View/Open - Scholarly Commons Home

communication, April 18, 2008). This point was made that they would be protective of
certain things, but this was not just limited to their dealings with the PSF. NSO3 alluded to
this:
I mean there may be some delicate financial issues, but certainly the strategic
direction, the technical approach of the team and stuff; they’re not sort of direct
competitors to any of our teams, so in that sense, no. I mean there might also be
some organisational stuff which wouldn’t be out in the public realm for anyone.
(personal communication, April 22, 2008)
NSO1 reiterated:
I mean the stuff we wouldn’t share would be the stuff we wouldn’t share with
anybody. I know, I mean, I’m not going to go racing off to a [NSO in Australia] and
tell them what we pay [one of our players]. (personal communication, April 18,
2008)
It was NSO4 who did mention being protective of sponsors, which seemed to hark
back to the negative relationship in the past:
We might be loathe to share marketing, you know, sponsorship things. I think we
still are, there’s still a rivalry in that area. And I don’t know that we necessarily
want them to know that we’re approaching a certain company for sponsorship. They
might see that as an opportunity for them to jump in as well. Ah, but you know,
that’s part and parcel of any relationship, there are some things that you don’t want
to reveal. So I hope that in terms of developing the sport, we share information quite
freely. (personal communication, April 23, 2008)
It was NSO4 who seemed to think the organisation had to be protective of its
sponsors. Without revealing the identities of the organisations involved, a sponsor with the
NSO became a sponsor of the PSF. NSO4 explained the situation:
One of our big sponsors several years ago was [sponsor X]. They used to sponsor
the [national team] and also our national league. But the [national team] sponsorship
has kind of fallen away, mainly because the [national team] have very limited
exposure in New Zealand, but we don’t have very many international games in New
Zealand in a year. Whereas the [PSF] have come along and they have [a great more
games than the national team], plus any play offs they make. So, that’s guaranteed
exposure for [sponsor X], and maybe they saw that as a more attractive proposition.
(personal communication, April 23, 2008)
65