December 8, 2025 • 8 mins
New Hurricanes Rugby Chair Malcolm Gillies joins Nick Mills on the show to discuss his plans for bringing the Hurricanes back from financial despair.
Yesterday it was announced that Gillies will take over as Chair with a 50% stake in the team. Nick asks what his plans are for changing the team for the better. More visibility in the community? Changes to the cities stadiums? Gillies shares his plans.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks B Right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Oh, we've gone to Fiji and we've got hold of
Malcolm Gillies, the new chair of the Hurricanes.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Good morning Malcolm, Good morning Nick.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Okay, let's go. Why is always a why?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, Look, the team, the shareholding team which is John
Mellon and Peter Thomas and myself all very very passionate
rugby men, very passionate about Wellington as a city. So
the real answer is, you know, it's paid a really
important part in my life and I think it's time
(00:50):
to put something back into it. And we think we've
got the skill set to be able to basically help
help the Wellington Union get it back on his feet
and at the same time help the Hurricanes.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Now from someone that's done this for a few years
or a few decades, the key to us is getting
the crowds back. How are you going to do that?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Well, I don't think we've done a very good job
in the past. I think we have to work really
hard on past players. We've got to work very hard
on our fan base. We've got to re engage and
when you look at it, a prime example was the
PACIFICA game last year nearly twenty thousand people. Our average
(01:33):
attendance is seven so that suggests to me between seven
and twenty get. If we get it right and re
engage with our communities, then we should be able to
bring those crowd numbers up. And it's just not necessarily
crowd numbers at the stadium. We have four hundred thousand
followers and eighty percent of those are outside Wellington. So
(01:56):
we need to turn our attention to looking at how
we market to them and how we engage with them
through social media, how we can get them to become
members in a different capacity perhaps than a member that
can go to the game.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And how you can sell the merchandise most certainly.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I mean if you just got fifty thousand of those
people and sold fifty thousand jerseys as part of the membership,
there you go it doesn't you know? That's the low
hanging fruit. It's about re engaging. I mean, these people
don't follow the Hurricane for no reason at all. They
just want to be involved. And if there is a
membership that we can have for overseas members, I'm sure
(02:32):
they have a very good uptake.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I'm kind of getting a little bit excited when I
talk to you because I can remember owning a bar
on the waterfront when they used to get twenty thousand
plus to each game. Can you remember that? Of course,
you can remember those days you were sitting there. Do
you think you can get it back to that?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Well, look, if you looked at the trends throughout New Zealand,
you'd say no. But look, there's more than one one
thing at play here, isn't it. Well, we all know
that there's a lot of work to be done on
the game itself to make it a spectacle, but there's
a lot of things that we can do to make
it more of an event at the stadium. You know,
there's a lot of things that we can do without
spending a lot of money to re engage and get
(03:12):
people there. We've got a strategy that we're thinking about.
Is our harker. We've got the Hurricanes haker. We want
all our fans to learn the harker, to practice the harker.
We want all our clubs to come in we're in
their jerseys and maybe we have a harker off. Maybe
we have a competition. There's a lot of things that
we can do to make that more of an event.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Right, what about rugby itself?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Well, I don't know, but the other week I was
watching a rugby game and now I was watching the
league game. I think the answers are pretty clear, isn't it.
The rules need to be looked at, hopefully to make
it more of a spectacle. And I think we all
know that it's above my pay scale, but I think
the guys that have the ability to do that would
see exactly what we're seeing. It's got to be a
(03:59):
product that people want to go along and watch. And
at the moment, you'd have to say, maybe it just
needs a little work on the breakdowns and things like
that to speed it up to make it more of
a spectacle. But that's said and done. Rugby's part of
our DNA and people are going to go and they're
going to follow their teams. We've just got to make
(04:21):
their teams more involved in the community. And that's what
we're really going to try and do. And it's not
just about rugby. It's about Wellington. It's about the bars,
it's about the restaurants. If we can go from seven
to fifteen thousand and those people go into town. That's
what I'm saying to people. We all need Wellington Rugby,
and we need the Hurricanes and we need the Phoenix.
