June 29, 2024 • 17 mins
Piney’s not in the ZB studio this week.
Instead, he’s been broadcasting from the NZCIS – the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport.
It boasts of being a unique, world-leading facility for sports teams looking to train, eat, sleep, and play all in one location.
NZCIS GM Jamie Tout joined Jason Pine to dig into what the facility has to offer.
He told him that NZCIS stacks up among the best in the world.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalks, Edblave from the first All Blacks camp of
twenty twenty four on your home of Sport, Weekend Sport Women,
Jason Vine and GJ. Gunner homes New Zealand's most trusted
home builder News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
EDB coming to your life from the New Zealand Campus
of Innovation and Sport, wonderful facility in Upper Heart. The
All Blacks have been using it since Wednesday. They'll be
here till Tuesday. They fly to duneed And Tuesday night
for the first test of the year a week tonight
actually at Forsyth Bar Stadium and Deneedan. We'll have a
full commentary of that game for you from just after
(00:46):
seven o'clock next Saturday night, and in fact, Weekend Sport
will come to you from Dunedin next Saturday and Sunday.
But for now we're here at the n zed CIS
and in the office of the General manager, Jamie Taut,
who join us now. Thanks for giving up your office.
First of all, Jamie, get a bit closer to that
Mike so we can all hear you. Nice to see you, mate, nice.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
To see you point, it's not looking at a mirror.
We've both had more year back in the day and
Pully better.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Eye sight, so not all good. Look, I think one
of us was fitter than the other, and I think
we all know who that might be. But for those
who aren't familiar with the m z CIEs, a lot
of people are because it has really turned heads everywhere.
Can you tell us a bit about the background to
the development of what is a world class facility.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yeah, I guess people in the region will previously know.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
This is the old CIT, the old Central Institute of Technology,
and it was a thriving campus back in the day.
It was where the local mayor he Wanne Guppy in
those guys with pharmacy and there's a lot of a
lot of people went through this doing their sort of
prodietary programs and things. It was super successful between the
nineteen seventies and two thousand until it was shut down
where three polytechs or assembilar institutions merged into one SAT
(01:50):
dormant for sixteen years before two locals, Malcolm Gillies and
Kevin Melville, had the brain wave.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
People called it a brain fart.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Maybe at the time but definitely a brain wave long
term where they've since diversified the campus to be a
lot of things. It's got commercial real estate over twenty
floors a commercial it's got over four hundred beds of accommodation,
it's got food and beverage putting through over one hundred
thousand meals a year, and it's got this beautiful new
sports facility. So it's something that a lot of people
around the region take a lot of pride in and yeah,
(02:17):
I'm just grateful to be on the whaka.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
How does this compare to facilities in New Zealand and globally?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Look, I can say straight up and we're not sounding
ergant or facetious, but this is a world class facility.
It stacks up amongst the best in the world. We
take that from the guys like Scott Wooden and David
Ball who have played in those other environments. We did
a lot of work early doors with our foundation membership
group to make sure that we got what they wanted,
but equally we went out to the world and luckily
(02:46):
En I've had input from thirty five international teams. We
had Paris, Saint Germain, Man, United New York Giants, Shyinki's
necks or fill out a facility matrix for us looking
at what world class look like. And it didn't mean
that we took all those ideas and tried to include them.
The New York Giants is probably one of the most
beautiful facilities I've seen, but it's not who we are.
(03:08):
They exercise for two seconds at a time. It's ninety
male athletes. They're one hundred and fifty kilos each, and
it's one sport. We're dealing with the female Phoenix player
who's fifty five sixty five kilos. We've got athletes running
for eighty to ninety minutes at a time, and we're
dealing with multiple codes. So it's a very different facility.
And some of the sports you thought we might not
(03:28):
learn much from, we've learned a lot. Like the UFC,
we learned lots about how we connect people, having those
impromptu conversations, reducing time on feet, looking for those sort
of efficiencies.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
What are the main features? Again, for those who aren't
familiar with the complex, what are the main features? Tell
us about the main facilities. For example, the all Blacks
are taking advantage of this week.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I think size and flexibility is probably the two biggest features.
