'Brook deal still hitting union's budget

"The debt weighs heavily on the ORFU" says Laurie Mains. He should spare a thought for how heavily the resultant deals done by the DCC to save the ORFU weigh on the average citizen. 

Once again Laurie takes the opportunity to tell us how once again he's here to save Otago rugby.

I figure we'd be better off without him. 

I agree with “fishes” – it’s about time the public knew the truth about what was really going on within the ORFU.  Phil Mooney touched on it last year but certainly held back on what should really have been said!   Why does Laurie Mains, who is only the deputy chairman, have the final say on who gets contracts? Why can’t the coach decide who he wants in him team and contract those players?  If Laurie stopped wasting money on imports then this would reduce costs. 

Let’s be realistic – imports are only using Otago as a stepping stone to overseas contracts as they can’t get contracts within their own province.  Aulika is a prime example of this – pay him big money to come down here rather than looking after local players worthy of a jersey, and then he’s off overseas the following season!  In the meantime, some of your local boys have also gone elsewhere as the union has shown them no loyalty. 

Laurie Mains has too much power and too much control.  He may have done good things in the past but his time's up. Let the coaches contract the players they want to coach and develop rather than letting the deputy chairman waste money on imports who are only going to turn around and leave.

If the Board of an Incorporated Society (equivalent to Directors) have made reckless ("less than responsible") decisions leading to financial loss, then THEY are jointly and severally responsible for that loss.  That's what the Companies Act says.

Nobody else.

It’s all been said before. The real story is the demise of rugby in Otago due to the narrow-sighted decisions of preceding ORFU boards. The facts are clear, there are less and less people interested in going to watch rugby in Otago. They can make it as cheap or expensive for tickets as you like, but nobody wants to go. The efforts of the ORFU to cut costs have been at the expense of local players and clubs.

Where did the union loose staff from in its cost cutting? I suggest it was those who supported local rugby, juniors to seniors, schools and clubs. It’s about time the real story was told so that local rugby can regain the grassroots passion that filled the stadium in years gone by. But what would I know, I’m just one of those disaffected supporters listening to the blah blah.

Oh, and if Mr Mains  and the ORFU are really hard up, there's still that missing million dollars - the city paid $7 million for Carisbrook, but only $6 million showed up on the ORFU's balance sheet as having been received - perhaps if you hunt that down you could contribute some of it to the city to pay for your stadium, part of the $50m of fundraising we were promised.

Let's just put a few things into the record here.  

The DCC loaned the ORFU $2 million dollars a few years ago.  By doing so, the DCC, without any real justification,, started acting as the ORFU banker.  They then gave cash, goods and services either directly or indirectly through Council owned companies to the ORFU.  The Council then agreed to pay the ORFU $7 million for the dubious benefit of transferring ownership of Carisbrook from the ORFU to the DCC despite there being no obvious benefit to the ratepayers.  This last transaction, according to the books of the ORFU paid off all their debts.

It is also true that the ORFU auditors have been telling the ORFU in their statements attached to the annual reports that the ORFU have been living beyond their means for years.  So exactly what is it that we are missing here?  I think we are being softened up for yet more demands from the ORFU for financial support by the DCC.  I for one will not tolerate any more expenditure on professional rugby and I don't think too many others would disagree.

Mr Mains seems to be pointing the finger at the city and the stadium for the ORFU's financial woes - as if it was the city's fault the union owed Dunedin $2m and was getting a sweetheart, below market interest rate, on the loan. Does he not remember that the union also owed their bank $4m (at a rather more commercial interest rate) and that Carisbrook was the over-valued collateral on these loans.

Without the citizens building them a free stadium, and buying Carisbrook as a gift when they did, the ORFU would have been forced to sell Carisbrook to pay their debts and would no longer have a venue to play in. Perhaps he could be a little bit grateful rather than complaining about how he was hard done by - the ratepayers have been the ones stuck with the bulk of the bill here - $460m for a rugby stadium all because the ORFU couldn't pay their $2m debt.

Just suck it up, stop trying to blame others for your own mistakes, and raise rugby ticket prices to cover the real costs and pay off the bills, both on the stadium and the union's own debts.