If you had to take pokie money out of the picture (whether as a purely theoretical exercise or for real) then you are talking about an amateur competition. End of. There is absolutely no evidence to support any other possible conclusion. The crowd numbers, the interest, the sponsorship, the philanthropy etc are simply not there to support semi-professionalism, let alone professionalism.
Which is not to say we can't still have a good national league that supports a number of different possible agendas. But let's be realistic about how we do that.
You have access to the books of Glenfield R, Waitak, ACFC, Rapa, East Subs, Olympic, Lower Hutt, West Springs, Mangere Utd. etc. tx?