Travel costs are high, our population base is low, pay for our athletes must walk the tightrope between the cost of retaining talent and the cost of living.
As a result, nearly all codes aim for sustainability over profit.
In the face of these challenges, you see various models deployed.
In women’s sport, the Wellington Phoenix and New Zealand Warriors are the sole professional New Zealand teams playing in Australian leagues.
With this model, there’s one anchor for aspiring athletes and the local audience to tether themselves to.
All feeders to these sides are amateur and so you do get more of our talent playing across the competition.
This isn’t the worst-case scenario for our New Zealand coaches. At least they are comparing their prospects’ abilities within the same league.
Alternatively, you look at rugby union who balance their books by running the incredibly short Super Rugby Aupiki season with one less team than their male counterparts.
Limiting the player roster and the length of their competition keeps their costs as low as possible while attempting to grow their product.
Expansion will come only when the financial equation, driven by audience, broadcast and sponsorship, starts to add up.
Lastly, you could let go of a little more control and welcome a commercial partnership in every sense of that word.
The Tauihi basketball league has been carried by the agreement between Basketball New Zealand and Sky since its inception.
Not just broadcast rights holders but commercial and management too.
This contract is part of the reason why the league shifted from a winter to spring tip-off in the third season, filling a gap in domestic programming and the league’s coffers.
There are several alternate realities facing Netball New Zealand as they decide their domestic fate.
Their hesitancy no doubt fuelled by the last big move, the split from the Australians, having put them on the path that led them here.
That uncertainty, though, is accelerating their issues.
Money likes confidence, money likes winners.
The Silver Ferns won in Glasgow and the ANZ Premiership won with audience numbers. But the gloom permeating from the boardroom is the rain on any victory parade.
The confetti has been swept away, the medals hung above the mantel and our netballers are out looking for work.
With domestic contracts on hold at three franchises, players are no longer jumping through hoops to play overseas, but being encouraged to take any offer.
Likely then that our Commonwealth Games winners will soon depart to secure their livelihoods.
Without these stars on show, the value of the product is lessened, further digging the financial hole Netball New Zealand find themselves in.
Rather than wait for the perfect choice to appear then, it may be a case of simply making one.
Sponsorship and broadcast deals cannot be signed, talent cannot be retained and fans cannot be engaged in this vacuum.
The joy in Glasgow was made all the sweeter because of the struggle.
No one was under any illusions that things are easy, but despite everything our netballers came out on top.
Netball New Zealand needs to make the play and have the same faith as their athletes, that it will all come good in the end.
Sports columnist Alice Soper is a former provincial rugby player and current club coach, she has a particular interest in telling stories of the emerging world of women’s sports.