The Awful Truth About The ARU's Financial Position

[Crashy]

Some good financial news afoot - well mainly for rugby in NSW.
That wonderful old establishment, 'The Rugby Club' in Sydney CBD has had a, wait for it.....$21 million dollar offer to sell the building to a developer.
The club plans to use the money to...
clear $1 million in debt
buy a new premises with better facilities and most importantly......
Create a foundation with the surplus $10 mil plus with income to be diverted to NSW grass roots rugby.
Members vote in Oct...

Conservatively at a 4% yield, thats $400k per year until the end of time that is being pumped into grass roots rugby.
Hail the foundation!

 

[TOCC]

Doing much better then the Queensland Rugby Club then... Club was placed in administration and then every framed jerseys was sold off to pay debts.

 

[Pfitzy]

clear $1 million in debt

Fuck you'd think it was just a matter of passing the hat around at the right functions?

buy a new premises with better facilities

Oh yeah? Where at? Better off getting a long-term lease, surely, writing it off, and investing more of their money elsewhere for a higher yield?

Fucking bravo on the foundation thing too. Long overdue.

 

[Crashy]

The answers to all your questions are on the attached. $21 mil is a serious amount of cash. Considering the mungos completely fucked up the sale of their licenced club in the Sydney CBD, I imagine this to be a significant milestone for NSW rugby in recent years.

http://www.rugbyclub.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RCL-Notice-of-General-Meeting-180814.pdf

 

[Redsfan]

They should buy/lease the old Hopetoun in Surry Hills. Just down the road from Moore Park, would be a perfect spot.

 

[Lindommer]

The Rugby Club (of which I'm a member) won't be moving too far from their current pozzy. Finding suitable future premises is going to be bloody difficult, though.

 

[TOCC]

The Rugby Club (of which I'm a member) won't be moving too far from their current pozzy. Finding suitable future premises is going to be bloody difficult, though.

I'd imagine it would be pretty silly to move away from your established customer base

 

[Quick Hands]

I'd imagine it would be pretty silly to move away from your established customer base

One of the problems is that most licenced clubs - especially those in the CBD, have a dwindling customer base. A lot of young people just don't go to clubs at all. Pubs having pokies killed the golden goose for the clubs.

When Manly sold our club a 15 or so years ago, invested $3.3 million and re-opened at the other end of Manly Oval, the trading losses ate into the invested money until the club closed and we now use the bowling club. We tried to stop trading, but enough members opposed it to stop that happening. As someone at the meeting said, it would be cheaper to home deliver a keg of beer a week to all the members than to keep the club open.

Having a licenced club sounds nice, but it can be a bottomless money pit unless everything is going your way.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

As someone at the meeting said, it would be cheaper to home deliver a keg of beer a week to all the members than to keep the club open.

What flavour? I may join.
Many city clubs get a lease back of one or more floors or some similar arrangement from the developer when they sell their real estate: I didn't have time to read the whole blurb but i gather that is not really being considered?

 

[Hugh Jarse]

The Randwick Rugby Club (Ltd) leased the bottom floor on their redeveloped premises. In what seems like a rinse and repeat of MMM Club (Ltd), they are now operating out of the Coogee Bowlo or the Legion Club - they seem to chop and change.

Similar stories around for many other small sporting and community clubs incl the Gordon Club (Ltd).

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Cannot see the B&I taking up the offer but onya Bill for putting it out there.......

"The Australian Rugby Union is attempting to lure the British and Irish Lions back Down Under for a money-spinning kick-off to their 2017 tour of New Zealand."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/10516270/Wallabies-seek-to-crash-NZs-Lions-party

 

[p.Tah]

If the next generation isn't interested in going to a current style club, perhaps find out what interests them and design a club to suit them. Wood panelling, beer stained carpets, crappy fixtures aren't that enticing.

If it's in the CBD perhaps build in decent meeting rooms to hire out and provide good catering. There aren't many great serviced meeting places in the north of the CBD.

 

[qwerty51]

Maybe the Lions don't want to go home winless?

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Maybe The Rugby Club should use the $21m to buy A Rugby Club.

The Tah's pay $1m to NSWRU for Grassroots (and pies and shiraz for the snouts) annually. Set up their new Clubrooms at Moore Park. Job done.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

The Randwick Rugby Club (Ltd) leased the bottom floor on their redeveloped premises. In what seems like a rinse and repeat of MMM Club (Ltd), they are now operating out of the Coogee Bowlo or the Legion Club - they seem to chop and change.

Similar stories around for many other small sporting and community clubs incl the Gordon Club (Ltd).

The city clubs have more of a chance of making this a goer though.
Norths is for sale or may even have been sold - so thats the 2nd time round that block for them: https://www.raywhite.com/first-time-offered-in-over-20-years-80-christie-street-st-leonards/

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Maybe the Lions don't want to go home winless?

That's harsh.

 

[Bardon]

Hope the Aus v B&I Lions game doesn't go ahead. Would make it less special and set a precedent where the Lions would play other teams out of cycle.

That thinking could open some interesting financial avenues for the Lions in the future. If they're not thinking of it currently it won't be too many years before the Lions Unions are thinking about how they can include full tours of the US or Asia. The Lions these days is a big money maker and they'll want to go where the money is as those markets grow.

One way to have that extra tour would be to combine Aus and NZ as one tour with one or two warm up games in Aus and 1 test against the Wobs before a full, albeit shortened, tour of NZ.

That's definitely not something I'd like to see either but Pulver should be careful about what he wishes for.

 

[Highlander35]

If they kept the 10 game format, the 3 Tests, the 5 Super Sides, the Maori and maybe playing Japan, or a Pacific BahBahs would be best.

Of course, if the $$$ are there for both, there may be nothing stopping another Aus/Lions test.

 

[qwerty51]

That's harsh.

How? 3-0 last series..

 

[Quick Hands]

What flavour? I may join.
Many city clubs get a lease back of one or more floors or some similar arrangement from the developer when they sell their real estate: I didn't have time to read the whole blurb but i gather that is not really being considered?

Manly churned through the $3.3 million in about 8-10 years. Unfortunately the history of licenced clubs selling up, investing money and re-opening isn't good.

It sounds fantastic in theory but the reality is something different.

In fact the history of licenced clubs over the past 15 years or so is of decline, closure and amalgamation. In that period the following clubs in one suburb have gone - Manly Rugby Club, Manly War Memorial Club, Manly Civic Club, Manly Bowling Club and Manly Fisherman's Club. Harbord Diggers and Manly Bowling Club are now part of the Mounties Group, so something resembling a club operates on their premises. All the others have been sold and are now apartments or in one case part of a private school.

I hope that the Rugby Club can make a go of it, it's just that history is against them. In fact, I reckon that they'd make more money investing their reserve, not reopening and putting on selected functions at hired premises than re-opening at any place, anywhere.