We've got plenty of space eighteen hectare campus. We don't
try and fill up every corner. The gym is a
thousand square meters, but we leave plenty of free space
for training. There's a beautiful big green room out here
to the side of us. It's seventy meters by fifty.
Having that capacity to get in get your clarity work
(04:08):
done early in the week. We've spent a lot of
time and mail and cave a lot of money putting
in the technology backbone, which enables us to capture footage
in real time, analyze it instantaneously, provide feedback and you
see the athletes really benefit from a lot of self coaching.
They can identify their own mistakes in real time up
on the screens and they can react and adjust. Look,
(04:30):
we're super proud of some world first we've achieved here.
We've got the biggest interactive.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Screen in the world.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
It's two and a half times bigger than anything that's
been built before. You can play darts, you can play
Connect four. Everyone loves games. No matter how old you are.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
People like to play. Creates that sense of competition.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Competition leads to intensity we've got beautiful big plunge pools.
We've installed a three hundred kilo accessibility hoist across all
the pools, and again something that hadn't been done to
connect four aquatic environments and two dry leend environments. We've
got a massive altitude chamber. It's one hundred and thirty
square meters. It means we can put forty white bikes
in there at a time. Every athlete can go for gold.
(05:08):
We can get it up to three thousand meters tour
to France starting tonight, so we can replicate those types
of conditions to the athletes to benefit from. And probably
the other single point of difference is having the accommodation
on site, and it just leads to a whole bunch
less stress during your day for the athlete. They can
get up, they can walk to their first session, they
can recovery here, they can walk back. It's just missing
(05:29):
out on all that time on feetur time on buses.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, and I think yeah, Razor even made that point.
You know, to go from one place to another doesn't
take a bus, It just takes a two minute walk.
Two of your tenants are the Hurricanes and the Phoenix.
If we just look at the men's teams just for
this question. Hurricanes made the semi finals, Phoenix made the
semi finals. Are you able to in any way assess
(05:54):
how important being here was to their success?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I think both teams probably took a good twelve months
to work out. How you live in your house.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
It's seat of like when you move in, you sort
of work out where the powerpoints are and how you
use each room, where you want your furniture, And to
a lesser degree, that's what I think we saw with
the Hurricanes and the Phoenix. But to use Mike Cron's analogy,
Krona always talked about having cattle on your farm being
the athletes having the right cattle.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Well, I think we've now got an awesome farm.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You've got Chief and Clark just great farmers and all
their support staff, and then their cattle on the farm
being the athletes. But to look at it another way,
you could say that a whole bunch of things have
actually come together to multiply out. So we've got one
plus one as now equally three, and it's sort of
just finding that recipe how things work together. And it's
not just the shiny toys it's all the stuff that
(06:42):
sits behind it, building that culture, the connection element, and
as a facility, we've worked really hard on that as
well to try and get that connection element right.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
You're the venue as well for the official All Blacks
launch on Wednesday, which was a really terrific ceremony, I
have to say, involving kids from six local schools, the players,
others associated with the game, dignitaries, a lot of people
who have a vested interest in this place. How special
a day was.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That for you?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Look, we're extremely proud a lot of people on the
whaka here and you look at that event and it's
a combination of a lot of things leading up to it.
We're proud to welcome all our international guests. We were
super proud when we had the wheelchair rugby here at
the start of the year.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
That was special as well.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
But when we stand up there and it sort of
resonates that you've created a facility that the types of
teams like the All Blacks want to use and want
to be based here for their first camp, it is special.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
It is really special for everyone.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Tell us about the special rope. I'm going to get
the word wording wrong yet, but the rope tying that
happened that day just give us a background to that.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, look, that's something that evolved with Luke Crawford.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
He's the Krimarthware here at the campus and he spent
a lot of time in rugby circles. He has been
with us on this journey near since day dot and
it was in twenty twenty, just pre COVID.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
When he walked into the big green room.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It was just a dirt surface and he stood there
in the middle and he sort of looked and he said, Hi,
I can see this as being somewhere we're going to
get together and assemble. And it was nearly a year
later when he walked back after COVID. We had our
big braces up in the ceiling there and he said, brother,
this is our this is our fuddy worker, this is
our boat shed, this is we make boats go faster
(08:22):
here and we meet people on the right seats on
the bus and right seats on the whaka.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
And out of that we talked a lot to tiati Awa.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
And Ewe around what does it mean for our values,
not something that's going to be a brand, but our
values and it's how we want to be seen by others,
and they're proudly represented on both sides of the Fuddy
Whacker here. It's something that a kid can walk past
and look up and ask questions about what it means.
