{"id":606405,"date":"2026-09-20T17:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T17:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/606405\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T17:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T17:30:19","slug":"christchurch-nrl-team-bid-council-backed-bid-group-held-positive-talks-with-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/606405\/","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch NRL team bid: Council-backed bid group held \u2018positive\u2019 talks with Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

SSL president Frank Endacott has confirmed the group had held discussions with the Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been talk and positive talk, I might add,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Endacott wouldn\u2019t detail what was discussed, saying the council was fronting<\/a> the South Island bid to become the NRL\u2019s 20th franchise.<\/p>\n

But the documents show SLL asked Government officials to stay across the council\u2019s work and offer \u201cwhatever support\u201d was needed.<\/p>\n

Meager has also expressed support for Christchurch receiving an NRL licence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement, he said his support in principle reflected his view that a South Island NRL team could deliver economic, sporting, tourism, recreational and social benefits.<\/p>\n

But he said government financial support hadn\u2019t been discussed and any conversations about that would be more \u201cappropriately held\u201d with Mitchell and Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis.<\/p>\n

Mitchell said he supported any plans to \u201cadvance New Zealand\u2019s sporting interests\u201d, but clarified the Government wasn\u2019t involved in any NRL bid.<\/p>\n

SSL has argued Christchurch may need a similar level of government backing to the Perth Bears<\/a>, whose entry into the NRL has been supported by tens of millions of dollars from the Western Australian Government.<\/p>\n

The group told Meager the NRL was increasingly favouring government-backed models, pointing to Perth and Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

But a briefing by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) prepared for Meager said the Government had historically had \u201cvery limited involvement\u201d in professional transtasman sport and did not make direct investments in teams.<\/p>\n

Sport New Zealand Ihi Aotearoa also advised that it doesn\u2019t get involved in commercial organisations making bids to enter professional sporting competitions and said any bid should be advanced in close discussion with New Zealand Rugby League.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Kiwis coach Frank Endacott.<\/p>\n

Endacott said SSL had been working on the bid for more than two years.<\/p>\n

The former Kiwis coach said the group was not trying to own the team, but wanted to help deliver a franchise for Christchurch and the South Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing it for both the city, the sport and the sport in general in New Zealand and also for young people, for pathways for their future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look back over the decades, there\u2019s been literally hundreds of players coming from Christchurch and the South Island, going to Australia to play in the NRL.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we could offer the new franchise here for them to play here and stay at home with their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SSL group includes Endacott<\/a>, Waikato Rugby Union board president Coal Groves, Canterbury Rugby League board member Darren Littlewood and former chief executive Duane Fyfe, alongside former Labour MP Poto Williams.<\/p>\n

Endacott said the council was now preparing to take the proposal to the NRL.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got everything needed. It\u2019s all put together, and that will be presented to the NRL shortly by the council,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last month, Newstalk ZB revealed the council had been in talks with the NRL for two years and had even hired a consultant to assess what would be required to support a successful bid.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s formed a team to investigate the possibility of a bid, including Reon Edwards, ChristchurchNZ chair Lauren Quaintance, Michael Goldstein and council staff.<\/p>\n

Mayor Phil Mauger told Newstalk ZB that the council is just \u201cfacilitating discussions\u201d to ensure the city is well prepared if the opportunity arises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just getting all our ducks in a row and putting as much information forward as we can,\u201d Mauger said.<\/p>\n

Endacott expects a decision on the 20th team before Christmas.<\/p>\n

He said the NRL\u2019s stated ambition for the franchise to begin in 2029 meant a decision needed to come sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of work put into this, by a lot of people, and we would love to see the rewards at the end of it,\u201d Endacott said.<\/p>\n

The NRL has the final say on whether another franchise is added to the competition, as reports of a team in Hamilton or Ipswich, Queensland continue to swirl.<\/p>\n

The Southern Orcas<\/a> are also pursuing a team, although chair Sir Graham Lowe has previously said they are not involved with the council\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education and general news. She joined Newstalk ZB in 2023 after working as a sports reporter at the Christchurch Star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SSL president Frank Endacott has confirmed the group had held discussions with the Government. \u201cThere has been talk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27299,1040,4487,298768,127,34893,1017,13687,266,209,14236,210643,2205,42677,111,43,139,577,69,2989,16485,21501,20585,1886,301,7187,8229,6859,9350,102],"class_list":["post-606405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-arent","tag-bid","tag-christchurch","tag-councilbacked","tag-despite","tag-documents","tag-exclusive","tag-franchise","tag-government","tag-group","tag-held","tag-insisting","tag-involved","tag-ministers","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nrl","tag-nz","tag-positive","tag-pushing","tag-reveal","tag-securing","tag-support","tag-talks","tag-team","tag-they","tag-told","tag-vital","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606405","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=606405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}