1
Major coup afoot as Jake White linked with URC return
6
{{item.n}}
'Unlevel playing field': Former Hurricanes CEO opens up on club's woes
By Ned Lester
Former Hurricanes CEO Avan Lee has opened up on the challenges facing the Wellington club and the realities of player contracting, offering insight into the behind-the-scenes workings of Super Rugby Pacific in New Zealand.
Lee stepped away from the Hurricanes at 2025’s conclusion after a decade serving as the club’s CEO. The announcement of his departure was soon followed by news that the Hurricanes were operating at a loss of up to $2 million in the recent financial year alone.
New Zealand Rugby has stepped in to bail the club out, and Wellington Rugby has sold its 50 per cent share in the club to NZ Sport Investment Limited in an effort to “recapitalise”.
VIDEO
Iain Potter, former Hurricanes Chair, and Tony Philp, former GM Rugby, have also decided to leave their respective roles, although the latter has been appointed as interim CEO for the coming season.
When explaining the financial woes that have befallen the club, Lee pointed to a post-Covid drop in attendance, from a 16,000 average to 12,000, as a primary factor.
“It’s just a different environment, and you need to work harder to get the same results,” he told Martin Devlin on DSPN.
While the Hurricanes’ viewing figures have increased at a healthy rate – 30 per cent in 2024 and 15 per cent in 2025 – there remains uncertainty over whether that will ever translate into ticket sales, or if that engagement will remain behind a TV screen from the comfort of fans’ homes. The emphasis on ticket sales is inherent, however, given the financial structure of the New Zealand game.
“Unlike other sports around the world, we don’t get a share of the broadcast revenue,” Lee explained, painting a picture of the relationship between Super Rugby clubs and New Zealand Rugby, who manage broadcast licenses and contracts the players centrally. Top players can, however, receive payments on top of their New Zealand Rugby contracts, opening the door to potential inequities from club to club.
“A large chunk of the broadcast revenue pays for the players. So, $5 million, circa a year, is the budget you have for your team, and you’ve got the ability to have player agreements on top of that, which is where your top three or four players can receive an extra payment from the club. That’s where there is quite a significant disparity with one club versus the others, and what they can spend. That can create an unlevel playing field.
“So New Zealand Rugby pay 90 per cent of most players’ salaries, some they’ll pay 100 per cent. And then they’ll get the NPC payment as well; they’ll get 30 or 40 or 50k from the NPC union for playing NPC.”
Lee noted that for provincial unions with All Blacks on their roster, any absence due to national duty is reimbursed by New Zealand Rugby.
Lee’s highlighting of a financial disparity between “one” club and the rest, when explaining the additional player agreements, received additional context from an ensuing conversation about the realities of profitability for clubs in Super Rugby.
“It’s been really difficult for us across the board in New Zealand. The only teams to have made a profit in recent years are those that have hosted a final.
“You don’t budget on a final, and you try and break even from there. It’s been challenging. The costs of running a club haven’t gone backwards, because you want to be competitive, you want to win, but all teams at the moment are looking at their spend and thinking, ‘Can we cut back?'”
Navigating financial responsibility while running a high-performance program that’s designed to feed the All Blacks, rugby’s largest brand and the financial beast that fuels all of New Zealand Rugby, is a balancing act, says Lee.
For Super Rugby to stand on its own two feet, match attendance is one significant problem to solve, as Lee says, “We’ve got an over-reliance as a sport on ticket sales.”
“You open up the curtains in the morning, and if it’s raining, you’re not happy. Weather, opposition, who we name, they’re all factors.
“Weather is a massive one. Wellingtonians, like a lot of New Zealanders, buy late in the week. So, if the weather turns to custard as it can do down here, people might decide not to go. But that could affect our net profit by 20, 30 grand. That’s a lot for us. We’re not big businesses.”
Rugby’s best of the best, ranked by experts. Check out our list of the Top 100 Men's Rugby Players 2025 and let us know what you think!