And the three values that we have all talk about,
they're represented on paddles, and if you look at the paddles,
(08:52):
we've got one that represents growth. It's the multiple elements
of growth in your life. It's not one single koru.
It's multiple corews on the one paddle, which talks about
the time off the field as well as on it
and elements outside of the game. But it's important for
us to grow. The second value is about our connection.
It's about our connection to our physical environment but also
to each other and yourself. And we talk about at
(09:14):
the top of that paddle the light triangles in the dark.
The light triangles are the good times. It's the stuff
you see on social every day, but it's the bad
times that often define us and how we overcome those challenges.
So we've made sure there's more light triangles than it
is dark, but you need to recognize the dark. Those
paddles are facing upwards, they're at rest, and there's something
that We worked with Kuda and the guys at to
(09:37):
understand that those paddles being at rest are facing upwards,
but there's a little fern in the bottom of each
of those that's always upright, no matter orientation. That's our
positivity that we try and bring to every day. And
the last paddle, if Kevin Mall are listening, I said
it all the time, so they don't mind. But that
middle paddle is our manger putty, and that is the
Kevin Males of the world. They're not the prettiest fish,
(09:59):
but geeze get stuff done and it's just tenaciousness, it's resilience,
it's just always finding a way. And so those paddle
values really great to sort of tell that story, but
had to be something next that could tie a team
to the facility, and hence that tota. That rope presentation
that we do is now that it's more than a
symbolic gesture, it's actually a really meaningful gesture that you
(10:21):
walk up, you present the tote to the team that's
coming on to site. They walk over to one of
our poe inside the green room and they attach themselves
to our waka, and that gesture is that we've got
your back and when you leave, the rope will be
taken down. We'll store it in our foyer for everyone
to know that you've been here. But whilst you're away,
we'll be thinking about you. When you come back, we
want you to attach your waker again.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I love that. I love that. So how does it
work in terms of the likes of your tenanty? The Hurricanes,
the Phoenix? How do they know? What do they pay you?
How does it all work financially?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah? Cool, Look, I think it's well known in sport
generally and in New Zealand particularly. They haven't got wheelbarrows,
a cash like. No one could afford to build a
facility like this themselves. So if we say you need
a dollar run this place, we need tenants paying thirty
three cents each so they can share those resources and
break it down. And to try and do that, there's
been a bit of a soft landing period where it's
(11:16):
sort of betting in and finding out what they use
and then on what happens next is they treat it
like an ala carte menu, so they say I want
three entrees, five males, two desserts, and for us in
our language, that's meaning they'll spend two hours in the
gym four days a week, thirty two weeks a year,
and we are then licensed to occupy those spaces and
so they can come and draw down on a bucket
(11:37):
of hours. The Women's Phoenix, the men's Phoenix come in
and they draw down on those hours to utilize the
different spaces. So they pay us a license fee and
that license fee or that agreement spread out over a
number of years and like anythink, the greater the commitment,
the more benefits we can give them and work together
on proper partnerships, not just in a commercial sense, but
(11:59):
also maybe looking forward.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
To how we generate other revenues with them along this journey.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
And just on that that can the Hurricanes, the Phoenix,
the sports teams can they afford that?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Look, I think Pine we have to find ways and
again mel and keV mal particularly is driving a mindset
we have to change the way sport is funded in
New Zealand. And it's been it's not uncompet It's out
in social media that even the Central Coast Marindus this year,
the most successful club won everything they could, but they
still posted a huge loss because of the central funding
(12:30):
system has taken away a lot of that money. We've
seen successful clubs would be the Penrith Panthers. They've got
their own Leagues club. They posted one hundred and fifty
three million dollar revenue this year. They made eight hundred
thousand dollars worth a profit. They also built a hotel,
hence the profit being a little bit lower. Yes, that's
pretty smart footy. But the revenue streams that they have
(12:50):
are things like gambling. They've got pokey machines, they've got
their own clubs with food and beverage, and those two
elements alone, I think it was ninety million out of gambling.
