{"id":507643,"date":"2026-07-03T09:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507643\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T09:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:08:08","slug":"avondale-rsa-shuts-bar-as-rising-costs-end-decades-old-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507643\/","title":{"rendered":"Avondale RSA shuts bar as rising costs end decades-old tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having now surrendered the bar\u2019s gaming licence<\/a>, a revenue stream that made the club about $3.65 million between 2016 and 2025, there is little capacity to absorb more losses.<\/p>\n

AVRSA president Gaye Mantell said the decision had not been easy but was the responsible one.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery dollar spent propping up a loss-making bar is a dollar taken from the reserves our founding members built for the welfare of veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owe it to them, and to the members who rely on this club, to face the numbers honestly rather than let the position keep eroding.\u201d<\/p>\n

AVRSA said the closure did not mark the end of the club but a return to its founding purpose of supporting veterans, honouring service and serving the local community.<\/p>\n

It said the association had become increasingly focused on operating a bar, rather than using it to support those objectives, and now intended to rebuild on a financially sustainable footing.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes amid wider concerns about the financial sustainability of RSAs across New Zealand.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the incoming RSA national chairman Martyn Dunne estimated more than $100m<\/a> in veteran support funding was being lost to struggling clubs.<\/p>\n

Many have gone under in the years since, while others have restructured or found non-traditional ways of staying afloat.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Herald uncovered that the Papanui RSA<\/a> had loaned itself $300,000 in poppy collection donation money to cover costs.<\/p>\n

The hospitality model has increasingly come under scrutiny, with Dunne describing the traditional RSA model as \u201changing on to the past\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We need] to make sure we preserve our equity in the assets we\u2019ve got and put it to best use, rather than a booze hall or fellowship centre or whatever you want to call it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran Marcus Amosa told the Herald last month the Avondale RSA no longer felt like a place returned service people belonged, echoing concerns about the bar-centric focus.<\/p>\n

Members will elect a new executive committee at the association\u2019s annual general meeting on July 19, with the incoming leadership tasked with guiding the club through its next phase.<\/p>\n

Amosa previously announced his plans to seek a place on the club\u2019s executive committee as part of a push to return the RSA\u2019s focus to veteran welfare and community service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having now surrendered the bar\u2019s gaming licence, a revenue stream that made the club about $3.65 million between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,806,51,45189,17181,138,17163,802,188516,8127,1644,679,685,5342,4486,20494,111,139,69,224365,2961,801,171228,57343,1961,31785,1533],"class_list":["post-507643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-as","tag-auckland","tag-avondale","tag-bar","tag-business","tag-closure","tag-costs","tag-decadesold","tag-end","tag-financial","tag-forced","tag-last","tag-losses","tag-month","tag-mounting","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pint","tag-pull","tag-rising","tag-rsa","tag-shuts","tag-this","tag-tradition","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}