ANZSLA brings its 35th annual sports law conference to Auckland's Pullman, 21-23 October

The 35th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association (ANZSLA) will be held in Auckland from Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 October 2026 at the Pullman Auckland Hotel & Apartments, on the corner of Waterloo Quadrant and Princes Street. The association's own event listing records a start of 5.00pm on Wednesday 21 October and a finish of 11.30pm on Friday 23 October, with the plenary programme running across the Thursday and Friday in the hotel's Princes Room. The organiser's site states that registration is open. The conference theme is Titiro Whakamuri, Kōkiri Whakamua — rendered by the organising committee as "Look Back, to Move Forward" — chosen, the committee writes in the conference brochure, to recognise ANZSLA's 35-year history and to examine how the lessons of the past can shape the future of sports law.

Who runs it

ANZSLA describes itself on its about page as "the premier not-for-profit sports law organisation in the Australasian region", formed in 1990, with a membership that takes in lawyers, administrators, academics, government representatives and students, and membership open to anyone with an interest in sport. The association is registered in Australia and administered from Byron Bay, New South Wales.

The association's published record of past conferences shows a continuous annual series since the inaugural 1991 conference in Melbourne, alternating around Australian capitals and periodically crossing the Tasman: Auckland in 1995 and 2006, Queenstown in 1998, 2011 and 2022, and Wellington in 2002 and 2016. On that record, 2026 is Auckland's third turn as host and the first ANZSLA conference in the city in twenty years, following Brisbane in 2025, Sydney in 2024 and Melbourne in 2023.

The brochure names the 2026 organising committee co-chairs as Neena Ullal, General Counsel at High Performance Sport New Zealand, and Tenille Burnside, Senior Associate at Gibson Sheat Lawyers. The wider committee is drawn heavily from the New Zealand sport sector, including legal counsel from New Zealand Rugby, the New Zealand Rugby Players Association, the New Zealand Olympic Committee, the Sport Integrity Commission, the Oceania Football Confederation and Auckland University of Technology, alongside Australian representation from the Foxtel Group. Professional conference organiser Conference Innovators is listed on the association's venue page as handling project management and registration.

Who it's for

The audience is the trans-Tasman sports law community: private practitioners, in-house counsel at national sporting organisations, integrity and governance staff, academics and students. The programme published in the conference brochure — current as at 18 June 2026 and stated to be subject to change — opens on Thursday 22 October with a pōwhiri by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei at 8.45am, followed by a conference opening from Raelene Castle ONZM, Chief Executive of Sport New Zealand.

Two international keynotes anchor the two days. The Hayden Opie Oration is delivered by Professor Simon Chadwick, Professor of AfroEurasian Sport at the University of Leeds, on the geopolitical economy of 21st century sport. On the Friday, Polly Handford — General Counsel of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation and, per the brochure, Director of Legal and Governance at the English Football Association from 2014 to 2024 — speaks on how sport confronts its past. Other sessions cover the annual sports law case update with Professor Jack Anderson of the University of Melbourne, athlete data governance and the commercialisation of athlete rights, breakaway leagues and competition expansion, publication and privacy in anti-doping sanctions with Paul David KC, wagering and social licence, women's sport, athlete health and wellbeing, and international labour standards applied to athletes with Conrad Smith of International Rugby Players. A substantial Friday morning block is devoted to tikanga and its application in law, led by Justice Whata, followed by an ethics debate on law versus lore in sports governance. Broadcaster and World Rugby Council member Taylah Johnson is conference MC. The ANZSLA AGM sits inside the programme at 5.00pm on the Thursday, and the brochure notes delegates may be able to claim CPD/CLE points subject to their professional body.

The venue

The brochure describes the Pullman Auckland Hotel & Apartments as a 321-room five-star property including premium residence apartments, with 16 meeting spaces, and states the conference will be held in the Princes Room, "bathed in natural daylight". The association's venue page refers to the same space as the Princes Ballroom.

On logistics, the venue page reports that a Wilson car park sits directly beneath the hotel with access from Waterloo Quadrant, operating on card and EFTPOS only, with a second Wilson facility on Anzac Avenue nearby. The brochure records Auckland's international and domestic airport as roughly 30km from the CBD. Delegate accommodation is listed at the Pullman itself and at Quest on Eden Apartments, both within the central city.

The social programme keeps delegates moving within a compact CBD footprint. The President's Welcome Reception runs 6.00pm to 9.00pm on Wednesday 21 October at the All Blacks Experience, Level 4, 88 Federal Street in the SkyCity precinct, incorporating a new ANZSLA Sports Cup. The conference dinner is held 7.00pm to 11.30pm on Thursday 22 October at The Maritime Room on Princes Wharf, Viaduct Harbour — both venues downhill and within the central city from the Pullman. Closing drinks are on the Pullman Terrace on the Friday afternoon. Optional pre- and post-conference activities listed include Waiheke Island wine and ziplining tours, a Sky Tower jump and Auckland Museum. The brochure advises delegates to expect average daily temperatures between 12 and 18 degrees Celsius.

Why it matters

ANZSLA's annual conference is the principal fixture in the Australasian sports law calendar, and its rotation means New Zealand only hosts it every four or five years. For Auckland, the 2026 edition is a multi-day, multi-venue association conference in late October — shoulder season for the city — that imports a substantial Australian delegation for three days, spreads across a CBD hotel, a Federal Street attraction and a waterfront dining venue, and generates pre- and post-conference leisure activity on Waiheke Island and around the central city. It also lands as a sector moment rather than a purely legal one: the committee list and speaker line-up put the general counsel of Sport New Zealand's high performance arm, New Zealand Rugby, the New Zealand Olympic Committee, the Sport Integrity Commission and the Oceania Football Confederation in the same room as their Australian counterparts, which makes it one of the denser gatherings of New Zealand sport administration leadership in the 2026 calendar.