It was thirty million out of food and beverage. We
simply don't have those revenue streams for our teams here
in New Zealand, so we have to box a bit smarter.
We're looking at lots of creative ways to do that now,
whether that's bricks and mortar businesses, whether that's through the
(13:12):
commercialization of information, where that's through developing products. We have
to find ways and means to look after the club,
the athlete and ourselves and realistically have those open conversations,
how big the pie, how do we cut it up?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
That's where it's got to go. We can't rely on
bums on seats at stadiums anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And because what the traditional revenue streams ticketing, sponsorship, and broadcast,
So there needs to be more than just those three.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
And we know that we saw an influx of the
people jumping on the boat for the Phoenix and and
the Hurricanes as it got closer to the end of
the season. But I think we have to ensure that
if we diversify revenue streams, we're not so reliant on
those things.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
The broadcasts.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
As you know, I don't want to tell you Piney,
it's just changed the way that people ingest content has changed.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Merchandise. We have to be smarter. How can we access
that global audia.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So it's maybe building out those international partnerships with overseas clubs,
that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, food for thought. What is your vision for in
zincis if we sitting here in ten years, what are
we seeing around us?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Well, I'm glad males not here because that would be
a much longer conversation. The guy doesn't stop and it's
melan keV really complementary individuals of each other, a lot
of fun to work with. But you have to run
to keep up, and that's great, like it keeps your
mind active and your body active.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
What could it look like?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I would love to see two new basketball courts netball
courts across from the main gym here. I think it's
now establishing what that next user group could be. We'd
love to contemplate the idea of making the first parasport
venue in the world from ground up. We think ballerinas
they run, jump and land like netball and basketball. Why
aren't we talking to them. There's some Olympic sports that
(14:55):
don't have a home currently, so can we be smart
and sort of how we construct that venue. Would love
that venue to be a medical center. It's not uncommon
knowledge that we really struggle in new for body scanning
imagery ct MRI X ray. Why can't we do it
here privately? Why can't we open that up to Joe public,
Joanne public around the place? If there was one vision
(15:19):
that was sort of really out there and we've talked
about it sort of and other people got wind of it.
But you talk about Trentam racecourse, what could happen there
in the future. Maintain the integrity of the racecourse, but
is it possible to have like a ten thousand seat
covered stadium sitting whack in the middle of that, Like
that's the sort.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Of blue sky that I know. It gets us excited.
But look there's a lot of water under that bridge.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
But then you take it back to the genesis of
this place and that was blue skying as well, and
here we are.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
That's possible, right, yeah, Look that's Mao's favorite saying. Really,
he said, if you can believe it, sorry, conceive it,
believe it, you'll achieve it. And there was a lot
of people, I think, we're surprised when this was a
pile of dirt to then come back in eighteen months
and go, oh wow, it's actually it's actually happened.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, yeah, no, I must have mind. You were generous
enough to give me a look around when it was
just a pile of dirt. Really and some you know,
some bare bones. And I come back here on a
weekly basis during the Phoenix and Hurricane seasons for media sessions,
and every time I drive in here, I just get
a sense of what is possible. If somebody is a doer,
(16:25):
if they conceive believe, they can achieve. So it's a
terrific place, mate. I feel like I need an office
out here. I feel like I need to talk to
the powers that be at News Talk, said B. And
we need to build a studio so we don't have
to plug into you know, just temporarily. We should permanently
be here.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Mate, made would kicked me if I six eight hundred
square meters for you up and not one of the
vacant floors.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Still, I'm going to get my people.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
To talk to your people while we've been talking to
one another. Jamie, thanks for your hospitality This afternoon, we're
giving out your office, and congrats on a terrific week
so far with the all Blacks. I know it's going
to stand them in a really good stead this year,
we hope so too. Good on you mate, Thanks and deed,
Jamie Tout, general manager of the New Zealand Campus of
Innovation and Sport in Upper Heart, where we're broadcasting from today.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
For more from Weekends Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk Set B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalks, Edblave from the first All Blacks camp of
twenty twenty four on your home of Sport, Weekend Sport Women,
Jason Vine and GJ. Gunner homes New Zealand's most trusted
home builder News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
EDB coming to your life from the New Zealand Campus
of Innovation and Sport, wonderful facility in Upper Heart. The
All Blacks have been using it since Wednesday. They'll be
here till Tuesday. They fly to duneed And Tuesday night
for the first test of the year a week tonight
actually at Forsyth Bar Stadium and Deneedan. We'll have a
full commentary of that game for you from just after
(00:46):
seven o'clock next Saturday night, and in fact, Weekend Sport
will come to you from Dunedin next Saturday and Sunday.
