There's enough money in football in this country to run a professional team, in terms of sponsors and club funders. But it's tenuous in many ways, and spread out across certain clubs.
I had a guy from a club say last year that if a certain business got in trouble, or the owner suddenly kicked the bucket, the funding that kept their first team going would cease.
Meanwhile TKU and BO are absolutely throwing money at players to get back into the Premier Div, while other clubs are scraping around for money (Waiheke putting videos up asking for financial help).
It's all a bit rotten tbh, the constant search for funding absolutely wrecks your enjoyment of the whole thing.