Meriton could drop major sponsorship
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Owner of Meriton, Harry Triguboff has spoken to ABC Business regarding his future as major sponsor of NRL club, Wests Tigers. He speaks about his future as major sponsor and the development of Balmain and Wests.
Video below of from ABC Business, recorded Wednesday August 28th.
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So essentially Harry would like Wests Tigers to find a new major sponsor that understands football better than he does and can devote more time to it. He’ll remain a sponsor if we cannot attract a new major sponsor, but he’s not happy about the current situation and would prefer to pull the pin if a new sponsor can be secured.
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Essentially he is peeved Balmain didn’t come to him in regard to the development.
Will always be a fall back option if their is nobody else but does not understand the business of football enough in his words.
Believe he is hinting at a major sponsor to come on board with a large cash injection and become a board player
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I know there are plenty of Harry baggers out there. But I don’t know of many blokes who are happy to simply hand over $500-800k a year simply to ‘Be there for the club’.
He did raise a good point - Why didnt balmain come to him re: the development. He even said ‘Not to buy it’ but that he could get the project through the planning process easier.
As it stands - the tigers sold their soul and now have a similar debt to what was in place prior to the land sale……
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@Ken Y:
I know there are plenty of Harry baggers out there. But I don’t know of many blokes who are happy to simply hand over $500-800k a year simply to ‘Be there for the club’.
How could there be any Harry baggers? Which Tigers fan would bag our only proper major backer who was there at our inception and has come back despite all our well publicized dramas? I do not believe there would be bagging as the only thing we would do is thank him for his support and hope to high hell that he continues it.
Seriously, the only people who could possibly bag him are other club’s fans who are insanely jealous of the money he puts up with the expectation of basically nil return. We are on a great wicket with Harry. Long may it continue. -
Major sponsors are not easy to come by,
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Something really stinks about the way our club is run. I don’t know how the board can sit back and look at they way they are running the show and say yes we are leading the club in the right direction with Wests Tigers best interests at heart. They need to be cleaned out and replaced with an independent body, who are keen on moving Wests Tigers forward as a brand and securing the clubs future, instead of dwelling on the past.
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Something really stinks about the way our club is run. I don’t know how the board can sit back and look at they way they are running the show and say yes we are leading the club in the right direction with Wests Tigers best interests at heart. They need to be cleaned out and replaced with an independent body, who are keen on moving Wests Tigers forward as a brand and securing the clubs future, instead of dwelling on the past.
In order to “clean out the board”, it is necessary to find “independent” directors, who are capable of coming up with the money, currently being supplied by the “people” supporting the current board members. Look even Harry would like to get out, if someone else would come up with the money.
IT AIN’T GOING TO HAPPEN IN A HURRY! Maybe you can supply a part of it. -
Well I reckon Harry can still have a chat if he wanted to to help the development through, I just assumed meriton was involved in it from the get go anyway.
What’s happening with it anyway? -
@smeghead:
Essentially he is peeved Balmain didn’t come to him in regard to the development.
A fair point IMO - you’d think if you’re success was dependent on getting a major property development up and running and your major sponsor was a property development company you’d possibly think of seeking his help. Who knows if they did though…
@smeghead:
Will always be a fall back option if their is nobody else but does not understand the business of football enough in his words.
And I think that has always been clear. People bag him out as a fairweather fan - I dunno maybe he is - but there’s really not much benefit for him dropping a lot of dough as the sponsor. It’s hardly helping him shift apartments. Plus I don’t see Meriton shifting other potential major sponsors out of the way.
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Well I reckon Harry can still have a chat if he wanted to to help the development through, I just assumed meriton was involved in it from the get go anyway.
What’s happening with it anyway?Never seen his or Meriton’s name attached to it. And good question - things have been pretty quiet lately which suggests either things being done behind the scenes or well I really don’t know…
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Well I reckon Harry can still have a chat if he wanted to to help the development through, I just assumed meriton was involved in it from the get go anyway.
What’s happening with it anyway?Never seen his or Meriton’s name attached to it. And good question - things have been pretty quiet lately which suggests either things being done behind the scenes or well I really don’t know…
As I said I just assumed when you have been with a major sponsor that’s in that industry for years both in the Balmain days and WT it sort of makes sense they would be in it together.
I hope your right that its bubbling along quietly behind the scenes but I doubt it. -
The Balmain Leagues club looked at one option and went with it. They did not open up to other bidders for the site, instead they chose to go with the Benny Elias led proposal. Last year there there was an article in the paper on the development process, Benny’s involvement and the fact that the club did not seek other options such as a Meriton partnership.
