Christchurch is rebuilding an entire city, and Dunedin's flagship professional sports organisation is effectively bankrupt.
What better time to suggest the South be asked to help sustain a National Rugby League club?
New Zealand Rugby League head Jim Doyle has reignited the debate about the possibility of the Warriors being joined by a second New Zealand club in an expanded NRL.
When the issue has been raised in the past, it has always been assumed Wellington would be the base for a second team.
But Doyle's comments to the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday indicate he is looking at the South Island.
"Obviously, with the issues that have happened around Christchurch, they are looking to rebuild the city and rebuild the stadium there - and that would be good timing," Doyle said.
"There is a huge amount of interest in rugby league down in that area, so if you have got a team based in the South Island that played a good amount of their games in Christchurch and maybe some in Dunedin ... it would be something we are certainly looking at."
With the Warriors and Kiwis both having recent success, rugby league was booming, Doyle said.
"We are starting to build much more momentum with growing the game across here," he told the Herald.
"We have more than doubled our numbers in the last two years of people playing the game, we have got significant growth in viewership and there is no doubt that when expansion takes place there will be a proposal for a second NRL side here."
Sceptics would counter Doyle's enthusiasm by pointing to Christchurch's long battle to recover from the earthquakes, and the dire financial straits of the Otago rugby union.
They might wonder how an NRL club could possibly be sustained in Christchurch-Dunedin, both financially - NRL clubs pay an average of about $5 million in wages alone - and in terms of crowd support.
The NRL, or at least the new Australian Rugby League Commission, is reportedly considering adding two teams to the league.
Confirmed bids have been received from Perth (two), which hosted the Western Reds during the Super League years, Brisbane, Ipswich, the Central Coast, Central Queensland and Papua New Guinea.
Wellington still appears to be keen. In 2004, the Orcas group was one of three bids considered for expansion, with the Gold Coast Titans getting the nod.
Late last year, Wellington Rugby League general manager Jason Hemson told the Sydney Morning Herald the city was still ideally placed to join the competition.
"For a country having so many players now in the NRL, we're screaming out for a second team here," Hemson said.
He said the Orcas would play seven or eight home games in Wellington but spread others around various cities, including Dunedin.
"To really capture the market, we've got to be smarter than just basing ourselves in Wellington."
