Balmain saved from brink of extinction with new leagues club to come

The big thing for West’s Ashfield, will they be able to develope a successful leagues club in Rozell. The demographics of the area have well and truely changed since they last had their doors open and they will not have droves of people heading to the gaming room like in Ashfield.
They are very smart operators at Ashfield so I guess they will have a business plan in place for Rozell….just hope it’s a winner
 
Hello from sunny, hot Rio!
Just caught up to the news …. v proud of West’s Magpies side of the venture demonstrating solidarity and long term commitment to the partnership.
It’s the right thing and great way to pay back the debt raised when Balmain ignored Parramatta joint venture overtures to support us all those years back ..... when the Magpies were almost dead and buried.
This just adds to solid foundations to what is becoming the impressive rebuild of two foundation clubs into what could become an strong, financially secure and geographically well supported powerhouse.
 
The important thing here is that it seems like the JV partners are obviously committed to this club, now the fans ought to be as well.
 
Should have known it wasn't going to be so simple

![Screenshot_20190322-082616_Facebook|627x500](upload://1gTR8ok1PINc4wp64NhBztUkEY7.jpeg)
 
I'm sure I've read this same article, with the same quotes from Byrne at least 5 times since this whole debacle started.

Good on Wests Ashfield for stepping in, as others have said I hope that this proves to be a strong business decision, rather than an act of sympathy or sentiment.

If the new club does get up and running, Benny Elias should receive a life ban immediately for the mess he created.
 
I would like to think a successful outfit like WA would have done their due diligence. They are a business at the end of the day and I am sure the outcome will be beneficial for them also.

Just as an aside, Alien must be in the foetal position somewhere haha…
 
I remember when people were so paranoid, believing WA were bringing the Magpies back and were trying to wash away Balmain. Well you got that wrong.

Can only be good for us. Never really got sucked into the conspiracies about the NRL wanting to move us, so this kills off all that annoying paranoia too. 2 birds with one stone.
 
To be fair there was only a few chicken littles parroting that who had no idea about licencing arrangements with the NRL.
 
Awesome news! Great acknowledgement from Wests A that it is the JV that is important. Tradition will live on with this decision - which is very welcome from 'oldies' like me.
The Wests Tigers will be one of the powerhouse teams of the NRL within the decade.
 
@Cultured_Bogan said:
To be fair there was only a few chicken littles parroting that who had no idea about licencing arrangements with the NRL.

lol..this has not gone down so well with the lunatic fringe on the Magpie fanatics page..
 
Maybe is all I'd say, potentially this is a major piece of last minute PR for the ALP from Mayor Darcy attempting to throw some light on his state government colleagues in a Green-ALP swing seat

Anyone know much about Heworth Holdings Group, seems to be Chinese-Malay backed via Mulpha in terms of funding and founded by Gary He and Syco Peng? Seems they acquired the site for $75m from someone not sure who and it is potentially owned by a subsidiary company Grand Rozelle P/L which is the usual way for developers to protect themselves

Darcy seems to have previously mentioned that a number of 6-8 story apartment blocks were already approved but the artists impressions of these look like 10-12 stories so I'd imagine upgrading an approval to the bigger size isn't straight forward being over 50% bigger (50% more people, cars, traffic, etc). Seems like we've been here before

Not to mention the threat of compulsory acquisition

Hats off to Wests Leagues for their "commitment" but seems there's still a lot of water to go under this (Iron Cove) bridge
 
Great to see Wests take on the loan.
As usual Darcy Byrne makes it all about himself … and the timing superb with a rider to tell you to vote Labor lol
 
It is great news, but still a long way to go…

And the danger is for WA, if they try and do the same thing they do in Ashfield, it won't work. If they pour too much money into this site and it's not working that it could impact their all around profitability and ability to fund other areas of the JV.

But i'm sure they wouldn't make this deal without a solid business plan in mind. That being said they still don't know when the club could be built, still several years away, nor how much floorspace they'll have to work with in order to determine what kind of facilities they want to have. So it's hard to develop a plan when you don't know how much space you're working with!

But a great step forward. Next step, stop this stupid tunnel idea and get going on construction.
 
Darcy must be taking the piss, has anyone forgotten that Balmain Leagues was originally vacated due to Labor Govt plans for the 2008 Metro, which was then canned 2 years later at a cost of $500M? I'm no Liberal man but Labor created the whole issue for Balmain in the first place.

I'm not a big fan of building new roads, but Labor's sole strategy this election appears to be the cancellation of projects - they have a good history of cancelling things. I'm anti toll-road but I'm pro stadiums; however Labor has no clear strategy for transport this election, instead focusing on pretty small issues like not fixing stadiums.

Luke Foley announced he would cancel 3 planned tollroads and replace with public transport initiatives, then he fondled a lady and this "strategy" hasn't developed since.

So if Rozelle becomes a pit for a few years whilst they build a road, is it really that big a deal? It's been a pit for 10 years already.

Sometimes you just need to leave a govt in place for a few terms so they can see their projects through, esp. large infrastructure. Credit to the Libs where due, the only off-target large-scale infrastructure project so far has been the Randwick LR, which was as much to do with planning error by vendors (regarding underground utilities in the CBD) than specific government oversight. NW Metro is on target, as is WestConnex.
 
A bit too articulate and factually correct for my liking.This is a forum where people say dumb things. Try writing for the SMH.
 
Well,I like you remember those days well. What I'm impressed by, is that Wests Ashfield remember it as well. Whilst being a Balmain Boy,I am very very grateful for the support now reciprocated by Ashfield. Like other have said, its Wests Tigers. Nothing else, but one club.
 
I just hope that West Ashfield don’t expand too much and put themselves in financial trouble.
This happened to The Panthers Group years ago, when they took over Bathurst. Port Macquarie and a lot of other clubs and put them into dire financial problems.
Just curious are West Ashfield and the Wests at Campbelltown the same operation?
 

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