Black Sticks Women qualify for Pro League but may not compete in it, again

Despite securing a place in hockey's elite Pro League, it remains to be seen whether the Black Sticks women will actually get to compete against the best in the world.

The New Zealand women won the Nations Cup in Chile Monday morning by beating Ireland in a penalty shootout after the score was 1-1 at the end of regulation time.

It's the first time the Black Sticks women, who are ranked 10 in the world, have been crowned Nations Cup champions.

Hockey New Zealand (HNZ) acting chief executive Ken Maplesden said it was a terrific result.

"We're very proud of how the team's gone at the Nations Cup, they are a young team, with some experience in there as well so it's great to see them have a successful tournament," Maplesden said.

It means the Black Sticks have qualified for the prestigious FIH Pro League, which involves the best nine teams in the world, who compete in a round-robin tournament.

But HNZ is still to decide whether the team will take part in it.

"We will wait until the team are back in New Zealand and have the conversations around that as to whether we take up that opportunity to be part of the Pro League or not."

In 2023 the national body decided to withdraw the side from the Hockey Pro League (HPL), due in large part to the significant travel costs involved. HNZ also said the timing of Pro League events made it difficult to juggle while the side was also trying to qualify and prepare for the Olympics.

Early last year, the Black Sticks women failed to qualify for the 2024 Games in Paris, missing the Olympics for the first time in 28 years.

In June last year, the Black Sticks men had the opportunity to re-enter the men's Pro League after winning the Nations Cup, but four months later HNZ announced that the team would not take part in the 2024/25 season.

Maplesden said HNZ would have to weigh up the same pros and cons.

"It's a two-pronged decision, one is absolutely the financial challenges that the model of the Pro League has but also before Christmas we had a funding reduction from High Performance New Zealand so that's a challenge. The other consideration is whether it's the right fit for the programme. Competing in the Pro League really limits your opportunities to play other teams, we need to maximise all our hockey in the build-up to pinnacle events. Ultimately we want to see our teams do really well at World Cup and Olympic Games so it's about providing them with the best preparation within our means towards those goals."

Hockey was the big loser when High Performance Sport New Zealand announced its four year funding round in December.

Funding was slashed by almost $1.5 million after the Black Sticks women failed to qualify for last year's Olympics, while the men did not win a game in Paris. HNZ said the funding cut represented about 30 to 40 percent of their programme.

"[The funding cut] absolutely will add another level of challenge but once the team is back in New Zealand we will discuss with them and the coaching and management staff about what the priorities are and how we utilise the resources we've got to achieve the things that we want to."

With the next Pro league season starting later in the year HNZ has some time to mull over its decision but Maplesden said if money was no barrier the decision would be a lot easier.

"The Pro League provides great competition, particularly top level world class competition against European nations and if money was no barrier then we would probably take that up, however financial challenges exist across all sport and when you are in a country like ours, where travel is significant, you've always got to weigh up what the best priority is for the resources you've got."

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