New Zealand Rugby have decided to postpone their final call on the controversial $300 million Silver Lake deal until after their annual general meeting later this month.
Following reports in New Zealand media, NZR put out a statement on Wednesday saying they have delayed the motion for approval of the Project Future investment proposal with the US investment firm until after the April 28 meeting in Wellington.
CEO Mark Robinson said in the statement the decision was made after a request for more information from the 26 Provincial Unions involved in the deal.
“Discussions have been progressing positively with our members since they were presented with the PWC report last month, but they have asked for more time to discuss some key areas of the overall deal structure and we understand that request," Robinson said.
"We want to ensure members have all the details before ultimately seeking their approval.
“We are hopeful this delay will not be a long one, and that we can facilitate a Special General Meeting in coming weeks to finalise the Project Future investment proposal and move forward with our intended plans.
"As we have said before, we want to get this right and to do that we are willing to afford our members as much time as possible to be comfortable with our proposal, given its significance and importance to rugby.”
Under the $300 million deal, Silver Lake will invest $200m into the game with another $100m set to come from co-investment with New Zealand-based institutions.
1News understands the top 14 provincial unions get around $1 million each straight away, with some of that filtering down to clubs.
Top-level professional players fare well in the deal as well, receiving 36.5 per cent of all revenue coming into the game as part of their collective bargaining agreement.
Once all investment has been made, Silver Lake will own up to 8.58 per cent of the commercial entity that will house all NZR's revenue-generating assets.
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