But for now we're here at the n zed CIS
and in the office of the General manager, Jamie Taut,
who join us now. Thanks for giving up your office.
First of all, Jamie, get a bit closer to that
Mike so we can all hear you. Nice to see you, mate, nice.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
To see you point, it's not looking at a mirror.
We've both had more year back in the day and
Pully better.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Eye sight, so not all good. Look, I think one
of us was fitter than the other, and I think
we all know who that might be. But for those
who aren't familiar with the m z CIEs, a lot
of people are because it has really turned heads everywhere.
Can you tell us a bit about the background to
the development of what is a world class facility.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yeah, I guess people in the region will previously know.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
This is the old CIT, the old Central Institute of Technology,
and it was a thriving campus back in the day.
It was where the local mayor he Wanne Guppy in
those guys with pharmacy and there's a lot of a
lot of people went through this doing their sort of
prodietary programs and things. It was super successful between the
nineteen seventies and two thousand until it was shut down
where three polytechs or assembilar institutions merged into one SAT
(01:50):
dormant for sixteen years before two locals, Malcolm Gillies and
Kevin Melville, had the brain wave.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
People called it a brain fart.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Maybe at the time but definitely a brain wave long
term where they've since diversified the campus to be a
lot of things. It's got commercial real estate over twenty
floors a commercial it's got over four hundred beds of accommodation,
it's got food and beverage putting through over one hundred
thousand meals a year, and it's got this beautiful new
sports facility. So it's something that a lot of people
around the region take a lot of pride in and yeah,
(02:17):
I'm just grateful to be on the whaka.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
How does this compare to facilities in New Zealand and globally?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Look, I can say straight up and we're not sounding
ergant or facetious, but this is a world class facility.
It stacks up amongst the best in the world. We
take that from the guys like Scott Wooden and David
Ball who have played in those other environments. We did
a lot of work early doors with our foundation membership
group to make sure that we got what they wanted,
but equally we went out to the world and luckily
(02:46):
En I've had input from thirty five international teams. We
had Paris, Saint Germain, Man, United New York Giants, Shyinki's
necks or fill out a facility matrix for us looking
at what world class look like. And it didn't mean
that we took all those ideas and tried to include them.
The New York Giants is probably one of the most
beautiful facilities I've seen, but it's not who we are.
(03:08):
They exercise for two seconds at a time. It's ninety
male athletes. They're one hundred and fifty kilos each, and
it's one sport. We're dealing with the female Phoenix player
who's fifty five sixty five kilos. We've got athletes running
for eighty to ninety minutes at a time, and we're
dealing with multiple codes. So it's a very different facility.
And some of the sports you thought we might not
(03:28):
learn much from, we've learned a lot. Like the UFC,
we learned lots about how we connect people, having those
impromptu conversations, reducing time on feet, looking for those sort
of efficiencies.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
What are the main features? Again, for those who aren't
familiar with the complex, what are the main features? Tell
us about the main facilities. For example, the all Blacks
are taking advantage of this week.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I think size and flexibility is probably the two biggest features.
We've got plenty of space eighteen hectare campus. We don't
try and fill up every corner. The gym is a
thousand square meters, but we leave plenty of free space
for training. There's a beautiful big green room out here
to the side of us. It's seventy meters by fifty.
