One of the harshest critics of the way the Otago Rugby Football Union has operated believes a big part of the problem for the union and others is that they are administered as incorporated societies rather than as companies.
The debt-laden ORFU is in limbo as it tries to avoid going into liquidation.
University of Otago marketing lecturer Rob Hamlin says the weakness of the incorporated society structure shows up when it is trying to operate as a business.
When there was no ownership of the "long-term equity", those running the organisation focused simply on short-term financial gain.
"It's like a piece of club equipment. If you go to a sports club, the gear that people own is always much better looked after than the gear that people don't own."
Institute of Directors chief executive Ralph Chivers told the ODT sports clubs were usually incorporated societies which were governed by laws "that are very different to those that apply to companies".
"Committee members of a society do not have anything like the same accountabilities as company directors."
Hamlin says New Zealand's rugby unions had been mined financially to the point where they had lost their capacity to generate a return.
He believes professional teams should be divorced from the amateur game and set up as companies as they were in the American Football League and as was New Zealand Warriors Ltd which owns the Warriors rugby league franchise.
That, he believes, would put more scrutiny on the way boards run their businesses, leaving incorporated societies to focus on the amateur game.
"It's basically what incorporated societies were designed for.
"They were designed for people to associate with one another for objectives other than making money."
Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah told the ODT in an email there were "only benefits" in the private ownership model.
"The greatest advantage with an ownership model like ours is the degree of freedom you have.
"With private owners, there are far fewer constraints and we're able to make decisions and act on them quickly.
"We're absolutely driven by business imperatives and sound principles. Owners in private concerns like the Vodafone Warriors have an expectation that we're self-sufficient."