(04:42):
We all need them to be successful because we depend
on them.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So what are you going to specifically do to get
that buy in? If you've got an idea? I mean,
I love the what's your catchphrase unite and excite? I
love that? Is that what you're going to do?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Look, we've already started. I've been on the phone, ringing around,
getting people fired up, getting sponsorship in. I've spent time
with Ken Laban. He's leading me in the with some
ideas of how to re engage with our PACIFICA community
to get them mind. We've decided that our PACIFICA game
is going to be our Grand Final every year. It's
(05:19):
the game that we're going to really focus on to
get that twenty plus thousand people and then we'll build
on that. It's not going to happen overnight, but there's
a lot of basics that haven't been done necessarily as
well as they could be, and we need to do that.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I said in my intro if anybody can you can
do you feel the pressure?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
No, not at all, And it's not just me. You know,
we've got a team.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We've got a team that you're fronting it.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, I'm fronting it. But the guys in behind are
all specialists in different areas and all specialists, and we're
all passionate, we're all motivated. No, I don't feel the pressure.
I mean, I can't do any worse than what's been done.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Are you excited?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah? I am. You know, Initially I thought do I
need this? Have I got time? And the more I
got into it, and the more I saw the opportunities
that I believe that there's things that we can do
that are going to position the Hurricanes as a model
that other franchises will look at. We will create other
(06:27):
income streams, other business interests, like leadership programs. We're going
to concentrate on the top two to CEO, on top
two percent of your mind. We're going to work on that.
And I think you know, we're working as a coaching
staff and as a board and as shareholders together united
to come up with a model that is financially more
(06:48):
stable than it ever has been.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Is the stadium a problem for yous? Atmosphere, size, all
the things.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, when you look at that, that would be easy
to say yes, but then you've also got to look
at what have we done to do our part in
that relationship. You know, you can't blame the stadium because
people don't go anymore. You can blame you know, well,
it's not even about blame. We need to work with
the stadium to make sure that we can have a
(07:19):
product that everyone wants. Now that's right through, that's the
quality and the price of the food, it's their mid
game entertainment. There's so much. You can't do much about
the fact that it's not covered and it's a really
big stadium. But there are things that we can jointly
do together, and I think the Hurricanes accept responsibility that
we haven't done our part to make that necessarily as
(07:42):
successful and an event as it could have been.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Malcolm, I just want to wish you all the best
and say thank you, thank you for trying, thank you
for having the gumption and the courage and the know
how to make a difference. So I for one to
be watching with Beta breath. And if I can ever
be of any help or money a phone called.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Away, Well, what we can do is give you three
tickets for yourself and your partner to the final of
the men's in the final of the women's to be
played at the stadium.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know what, if both the finals are there, I'll
buy a ticket. I'll be that proud.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
There you go, Thank you, good luck, all.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Right, see you soon. Malcolm Gillies and new chairman and
the new owner with this group of the Hurricanes.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks B Right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Oh, we've gone to Fiji and we've got hold of
Malcolm Gillies, the new chair of the Hurricanes.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Good morning Malcolm, Good morning Nick.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Okay, let's go. Why is always a why?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, Look, the team, the shareholding team which is John
Mellon and Peter Thomas and myself all very very passionate
rugby men, very passionate about Wellington as a city. So
the real answer is, you know, it's paid a really
important part in my life and I think it's time
(00:50):
to put something back into it. And we think we've
got the skill set to be able to basically help
help the Wellington Union get it back on his feet
and at the same time help the Hurricanes.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Now from someone that's done this for a few years
or a few decades, the key to us is getting
the crowds back. How are you going to do that?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Well, I don't think we've done a very good job
in the past. I think we have to work really
hard on past players. We've got to work very hard
on our fan base. We've got to re engage and
when you look at it, a prime example was the
PACIFICA game last year nearly twenty thousand people. Our average
(01:33):
attendance is seven so that suggests to me between seven
and twenty get. If we get it right and re
engage with our communities, then we should be able to
bring those crowd numbers up. And it's just not necessarily
crowd numbers at the stadium. We have four hundred thousand
followers and eighty percent of those are outside Wellington. So
(01:56):
we need to turn our attention to looking at how
we market to them and how we engage with them
through social media, how we can get them to become
members in a different capacity perhaps than a member that
can go to the game.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And how you can sell the merchandise most certainly.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I mean if you just got fifty thousand of those
people and sold fifty thousand jerseys as part of the membership,
there you go it doesn't you know? That's the low
hanging fruit. It's about re engaging. I mean, these people
don't follow the Hurricane for no reason at all. They
just want to be involved. And if there is a
membership that we can have for overseas members, I'm sure
(02:32):
they have a very good uptake.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I'm kind of getting a little bit excited when I
talk to you because I can remember owning a bar
on the waterfront when they used to get twenty thousand
plus to each game. Can you remember that? Of course,
you can remember those days you were sitting there. Do
you think you can get it back to that?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Well, look, if you looked at the trends throughout New Zealand,
you'd say no. But look, there's more than one one
thing at play here, isn't it. Well, we all know
that there's a lot of work to be done on
the game itself to make it a spectacle, but there's
a lot of things that we can do to make
it more of an event at the stadium. You know,
there's a lot of things that we can do without
spending a lot of money to re engage and get
(03:12):
people there. We've got a strategy that we're thinking about.
