Auckland Tuatara franchise goes into liquidation

The Auckland Tuatara baseball franchise has been placed into liquidation and will no longer compete in the Australian Baseball League.

The Tuatara entered the Australian league in 2018 but sat out the entire 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons due to Covid travel restrictions.

A statement from the organisation’s directors said “the impacts of Covid over the past three years, significant increase in costs across the business, plus the loss of income from missing seven of the team’s scheduled 20 home games this past summer has placed a huge strain on finances”.

Club spokesperson Dale Budge told RNZ he did not know the figure owed but said it was an insurmountable amount.

Budge said it feels he and his team had given everything without a whole lot to show.

”We put a heck of a lot of time and energy and money and effort into this over the last five years. It’s been all-consuming and it’s never been easy. There’s been a lot of challenges which just made it impossible to continue.

”Shortly after bringing the franchise to life, we were hit with the impacts of Covid, travel restrictions and the financial implications that came with it.

”When competition did finally return to Auckland, the weather didn’t play ball with of three of five home games played impacted by weather and affecting crowd attendance.

”The costs of participating have skyrocketed over the past few months and all teams competing in the ABL have found it challenging financially.

”We feel for the staff, who have worked tirelessly to keep the lights on, for the players and coaches that no longer have a local team to play for and for the sport that has lost its public face.

”It is a very sad day for our sport.”

The Tuatara played their last game in January, losing in the semifinals to eventual title winners the Adelaide Giants.

The liquidation of the baseball franchise does not affect the basketball franchise which competes in the national domestic competition, the NBL.

”The basketball is quite different. It’s a different ownership group, completely independent of the baseball. The basketball was financially viable. The baseball has always been a challenge.”

Budge said it was a reflection of where the two sports sit in New Zealand.

”Basketball is much bigger, it’s much more popular but we were trying to make baseball get to a point where it was an everyday sport for New Zealanders and it’s really sad that we’re not going to be able to succeed in that goal.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission