.
Waaka’s superstar status is not reflected in her pay. She will undoubtedly be alongside Hirini, Woodman-Wickliffe and Miller on the highest tier a New Zealand female can earn playing rugby here — a little over $130,000 a year.
The average wage for a women’s NRL player is a slice over $40,000, which allows Waaka to supplement her rugby wage.
It’s a smart play on the one hand. But on the other, what if Waaka enjoys her league stint and wants more?
Importantly, the Warriors re-enter the NRLW next season.
The Mt Smart powerbrokers must be licking their lips. Plundering the Black Ferns for players who want to remain living in New Zealand is a no-brainer.
Many expect a Warriors women’s team to be immediately competitive. Which would put NZR under even more pressure to retain its leading female athletes.
Our highest paid women’s stars
Sports Insider’s unofficial poll has Waaka sliding into our top five highest paid women’s athletes off the back of her combined NZR/Broncos deal.
Not surprisingly, golfer Lydia Ko is out on her own in the same way Steve Adams dominates the men’s list.
New Zealand’s highest paid sportswomen:
1. Lydia Ko (golf ) $1.5 million
2. Amelia Kerr (cricket) $500,000
3. Ali Riley (football) $350,000
4. Sophie Devine (cricket) $340,000
5. Stacey Waaka (rugby/league) $170,000
Despite being winless in 2023, Ko earned almost US$750,000 ($1.25m) in official prizemoney. Personal sponsorship would almost certainly push that to more than $1.5m.
Ko is likely to eclipse that this year after opening the season by winning the Tournament of Champions in Orlando in January and pocketing $367,000, which pushed her career earnings past the US$17m mark, only the fifth LPGA player to achieve that milestone.
The Mumbai Indians secured Kerr for $192,000 to play in this year’s Women’s Premier League (WPL) in India and she is almost certainly at the upper end of White Ferns’ annual salaries of $164,000.
The 23-year-old all-rounder also has gigs with the Brisbane Heat in the Aussie Big Bash and in England’s KSL Twenty20 league, where the average retainers are $60,000 to $80,000, nudging her to close to $500,000 a year.
Riley is not only the Football Ferns skipper but also captains glamour American National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) club Angel FC, whose part-owners include Serena Williams and Hollywood actress Natalie Portman.
The top players in the NWSL in the States earn $400,000 annually, which means our estimate for Riley may even be conservative.
Veteran White Ferns skipper Sophie Devine is right on Riley’s heels after the Royal Challengers Bangalore — who won the title — paid $96,000 for her WPL contract. Like teammate Kerr, she also plays in the Australian and English T20 leagues and will be on the top tier of White Fern salaries.
It’s a significant drop away to Waaka, the first oval ball code player to feature in our unofficial list but only because of her Broncos boost.
But what is more significant is the absence of any netballers.
If you want daughters to earn good money and still be able to live a good part of the year in New Zealand, the message is clear — stick them in cricket.
The elephant in the room?
The women’s wages still pale massively alongside our leading men. Ko was the only woman to make the Herald’s Sports Rich List, sliding in at No 8.
Why is New Zealand killing off major sports events?
Sports Insider was in Melbourne last week during Grand Prix week, once again marvelling at the ability of Australia’s leading cities to draw major events, inspire locals and visitors alike and plunge millions of much-needed dollars into the economy.
Then I came back and learned what had gone down around the Kiwi round of SailGP in Lyttelton.
I have some sympathy for the arguments as to why Lyttelton in summer was not the ideal venue (and let’s not forget the round only ended up down there because the City of Sails came up with too many excuses for not hosting it — no irony there, of course).
But I have greater sympathy for Sir Russell Coutts and other event promoters who have had a gutsful of New Zealand finding every possible reason not to bring world-class sporting events to Aotearoa.
We are already up against it in securing decent international sports events to this country.
We have a crap broadcasting time zone, our market is tiny, we’re tucked away in the corner of the world and our population is thinly spread.
We used to to rise above that challenge — now we can’t because New Zealand has become so overregulated. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.
We will allow pollution-spewing diesel-powered cruise ships to relentlessly chug in and out of our harbours, and laud their economic contribution, while we shut down a wind-powered sailing race quicker than a Carlos Sainz lap around Melbourne’s Albert Park.
Coutts is being accused of sour grapes and picking up his toys and walking away. But having built an impressive international series from scratch and having other international cities bending over backwards to host a round, his frustration is understandable.
This is hardly a new phenomenon. I was working at New Zealand Rugby in the 2000s when the best sevens tournament in the world was killed off by over-reaction from the Wellington City Council.
Yes, alcohol consumption at a stadium has to be managed but that was achievable. In the end, wokeness and red tape strangled the tournament, which shifted to Hamilton and then disappeared.
The end result is the best rugbyplaying nation in the world no longer has a tournament on the World Series circuit and Wellington lost hundreds of millions of dollars in economic benefit.
The real loser in this ongoing saga of sabotaging major events is New Zealand — and the buzz in Melbourne last week simply reinforced that.
NRL can’t ignore South Island
I hope the NRL had an official of status at the Warriors-Raiders match in Christchurch last week who relayed back what went down.
The crowd of 17,249 nearly lifted the roof off Rugby League Park in their vociferous support of an Auckland-based team. It was an ongoing reflection of the huge interest in the NRL in the South Island.
Newstalk ZB’s Christchurch-based reporter Nick Bewley said the volume and enthusiasm of the crowd even eclipsed the Crusaders at their peak.
And check out these crowd statistics, which include two trial games and restricted capacity venues.
Warriors crowds in Christchurch:
2016 v Penrith: 18,000
2018 v Manly: 17,357
2019 v Manly: 11,774
2023 trial v Melbourne: 12,000
2024 trial v Wests Tigers: 13,760
2024 v Canberra 17,249 If anything, it underlines why Christchurch should be the frontrunner ahead of Papua New Guinea and Perth to become the
18th franchise in the competition.