Healthy surplus for Canty Rugby Union

Press, 18 December 1986, Page 56

Healthy surplus for Canty Rugby Union

Although nothing like the bonanzas of the four seasons that the Ranfurly Shield were in Christchurch, the Canterbury Rugby Union still made a handsome profit this year. A surplus of $123,905 is contained in the accounts to be presented to the annual meeting in February. In the four years from 1982 that Canterbury held the shield the average annual profit was just under $250,000. However, such times were described as “abnormal” yesterday by the union’s treasurer, lan Allott. “You simply cannot compare this year with any of the last four. Hav-

ing the shield creates an entirely different situation, one game alone last year (the successful Auckland challenge) was worth more than our total profit this year,” said Mr Allott. He considers the profit this year as very satisfactory, especially when it is remembered that Canterbury A had only one home provincial match on a Saturday. “It is more than I thought it would be,” he added. But while the shield might have gone its benefits are still being felt, and are likely to be for many years. The single biggest source of income was from interest and sponsor-

ship and collectively these totalled $256,892.

The pair are not separated, but it is a fair bet that the bulk of the money was from interest on investments made from the shield profits. As expected, representative match receipts were down on 1985, $304,850 to $101,703, but Mr Allott, in light of Canterbury’s programme, is quite happy with the figure. “The three games we had early in the season in the AGC South Pacific championship were a big help in pushing this figure up,” he said.