Harry is right to be annoyed. We are all annoyed. The process was another example of an inept board. Considering Eddie Obied’s (Corrupt politician) son (and prob senior) is mates with Di Girolamo (Balmain board) it is just not surprising that this is a massive dodgy mess. Remember these articles
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/how-benny-elias-put-the-bite-on-the-tigers-20120629-21822.html
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/obeid-helped-to-lobby-for-balmain-redevelopment-20130726-2qpuq.htmlIt is a credit to Harry that he has stuck with the club this long as a major sponsor with all the smelly mess that is the Obieds involvement with Di Girolamo and Benny Elias.
I believe the club will attract a major sponsor. The brand potential of a young and upcoming team of exciting players will suit the identities of some major businesses. Tigerair (now owned by virgin) is a perfect example. We have the largest website footprint. I can imagine a Tiger air corner of our website with airfare specials. Rugby League consumers are their target market, just as Rugby consumers are Qantas’s tart
The digital investments that the club has made over a couple of years will help us. We will find a major sponsor. Go the Tiges
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With Elias on the nose with the fans how many of us are pissed off when the Media go to Benny for a quote on whatever is going down with the Wests Tigers, Elias was a Balmain player from 20 years ago not a Wests Tigers player ever, he even sold his soul to Max Del Mege at Manly and is a ‘consultant’ to the ‘Perth Pirates’!.
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Fairfax Media playing catch up this morning…
Wests Tigers lurch from bad to worse in cash crisis
The crisis engulfing Wests Tigers has taken another turn with their major sponsor, the billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff, telling the club to look for another major backer.
The comments by the founder and managing director of Meriton come as details emerge of an $8 million rescue package put forward during a meeting between NRL chief executive Dave Smith and key officials from Western Suburbs and Balmain. That potential package was due to be discussed during a critical meeting of the Wests Tigers board on Thursday night.
Fairfax Media understands Smith has offered four repayable instalments of $2 million in exchange for a restructure of the club board. Smith is believed to be pushing the club to install a seven-member board, which would include two Balmain directors, two Wests directors and three NRL-appointed directors. The delegation - Wests Tigers and Wests Ashfield chairman Mike Bailey, Wests Tigers deputy chairman and Balmain director Nick Di Girolamo, Wests Ashfield chief executive Simon Cook and Balmain chairman Leslie Glen - met with Smith on Wednesday night.
The move comes after Fairfax Media last week revealed the Tigers needed an injection of $1 million to survive - funds the rich Wests Ashfield were not prepared to provide unless given full control of the joint venture’s board.
Triguboff’s remarks, on ABC’s The Business on Wednesday night, highlight how much the club’s boardroom problems could be affecting the joint venture.
Asked if he was happy with the way the club was progressing, Triguboff said: ‘‘No, I’m not happy at all. I’ve been with them for many years, and I believe that probably it’s better that somebody else becomes the major sponsor. I think that they need somebody that really will devote more time to it than I can.’’
Triguboff, the merger’s inaugural major sponsor, lamented the power struggles at the club, as well as the fact he was not asked for help while Balmain attempted to re-develop their Rozelle leagues club - which has left the Tigers side of the merger struggling financially. ‘‘I think I could have been of help to them when they were trying to develop their site in Balmain, but they never came to me,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s not that I wanted to buy it, but I thought I could be of help, because I think I could talk on their behalf to the council much better than what they could do. They didn’t use that help of mine. But that’s only part of the problem. The other problem is that the Tigers from Balmain have done badly, and the Tigers from the Western Suburbs have done very well. The balance of power has changed now towards the ones in the west.’’
He maintained he would not pull his financial investment out of the club unless the Tigers found a replacement.
‘‘They’ll definitely sort it out,’’ he said. ''We have young kids coming up which are very good, we have new management, so I hope everything will be OK. But I think that … I’ll always be there.‘‘If they can’t find anyone, I’m always there. But if they can find somebody who really understands football better than I do … I don’t understand much … I like it, I love it, I look at it. So if they can, they can. If not, I’m always there for them anyway.’’
Triguboff’s frank assessment came less than 24 hours before the club’s board meeting. Alongside financial decisions, directors were due to discuss a review of the coaching structure at the club.
What has become clear recently is that coach Mick Potter will almost certainly lead the club into the second year of his contract, despite board agitations to sack him earlier this month.
The board is understood to be focusing on the coaching staff around Potter, including the prospect of hiring current Melbourne assistant coach David Kidwell, who is moving back to Sydney.
‘‘I just want to get on with winning footy games - it’s a distraction I could do without,’’ Potter said, ahead of his side’s clash with South Sydney on Friday night.
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