Moana Pasifika Collapse

Ts and C's apply. Let this be a lesson to all those who argue against the simple truism that the market most of the time tends to be right. Moana Pacifica. They're in liquidation as of the vote. The vote was held yesterday. The story ends here. Trouble is the taxpayer footed a lot of the bill, and the money is gone. Flushed down an ideological toilet. If the idea was such a sensational one, someone actually using their own money would have thought of it and further put it into practice. But the idea wasn't a sensational one, it was an artificial one propped up with other people's money. Most immediate alarm bells should be ringing, of course, in the NRL with their PG adventure. Having been handed millions by the Australian government, players will live in a compound because it's too unsafe not to, and their pay will be artificially jacked up by tax treatment. Otherwise, if it wasn't, no one would want to play in PG. Gosh, wonder why. The fact this hair-brained idea's got this far actually defies what is going on elsewhere in sport, which is actually good, progressive, and successful. And what else, uh what else it also defies is, of course, belief. But back to Moana. Taxpayers' money through a series of very, very loosely connected organizations to sport, i.e. a medical group, who, if you joined some dots, you can argue if you run around you might be a bit fitter and then not end up dying young, that's sort of logic. Anyway, a medical group who ended up in charge of a professional sports team who didn't really attract a crowd and didn't really turn out to be that good, which is one of the great ironies. Young Pacific kids were supposed to see their heroes and be inspired to be fit and play sport. You know what inspires kids? Winners. You got to actually win. And those Pacific kids could see their heroes anyway. And the Crusaders and the Chiefs and the Hurricanes, the Highlanders and the Blues. No one ever watched Lomu or Jones and wondered aloud to themselves, wouldn't it be cool if they had their own local team? So it ends in liquidation. A bad idea with easy money, not properly executed, ending in the poor house. In a world where successful sport is all around us, why would you try and gerrymander it in such an amateurish fashion?