I thought I'd get this off the ground. Poissible Newcastle Knights takeover by Tinkler.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 19y36.html

The above provides a good summary of the ownership structure of the 16 clubs.

I think the Knights' members will approve this. They've been financially strained for their entire existence. Like Illawarra, there were difficulties starting imposing a new team on the city where the existing RL financial model was based the suburban clubs having their own share of the pie and not wanting to give it up for the city club. When Newcastle tried to open a Leagues club they failed big time. This will be good for them.

Rumours about the Steelers fielding a team in the NSW Cup. Very, very unlikely but boy that'd be great.

The phrase "[Tinkler] has a warchest of $610 million" is misleading. That implies he has that amount of money lying around in a bank account available to spend on things. Absolutely not true. Like all extremely wealthy people, most of the 'wealth' sits as non-cash assets like shares, property, etc. Which is why proposed private ownership situations are not always as good as them seem - the general public see articles like that and think that the megabucks owner is a bottomless well of cash that they're prepared to shell out on the club indefinitely. All it takes is the value of their assets to plummet and suddenly the rivers of gold dry up.

I'm not saying the Knights shouldn't take this option, but they should be very careful and do their due diligence on the short and long-term realities of the proposed deal. The media are pushing it as a 'you'd be mad not to' offer. That is almost certainly simplistic and it is up to the Knights board to do their homework. Hopefully it will work out to the benefit of all - it would be great to see a financially strong Newcastle playing to big crowds at the redeveloped stadium over the next few years.

I think that's misleading on the part of the media. The guts of the deal for Newcastle is up to $10m for ten years in sponsorship from Tinkler. I think what that means is that he will top up whatever they bring in sponsorship to a figure of $10m, so the contribution may only be half that. Still a great deal. WHen you factor in TV money ($4.5m or more with the TV deal) and gate receipts (say $3m which I think is conservative) that would give Newcastle a turnover of $17.5m plus which would probably be damn better than what they're on now.

NRL memberships are on target to increase in 2011

http://www.nrl.com/news/news/newsarticle/tabid/10874/newsid/61136/clubs-enjoying-strong-membership-sales/default.aspx

Interesting. I wonder when each of the respective clubs put memberships on sale? For example, can Cronulla's poor sales to date be put down to the fact that they've only just gone on sale? Or have they been on sale for a while and as per everything that Cronulla does it's just not very good...

I did laugh at Tinkler's comment that he wants it to become a 'community club'. They're already a community club, he wants to take over and run things his way. If it wasn't about his ego, he'd just get a seat on the board and contribute the dollars regardless.

But as long as he stays wealthy, then the club will probably be better off. If his finances go arse up (or he simply gets disinterested), then the club will suffer first. *cough* brisbane bullets *cough*

Cronulla's poor sales means more and more people are waking up to themselves.

Except for Saints, which is wrong.

WIN do not own a stake of the joint venture or either of the joint venturers.

what's the go with these mining magnates being the size of the chicago bears offensive line?

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 19vds.html

a far more happy article

.

Origin Legends game sells 20,000 tickets in a day-and-a-half to raise money for the floods. Good work people but personally, watching blokes way past it put on an exhibition of rugby league ranks pretty low on the entertainment chart.

Watching blokes way past it put on an exhibition of cricket ranks pretty highly. Paul Vautin's catch for example.

the one also known as fatty's faaarkin caatch?

As a South Australian, My first exposure to rugby league was: "pearce off jack, Gibbs on"
Don't tell me to piss off you ....":)


anyone know what happened to Graheemi Lebrooy?

geez you're f*cked in the head sometimes Max!

This should become the 12th man thread.

Rubbish binny was the next to go.....he was actually left out of the side last night, but no-one collected him and it was announced this morning hat rubbish binny would in fact play. But a fucken lot of good he was out for just 3 runs.....

Fucken rain! f**k you! That's right, run for cover you little bastards we're thrashing the pants off you! It's not over yet! We're going to OOOOOOOOF <sound of bill getting whacked>

Ilivmatief... Inajarbesidethabad.