Hunters paying costs

 By JACK AMI

 THE Papua New Guinea Hunters as part of the agreement with Penrith Panthers met the travel and accommodation costs totalling K143, 000 for the trial match at the National Football Stadium in Port Moresby last Saturday.

This was confirmed by PNG Rugby Football League chief executive Bob Cutmore yesterday.

The cost of bringing up a Queensland Cup side is lower because of distance and the size of contingent but is nevertheless something that the Hunters need to watch with 13 home matches in the regular season where the club could easily incur up to several hundred thousand kina in travel, accommodation, meal and insurance expenses. 

Cutmore said the invitation agreement for the trials between Hunters and Panthers had the PNG franchise meeting the cost travel and accommodation as well as other associated costs for the trip.

“We have to meet the costs if we invite rugby league teams from Australia to PNG for trials,” Cutmore said.

The PNG league boss confirmed that there were no match payments to the visiting side as it was agreed beforehand with Panthers director Phil Gould that the game be treated as a trial match as match as a promotional and developmental tool for the host league.

Cutmore said the cost was for 35 players and officials for the trial to the nation’s capital on Friday and for them to return on Sunday.

“We’ve yet to verify how much was generated at the gate but we had around 14,900 people at the National Football Staium on Saturday,” Cutmore said.

“We have to reconcile this and also look at the cost of facilities and other services,” the CEO said.

Cutmore said because this was the first test event for the NFS, the cost of running a match and what was made from gate receipts needed to be worked out in order to give the Hunters as well as the venue managers what to expect during the Intrust Super Cup season.

This means the Oil Search-funded facility is the frontrunner to be the Hunters home in 2016.

According to the current agreement the Hunters have with the Queensland Rugby League, they are required to pay for the cost of hosting visiting teams during the Q-Cup season.

This includes the players and officials as well as the match officials for all home games.

Cutmore met with Sports Minister Justin Tkatchenko on the trial and potential venues yesterday but did not release details.

“I have yet to meet the PNG Sports Foundation and Oil Search Ltd management and trustee board to discuss the hire of venues but we need them to be affordable as costs for the season alone are significant.”