He has also put a lot of sticky notes up on the wall and, after four months in the role, the 30-year-old has a much better understanding of the challenges ahead.
‘‘I've been quite careful to spend my first few months just listening and watching,'' Wright said.
And it has been productive. While there are some obstacles to overcome, Wright feels the organisation is in good heart.
Football South's winter football leagues have enjoyed an impressive increase in registrations.
Junior registrations have grown from 2100 in 2010 to 3500 in 2015.
Youth registrations are up from 970 to 2230 during the same time period and the senior ranks have swollen from 1670 to 2500 during those five years.
‘‘The Whole of Football plan from New Zealand Football [NZF] has given us quite a good guideline for growing the game, especially at the grassroots level,'' Wright said.
‘‘Another thing would be just nationally the game has got more traction and naturally people are wanting to play more. And having more staff on the ground and helping clubs develop recruitment strategies and things like that has helped.
‘‘A lot of clubs are doing a great job of getting more players.''
Football South's financial situation is reasonably positive, as well, and the organisation is on track to deliver a small surplus this financial period. He has inherited a good position. But the club scene is not as rosy.
The city's premier club, Caversham, faces an uncertain future. While the club continues to win just about everything it can on the field, it has struggled to stay afloat financially.
It fell behind with its bills in 2014 and was forced to take out a $10,000 personal loan or risk of being expelled from the league. Its financial situation remains a challenge and the club has considered moving away from its base at Tonga Park to help reduce expenses.
Caversham president Steve Fleming has been critical of how much the club forks over in affiliation fees and has questioned what Football South does with the money.
It is a question Wright has heard repeated a lot since he assumed the role.
‘‘That is probably one of the biggest challenges we will face over the next few years. How do we build sustainable clubs? I don't know the answer to that yet.
‘‘But if the clubs can't run, then our grassroots strategy is really being harmed.
‘‘There is an affiliation review happening this year with NZF and we need to look at our own portion of that and basically the split between what NZF take and what our take is and what we do with it,'' he acknowledged.
‘‘Before my time, there was a three-year plan to increase affiliation fees which has had an impact and has allowed us to continue to exist amongst increased costs everywhere else.''
Southern United is also in the financial doldrums and urgently needs cash and sponsorship to stay afloat.
The affiliation fees are spent on the staff who organise the competitions and resources needed to run the competitions. But Wright said he would ‘‘be doing some work to provide some transparency with regards to that in the coming months''.
Getting ‘‘a handle'' on the financial landscape of the sport in the region and developing a budget had consumed a lot of his time.
The other significant challenge was finding a way to ‘‘get alignment between the different parts of the federation'', when Football South has the ‘‘largest geographical area but has the smallest population in comparison to the other federations''.
Wright's working background is in business. He was a member of the senior leadership team at leading Dunedin technology firm ADInstruments.
He is married to Colette and the couple have two children - Evie (5) and Marla (3).
● The women's competition will shift from Sunday to Saturday this season, following requests from the teams. A women's seven-a-side competition will be staged on Sundays instead and will be open to players 25 years or older.
Football South
Winter football programme
Junior registrations
2010: 3500
Youth registrations
2010: 2230
Senior registrations
2010: 2500
NB: Registrations for 2016 have not closed.
