It's time to take the fight back to HBG
- Thread starter balmain boy
- Start date
Leck
Well-known member
Once upon a time, leagues clubs were run for their members, however these days they’re a tax break for the pokies and the over-inflated salaries of board members.
The Wests Tigers are the only club in the NRL with a debenture system.
The rot needs to stop.
mtd#2
Well-known member
Can you translate this for me
mtd#2
Well-known member
leagues clubs would go broke.. can't see it happening.
an old guy bragged about certain club luxuries he was getting ,as some sort of a quid pro rata , i will skip the middle bit - and it ended with him taking paper work back when it was known i want said paper work and his stories to be told on the - hbg thread, Then he laughed in my face saying he will not make his perks public
And that is everything wrong worh the stupid debenture system!!
Imagine if they invested some of that pokie revenue into, I dunno, assistants for Benji, talent scouts, rehab specialists. But, no, it's perks for the boys 🤮
Tom Shines
Well-known member
big employers … bit like when they had to backflip when they were going to get rid of Greyhound racing …
silly old bugger jumped in on a convo and started shooting off at the mouth knows where the skeletons are kept ,he's been dinning out on a few for decades , it was all at my fingertips ( some of it ) until he realized it wasn't him that's ego wasn't getting stroked , his son is the same ,they think its cool to spruike what they have ,when 2 millionaires dressed like hobbo's sit either side of them .LOL
Is this true though?
Richo himself said that HBG had always come to the party when he'd asked for help.
People have posted the financial input from keagues clubs to nrl teams, and Wests Tigers is the lowest by a huge amount.
TheEnz
Well-known member
Personally i think this paying overs stuff is not necessarily our problem, yes we probably pay a premium for players as we have been locked in the bottom 8 for years and have 3 consecutive wooden spoons. I think the bigger issue and real problem is we have not been able to get any value out of our juniors and catchment area for years. A club like ours should be able to spend 80% of our cap and still be consistently successful because we have local juniors coming through regularly and spending 3 - 4 years in first grade and maybe moving on for a bigger payday elsewhere. This is where the lack of investment the club makes in our juniors really hurts. I would love the see the stats of how many players across the NRL actually hail from our catchment area.
I also think the bigger issue in a salary cap is when you fund a player to go elsewhere, and we know that we have been doing that for a few players now and I'm hoping this is the last year. Covering $300k (guessing) of Batemans salary vs paying $100k over each to secure 3 quality players and I know what I would prefer to do.
Is the lack of funding coaches, etc, in the pathways system a reason we don't get that value from our juniors, and possibly why they go on to perform better at other clubs?
mtd#2
Well-known member
Lack of funding AND systems is my guess.
Its all good an well to have money, but everyone needs to be on the same page from the NRL through to Harrold Matthews.
There are too many "pages" at WT
tig_prmz
Well-known member
I think that's Richo's way of keeping them happy.
They make $100m a year, only $11m profit. Out of that $1.5m I assume comes to WT, Magpies etc.
They spend $1.2m in donations.
You need that 10% profit because they're spending apparently $50m in salaries. If they have a bad year the next year or so, they can't be spending all their money on WT.
Nearly 30% of their profits they're spending on things they won't see a return on (I.e. Donations/ Football department).
We can beg them to double their investment into WT but even that won't be enough. And why would they invest more when it's a one- way model and they don't get anything back from WT?
My opnion is:
- spend as much as you can in Pathways, create excellent systems, create excellent coaches, excellent physios, S&Cs etc.
- Make them as professional as you can from every rep team onwards and promote these staff from within
- Spend as little as you can on the NRL dept itself other than obviously the salary cap.
Maybe SM is already doing that. Maybe my opinion is flawed too and we might end up losing money if we aren't spending on the NRL.
But we have to do something drastic.
**Disclaimer: not an accountant, just reading the Annual report and trying to understand**
TheEnz
Well-known member
I am not across the details, just making assumptions based on the output and snippets I read about the junior system across the league and the number of players that I hear in interviews that hail from western Sydney and have been in the roosters, sharks etc.. systems from a very early age. Obviously we will not get them all, however we will lose the best ones if we dont have the talent scouts and systems in place to secure them....and that requires funding.
And hotels
tig_prmz
Well-known member
I know people hate HBG because they're owners and I get it.
But honestly, we have been in the NRL for 25+ years and are barely surviving with autonomy. HBG doesn't take money out of WT, they can literally be considered just a source of income/ sponsorship and that's it.
Even if they were to sell it, who would want to buy a Club that is barely making money. And what makes people confident the new owners will invest money into the Club? Actually, anyone who wants to buy the Club, first invest in it and show us you can spend money on it.
There is no sugar daddy, there's not big corporate facility that's going to save us. We are on our own and need to figure out a way to get this football department going properly.
I am from South West and it pains me that all these talented kids I see, all these families that spend10 hours a weekend going to 4 different games for their kids and they don't have the support they need.
But honestly, we have been in the NRL for 25+ years and are barely surviving with autonomy. HBG doesn't take money out of WT, they can literally be considered just a source of income/ sponsorship and that's it.
Even if they were to sell it, who would want to buy a Club that is barely making money. And what makes people confident the new owners will invest money into the Club? Actually, anyone who wants to buy the Club, first invest in it and show us you can spend money on it.
There is no sugar daddy, there's not big corporate facility that's going to save us. We are on our own and need to figure out a way to get this football department going properly.
I am from South West and it pains me that all these talented kids I see, all these families that spend10 hours a weekend going to 4 different games for their kids and they don't have the support they need.
Tom Shines
Well-known member
Don’t you recall Laundy saying he would buy the club 6 months ago ?
They wouldn’t have any troubles offloading the club … the NRL is investment gold currently
tig_prmz
Well-known member
I read that most NRL Clubs are making a profit now but remember the NRL grant is $30m. Are any of them making more than $30m?
Also, can they take money out of WT? HBGs charter says they can't.