Having that capacity to get in get your clarity work
(04:08):
done early in the week. We've spent a lot of
time and mail and cave a lot of money putting
in the technology backbone, which enables us to capture footage
in real time, analyze it instantaneously, provide feedback and you
see the athletes really benefit from a lot of self coaching.
They can identify their own mistakes in real time up
on the screens and they can react and adjust. Look,
(04:30):
we're super proud of some world first we've achieved here.
We've got the biggest interactive.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Screen in the world.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
It's two and a half times bigger than anything that's
been built before. You can play darts, you can play
Connect four. Everyone loves games. No matter how old you are.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
People like to play. Creates that sense of competition.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Competition leads to intensity we've got beautiful big plunge pools.
We've installed a three hundred kilo accessibility hoist across all
the pools, and again something that hadn't been done to
connect four aquatic environments and two dry leend environments. We've
got a massive altitude chamber. It's one hundred and thirty
square meters. It means we can put forty white bikes
in there at a time. Every athlete can go for gold.
(05:08):
We can get it up to three thousand meters tour
to France starting tonight, so we can replicate those types
of conditions to the athletes to benefit from. And probably
the other single point of difference is having the accommodation
on site, and it just leads to a whole bunch
less stress during your day for the athlete. They can
get up, they can walk to their first session, they
can recovery here, they can walk back. It's just missing
(05:29):
out on all that time on feetur time on buses.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, and I think yeah, Razor even made that point.
You know, to go from one place to another doesn't
take a bus, It just takes a two minute walk.
Two of your tenants are the Hurricanes and the Phoenix.
If we just look at the men's teams just for
this question. Hurricanes made the semi finals, Phoenix made the
semi finals. Are you able to in any way assess
(05:54):
how important being here was to their success?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I think both teams probably took a good twelve months
to work out. How you live in your house.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
It's seat of like when you move in, you sort
of work out where the powerpoints are and how you
use each room, where you want your furniture, And to
a lesser degree, that's what I think we saw with
the Hurricanes and the Phoenix. But to use Mike Cron's analogy,
Krona always talked about having cattle on your farm being
the athletes having the right cattle.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Well, I think we've now got an awesome farm.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You've got Chief and Clark just great farmers and all
their support staff, and then their cattle on the farm
being the athletes. But to look at it another way,
you could say that a whole bunch of things have
actually come together to multiply out. So we've got one
plus one as now equally three, and it's sort of
just finding that recipe how things work together. And it's
not just the shiny toys it's all the stuff that
(06:42):
sits behind it, building that culture, the connection element, and
as a facility, we've worked really hard on that as
well to try and get that connection element right.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
You're the venue as well for the official All Blacks
launch on Wednesday, which was a really terrific ceremony, I
have to say, involving kids from six local schools, the players,
others associated with the game, dignitaries, a lot of people
who have a vested interest in this place. How special
a day was.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That for you?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Look, we're extremely proud a lot of people on the
whaka here and you look at that event and it's
a combination of a lot of things leading up to it.
We're proud to welcome all our international guests. We were
super proud when we had the wheelchair rugby here at
the start of the year.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
That was special as well.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
But when we stand up there and it sort of
resonates that you've created a facility that the types of
teams like the All Blacks want to use and want
to be based here for their first camp, it is special.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
It is really special for everyone.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Tell us about the special rope. I'm going to get
the word wording wrong yet, but the rope tying that
happened that day just give us a background to that.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, look, that's something that evolved with Luke Crawford.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
He's the Krimarthware here at the campus and he spent
a lot of time in rugby circles. He has been
with us on this journey near since day dot and
it was in twenty twenty, just pre COVID.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
When he walked into the big green room.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It was just a dirt surface and he stood there
in the middle and he sort of looked and he said, Hi,
I can see this as being somewhere we're going to
get together and assemble. And it was nearly a year
later when he walked back after COVID. We had our
big braces up in the ceiling there and he said, brother,
this is our this is our fuddy worker, this is
our boat shed, this is we make boats go faster
(08:22):
here and we meet people on the right seats on
the bus and right seats on the whaka.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
And out of that we talked a lot to tiati Awa.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
And Ewe around what does it mean for our values,
not something that's going to be a brand, but our
values and it's how we want to be seen by others,
and they're proudly represented on both sides of the Fuddy
Whacker here. It's something that a kid can walk past
and look up and ask questions about what it means.
