NZ Rugby’s $60 million fund was demanded by the provincial unions - and the first $1m for the grassroots is coming soon
Wednesday, 20 August 2025
The $60m fund will grow over time and add to grassroots spending ‘in perpetuity’.
Provincial unions dug in for fund’s creation during Silver Lake negotiations.
Applications to boost women’s rugby are likely to be well received.
New Zealand Rugby’s Legacy Fund manager Cam Bell admits that he is something of a “poacher turned gamekeeper”.
Bell was chief executive officer of Northland Rugby when the provincial unions drew a line in the sand in negotiations with NZ Rugby over the Silver Lake deal.
The provincial unions wanted a significant sum from the Silver Lake investment set aside for the community game - and they got it.
Their stance led to the establishment of the Legacy Fund, a $60m pot of money that is solely for the grassroots, not high performance, and Bell has switched camps to oversee the project.
“It was a big deal for the provincial unions - the Heartland, the NPC and the Māori board together,” Bell told The Post.
“But the good thing was New Zealand Rugby listened and acted.
“We came through some pretty challenging, testing times. But we’ve got to this point now, we've got the funds. Let's just focus on making it work.”
The funds are significant. The $60m capital will be held in a NZ Rugby managed fund, and if it generated even 5% a year it would turn into about $100m in a decade.
But NZ Rugby’s intention is to use the fund’s annual earnings to pay for projects at the community level.
Applications opened on Tuesday and the first round will be completed by December - and the money then will start flowing.
“Depending on what the market forces are and play out there, we're hoping to be around the $1 million mark [for the first round],” Bell said, noting that the process would be refined and improved as it developed.
“And $1m can go a long way for the right projects.”
Bell knows that from personal experience. He’s also a former president of the Kerikeri rugby club and knows that funding at the grassroots level often comes with the “multiplier effect”.
For every $10 of funding, a club member or member of the community might throw in $10 of free labour. And the grassroots game in New Zealand needs both at the moment.
“When I resigned from my role as Northland CEO this role came up as soon as I saw it I thought, ‘This just aligns with everything’,” he said.
“Don't get me wrong, I love the NPC. That's our shop window to encourage kids to go through and play, but If we don't have our grassroots we don't have a game tomorrow.
“It's as simple as that. There's a real turning of tide and attitude I see in the rugby ecosystem. We've got to shoulder together to get this game sorted.”
Bell stresses that this funding is separate from the existing provincial union funding model - it hasn’t been created to plug gaps.
It has also been created to exist in perpetuity, with the growth of the managed funding creating an ever-growing pool of money that is available for the right projects.
The potential for meaningful change as a result of the fund is therefore evident, and the women’s game is one area where Bell sees opportunities - particularly modernising facilities that were set up by farmers and builders “in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s”.
“That's the way things were done back then, they were done by men, but society has changed quite significantly now,” Bell said.
“Northland’s growth of our female athletes was 28% last year.
“So, we've got to start seriously accommodating and encouraging those females to stay in our game.
“I can just about picture it in any club scenario - you open the door to a changing room, and you can see everybody in their showering and all states of undress.
“Our females deserve more privacy and respect.
“And one of the potential opportunities for clubs to utilize funding is to convert the clubs to the changing rooms to make them more welcoming of female athletes.
“Society is changing so much that our game needs to change the shape to accommodate that.”