Moana Pasifika team in a huddle after the Super Rugby Pacific – Round 12 match between Moana Pasifika v Blues held at North Harbour Stadium, Auckland – New Zealand – on Saturday 02 May 2026.
Photo credit: Brett Phibbs / www.photosport.nz
Photo: Photosport
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) says Kanaloa Consortium is not the only interested party in taking over the Moana Pasifika licence.
A NZR spokesperson told RNZ Pacific “there is more than one party working hard on a long-term future for Moana Pasifika”, without divulging any further information.
Responding to questions sent to them, the NZR spokesperson said the national union is open to all bids.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for NZR to confirm who has submitted proposals or is an interested party,” the NZR spokesperson said in an email response on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Kanaloa, a consortium backed by a number of former All Blacks with Pasifika heritage, has until close of business today, Friday 15 May, to submit its proposal.
Kanaloa’s CEO Tracy Atiga said they are aware of other interested parties, but are working on their proposal.
She said they have also been able to have discussions with both the Pasifika Medical Association (PMA) – current owners of Moana Pasifika – and NZR, and she is confident their bid will get a fair hearing.
Atiga said there has been good traction to the discussions.
“We’ve had some really good discussions and we are positive. We’re just slowly going through that process with them now.”
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Last month, PMA announced it was closing down Moana Pasifika because of financial challenges. Kanaloa came to the fore and announced it had earlier sent in a proposal to buy the franchise in 2025 but never heard back from PMA.
Kanaloa was involved with the initial bid to set up a Super Rugby Pacific team in 2020, but was not successful, after Atiga claimed last-minute changes saw Moana Pasifika Trust given the licence instead, to join the Fijian Drua as the two Pacific Islands representative sides in the revamped competition.
Atiga claims the Kanaloa consortium has the business model, the experience and the funding to get Moana Pasifika back on track financially, moving forward.
“We’re really excited now that they understand that there [are] definitely funds available and ready to go,” she said, adding that the misunderstanding about their financial status was something Kanaloa had discussed with the stakeholders involved.
“That’s been the turning point for us and we are positive.”
NZR is expected to announce details of a successful bidder for the Moana Pasifika license in the next few weeks, if that does come through.
If no bidder is able to convince the union and its stakeholders, then Super Rugby will have to revise the competition in 2027, with the possibility of it being reduced to a 10-team competition, just four years after its re-jigging back in 2022.