And the three values that we have all talk about,
they're represented on paddles, and if you look at the paddles,
(08:52):
we've got one that represents growth. It's the multiple elements
of growth in your life. It's not one single koru.
It's multiple corews on the one paddle, which talks about
the time off the field as well as on it
and elements outside of the game. But it's important for
us to grow. The second value is about our connection.
It's about our connection to our physical environment but also
to each other and yourself. And we talk about at
(09:14):
the top of that paddle the light triangles in the dark.
The light triangles are the good times. It's the stuff
you see on social every day, but it's the bad
times that often define us and how we overcome those challenges.
So we've made sure there's more light triangles than it
is dark, but you need to recognize the dark. Those
paddles are facing upwards, they're at rest, and there's something
that We worked with Kuda and the guys at to
(09:37):
understand that those paddles being at rest are facing upwards,
but there's a little fern in the bottom of each
of those that's always upright, no matter orientation. That's our
positivity that we try and bring to every day. And
the last paddle, if Kevin Mall are listening, I said
it all the time, so they don't mind. But that
middle paddle is our manger putty, and that is the
Kevin Males of the world. They're not the prettiest fish,
(09:59):
but geeze get stuff done and it's just tenaciousness, it's resilience,
it's just always finding a way. And so those paddle
values really great to sort of tell that story, but
had to be something next that could tie a team
to the facility, and hence that tota. That rope presentation
that we do is now that it's more than a
symbolic gesture, it's actually a really meaningful gesture that you
(10:21):
walk up, you present the tote to the team that's
coming on to site. They walk over to one of
our poe inside the green room and they attach themselves
to our waka, and that gesture is that we've got
your back and when you leave, the rope will be
taken down. We'll store it in our foyer for everyone
to know that you've been here. But whilst you're away,
we'll be thinking about you. When you come back, we
want you to attach your waker again.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I love that. I love that. So how does it
work in terms of the likes of your tenanty? The Hurricanes,
the Phoenix? How do they know? What do they pay you?
How does it all work financially?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah? Cool, Look, I think it's well known in sport
generally and in New Zealand particularly. They haven't got wheelbarrows,
a cash like. No one could afford to build a
facility like this themselves. So if we say you need
a dollar run this place, we need tenants paying thirty
three cents each so they can share those resources and
break it down. And to try and do that, there's
been a bit of a soft landing period where it's
(11:16):
sort of betting in and finding out what they use
and then on what happens next is they treat it
like an ala carte menu, so they say I want
three entrees, five males, two desserts, and for us in
our language, that's meaning they'll spend two hours in the
gym four days a week, thirty two weeks a year,
and we are then licensed to occupy those spaces and
so they can come and draw down on a bucket
(11:37):
of hours. The Women's Phoenix, the men's Phoenix come in
and they draw down on those hours to utilize the
different spaces. So they pay us a license fee and
that license fee or that agreement spread out over a
number of years and like anythink, the greater the commitment,
the more benefits we can give them and work together
on proper partnerships, not just in a commercial sense, but
(11:59):
also maybe looking forward.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
To how we generate other revenues with them along this journey.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
And just on that that can the Hurricanes, the Phoenix,
the sports teams can they afford that?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Look, I think Pine we have to find ways and
again mel and keV mal particularly is driving a mindset
we have to change the way sport is funded in
New Zealand. And it's been it's not uncompet It's out
in social media that even the Central Coast Marindus this year,
the most successful club won everything they could, but they
still posted a huge loss because of the central funding
(12:30):
system has taken away a lot of that money. We've
seen successful clubs would be the Penrith Panthers. They've got
their own Leagues club. They posted one hundred and fifty
three million dollar revenue this year. They made eight hundred
thousand dollars worth a profit. They also built a hotel,
hence the profit being a little bit lower. Yes, that's
pretty smart footy. But the revenue streams that they have
(12:50):
are things like gambling. They've got pokey machines, they've got
their own clubs with food and beverage, and those two
elements alone, I think it was ninety million out of gambling.