Is our harker. We've got the Hurricanes haker. We want
all our fans to learn the harker, to practice the harker.
We want all our clubs to come in we're in
their jerseys and maybe we have a harker off. Maybe
we have a competition. There's a lot of things that
we can do to make that more of an event.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Right, what about rugby itself?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Well, I don't know, but the other week I was
watching a rugby game and now I was watching the
league game. I think the answers are pretty clear, isn't it.
The rules need to be looked at, hopefully to make
it more of a spectacle. And I think we all
know that it's above my pay scale, but I think
the guys that have the ability to do that would
see exactly what we're seeing. It's got to be a
(03:59):
product that people want to go along and watch. And
at the moment, you'd have to say, maybe it just
needs a little work on the breakdowns and things like
that to speed it up to make it more of
a spectacle. But that's said and done. Rugby's part of
our DNA and people are going to go and they're
going to follow their teams. We've just got to make
(04:21):
their teams more involved in the community. And that's what
we're really going to try and do. And it's not
just about rugby. It's about Wellington. It's about the bars,
it's about the restaurants. If we can go from seven
to fifteen thousand and those people go into town. That's
what I'm saying to people. We all need Wellington Rugby,
and we need the Hurricanes and we need the Phoenix.
(04:42):
We all need them to be successful because we depend
on them.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So what are you going to specifically do to get
that buy in? If you've got an idea? I mean,
I love the what's your catchphrase unite and excite? I
love that? Is that what you're going to do?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Look, we've already started. I've been on the phone, ringing around,
getting people fired up, getting sponsorship in. I've spent time
with Ken Laban. He's leading me in the with some
ideas of how to re engage with our PACIFICA community
to get them mind. We've decided that our PACIFICA game
is going to be our Grand Final every year. It's
(05:19):
the game that we're going to really focus on to
get that twenty plus thousand people and then we'll build
on that. It's not going to happen overnight, but there's
a lot of basics that haven't been done necessarily as
well as they could be, and we need to do that.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I said in my intro if anybody can you can
do you feel the pressure?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
No, not at all, And it's not just me. You know,
we've got a team.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We've got a team that you're fronting it.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, I'm fronting it. But the guys in behind are
all specialists in different areas and all specialists, and we're
all passionate, we're all motivated. No, I don't feel the pressure.
I mean, I can't do any worse than what's been done.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Are you excited?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah? I am. You know, Initially I thought do I
need this? Have I got time? And the more I
got into it, and the more I saw the opportunities
that I believe that there's things that we can do
that are going to position the Hurricanes as a model
that other franchises will look at. We will create other
(06:27):
income streams, other business interests, like leadership programs. We're going
to concentrate on the top two to CEO, on top
two percent of your mind. We're going to work on that.
And I think you know, we're working as a coaching
staff and as a board and as shareholders together united
to come up with a model that is financially more
(06:48):
stable than it ever has been.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Is the stadium a problem for yous? Atmosphere, size, all
the things.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, when you look at that, that would be easy
to say yes, but then you've also got to look
at what have we done to do our part in
that relationship. You know, you can't blame the stadium because
people don't go anymore. You can blame you know, well,
it's not even about blame. We need to work with
the stadium to make sure that we can have a
(07:19):
product that everyone wants. Now that's right through, that's the
quality and the price of the food, it's their mid
game entertainment. There's so much. You can't do much about
the fact that it's not covered and it's a really
big stadium. But there are things that we can jointly
do together, and I think the Hurricanes accept responsibility that
we haven't done our part to make that necessarily as
(07:42):
successful and an event as it could have been.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Malcolm, I just want to wish you all the best
and say thank you, thank you for trying, thank you
for having the gumption and the courage and the know
how to make a difference. So I for one to
be watching with Beta breath. And if I can ever
be of any help or money a phone called.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Away, Well, what we can do is give you three
tickets for yourself and your partner to the final of
the men's in the final of the women's to be
played at the stadium.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know what, if both the finals are there, I'll
buy a ticket. I'll be that proud.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
There you go, Thank you, good luck, all.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Right, see you soon. Malcolm Gillies and new chairman and
the new owner with this group of the Hurricanes.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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