The NPC used to be played in the afternoon in front of large crowds and New Zealand’s best rugby players would throw the ball around.

The competition has changed – and not for the better, judging by the dwindling number of viewers.

Otago’s average attendance last season was just 1,900.

This year it fell again to 1500-1600.

Fewer and fewer people come to watch the 120-pound giants hit the ball step by step.

The grueling nature of rugby most weeks has left some people cold.

The introduction of Super Rugby in 1996 brought the NPC into a second-tier competition.

This separation took some time. But by the time the Otago Highlanders became simply the Highlanders, some of the provincial tribalism that saw fans donning blue and gold face paint and expressing a healthy dose of Cantabrian hatred had mellowed.

Professionalism has pushed NPCs to the margins.

New Zealand Rugby hasn’t been helped by changing formats as often, and World Rugby’s regular changes in laws haven’t done much good.

What we ended up with was a game that was hard to understand and some confusing formats that didn’t make much sense.

The world has changed too. The weekend is ruined. People’s discretionary income has declined. And Sky has placed so many cameras around the ground that the view from your couch gets even better.

There is also a lot of rugby to watch – too much for people’s capacity. The most ardent fan gets days off in December and January. That’s it.

Their year starts with Super Rugby in February. Club rugby starts at the end of March. The NPC operates from the beginning of August to the end of October. There’s also the All Blacks’ northern tour to take care of any free time you might have had in November.

This is too much and some people choose to give up this NPC to free up some time for the rest of their lives.

But NPCs have bigger problems than losing interest.

It’s unclear where rugby’s competition currently stands.

The NPC is not a pipeline for future All Blacks like it used to be. Super Rugby schools and development programs are increasingly reaching this base.

The competition has a great history that will get some boomers through the turnstiles.

But history matters little in a world in which words like “sustainable” and “stakeholders” roll off the tongues of our administrators in Silver Lakes.

NZR has given us enough clues to understand where this might lead.

The current funding cycle ends at the conclusion of the 2025 season.

What happens after this is the subject of much debate.

NZR is now trying to resolve this issue and has ordered an inspection due to be carried out at the end of the month.

Steve Lancaster, general manager of community rugby New Zealand, will not go into detail while this work is ongoing. But he said the funding model needed tweaking, “not a complete revolution.”

How much fine-tuning occurs will depend on whether broadcast partner Sky still intends to provide full coverage.

Skye refused to be interviewed for our series. But we know that it counts every dollar spent.

After months of negotiations with Netball, New Zealand Sky has announced a one-year extension to its broadcast agreement for the sport. But – and it was a big but – the ANZ Premier League was reduced to two rounds in 2025.

Earlier this year New Zealand Herald said provincial unions had been warned NPC was unlikely to have a broadcast partner from 2026 and competition would have to be curtailed.

It would be more like a revolution than Lancaster talks about fine-tuning.

No NPC would be unthinkable. But the game cannot continue to roar in large empty stadiums.

Tomorrow: NZR key man and Otago boss give his thoughts; how players and coaches feel.

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