It was thirty million out of food and beverage. We
simply don't have those revenue streams for our teams here
in New Zealand, so we have to box a bit smarter.
We're looking at lots of creative ways to do that now,
whether that's bricks and mortar businesses, whether that's through the
(13:12):
commercialization of information, where that's through developing products. We have
to find ways and means to look after the club,
the athlete and ourselves and realistically have those open conversations,
how big the pie, how do we cut it up?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
That's where it's got to go. We can't rely on
bums on seats at stadiums anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And because what the traditional revenue streams ticketing, sponsorship, and broadcast,
So there needs to be more than just those three.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
And we know that we saw an influx of the
people jumping on the boat for the Phoenix and and
the Hurricanes as it got closer to the end of
the season. But I think we have to ensure that
if we diversify revenue streams, we're not so reliant on
those things.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
The broadcasts.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
As you know, I don't want to tell you Piney,
it's just changed the way that people ingest content has changed.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Merchandise. We have to be smarter. How can we access
that global audia.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So it's maybe building out those international partnerships with overseas clubs,
that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, food for thought. What is your vision for in
zincis if we sitting here in ten years, what are
we seeing around us?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Well, I'm glad males not here because that would be
a much longer conversation. The guy doesn't stop and it's
melan keV really complementary individuals of each other, a lot
of fun to work with. But you have to run
to keep up, and that's great, like it keeps your
mind active and your body active.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
What could it look like?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I would love to see two new basketball courts netball
courts across from the main gym here. I think it's
now establishing what that next user group could be. We'd
love to contemplate the idea of making the first parasport
venue in the world from ground up. We think ballerinas
they run, jump and land like netball and basketball. Why
aren't we talking to them. There's some Olympic sports that
(14:55):
don't have a home currently, so can we be smart
and sort of how we construct that venue. Would love
that venue to be a medical center. It's not uncommon
knowledge that we really struggle in new for body scanning
imagery ct MRI X ray. Why can't we do it
here privately? Why can't we open that up to Joe public,
Joanne public around the place? If there was one vision
(15:19):
that was sort of really out there and we've talked
about it sort of and other people got wind of it.
But you talk about Trentam racecourse, what could happen there
in the future. Maintain the integrity of the racecourse, but
is it possible to have like a ten thousand seat
covered stadium sitting whack in the middle of that, Like
that's the sort.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Of blue sky that I know. It gets us excited.
But look there's a lot of water under that bridge.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
But then you take it back to the genesis of
this place and that was blue skying as well, and
here we are.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
That's possible, right, yeah, Look that's Mao's favorite saying. Really,
he said, if you can believe it, sorry, conceive it,
believe it, you'll achieve it. And there was a lot
of people, I think, we're surprised when this was a
pile of dirt to then come back in eighteen months
and go, oh wow, it's actually it's actually happened.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, yeah, no, I must have mind. You were generous
enough to give me a look around when it was
just a pile of dirt. Really and some you know,
some bare bones. And I come back here on a
weekly basis during the Phoenix and Hurricane seasons for media sessions,
and every time I drive in here, I just get
a sense of what is possible. If somebody is a doer,
(16:25):
if they conceive believe, they can achieve. So it's a
terrific place, mate. I feel like I need an office
out here. I feel like I need to talk to
the powers that be at News Talk, said B. And
we need to build a studio so we don't have
to plug into you know, just temporarily. We should permanently
be here.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Mate, made would kicked me if I six eight hundred
square meters for you up and not one of the
vacant floors.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Still, I'm going to get my people.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
To talk to your people while we've been talking to
one another. Jamie, thanks for your hospitality This afternoon, we're
giving out your office, and congrats on a terrific week
so far with the all Blacks. I know it's going
to stand them in a really good stead this year,
we hope so too. Good on you mate, Thanks and deed,
Jamie Tout, general manager of the New Zealand Campus of
Innovation and Sport in Upper Heart, where we're broadcasting from today.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
For more from Weekends Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk Set B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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