The Club Sold Out Every Home Game and Still Can't Pay Its Players
Attendance is up 40 per cent. Wages are three weeks late. The two facts have the same explanation and it is not a happy one.
By Anahera Lomu · 5 September 2026 · 6 min read
Every home fixture this season has sold out. The merchandise store ran out of home shirts in August. And on the last day of the month, the playing squad did not get paid.
The gap is a stadium agreement signed in 2023 that leaves the club with a minority share of gate revenue and none of the food and beverage take.
"We fill the ground and the ground makes the money," one director said. "That's the whole story."
The renegotiation nobody wants
The agreement runs until 2029 and contains no revenue review clause. Attempts to reopen it have been declined twice. The venue's position is that it carries the fixed costs whether 2,000 or 20,000 people attend, which is true and unhelpful.
Players have been paid since, following a short-term facility arranged by two board members personally. That is not a structure anyone describes as sustainable.
