Souths - "Pride of the League" Club Shut with Debt of $5.5m

[Beaussie]

Oh deary me. "Pride of the League" apparently.

South Sydney Leagues Club in administration
Date March 7, 2013 - 3:15PM

South Sydney Leagues Club, which shares the same building as the Rabbitohs football club, has called in corporate paramedics in the latest chapter of its protracted battle to stay afloat.

Almost a year to the day after Fairfax Media revealed that the leagues club was in financial difficulty, its board has appointed Adam Shepard from a Sydney insolvency firm as an administrator.

"It is a matter of trying to facilitate an arrangement with creditors to allow the company to go forward," he said.

"We still haven't ascertained the complete picture. They do own property – it is a matter of ascertaining what the assets are worth."

The club, also known as Souths on Chalmers, operates 60 pokie machine licences, restaurant and bar facilities. It also owns half of a floor of the four-storey building in Redfern.

South Sydney chief executive Liam Rogers said the club would continue to trade as it has done on a daily basis. "It's business as usual," he said.

The club is a different legal entity to the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Fairfax Media revealed last March that the club was in difficulty and owed more than $1 million to tradesmen for work completed on the refurbished Redfern premises.

Its chairman, Bill Alexiou-Hucker, said at the time he was trying to obtain funds to meet the overdue payments to contractors who worked on the fit-out of the club.

He said the club's day-to-day revenue was healthy but confirmed it was seeking an injection of funds to secure its finances.

Asked at the time if he was concerned about the club's finances, Mr Alexiou-Hucker said: "I wake up [at night] but also our CEO, Ken Stewart, he doesn't sleep. I go to bed every night with a knot in my stomach. I feel terrible."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/south-sy ... z2MqexEwGS

[Xman]

but Raiderdave tells us league clubs are rock solid income for NRL clubs....

[Stewie]

Once Crowe sells the club, that's it for them. Shut them down.

[Beaussie]

I've been in the club. Was there last month on a Friday night. 5 people in the entire joint (yes I'm serious). We left when we saw how pathetic the joint was.

Russell Crowe however appently spent millions on the redevelopment. He must be hurting financially now. Probably why he wants to sell the football club too.

No one cares about the place or the team and Souths can no longer rely on a big grant from their leagues club as is the norm for NRL clubs in this city.

[cos789]

Maybe the Swans should buy it.

[Beaussie]

Way to go Russell and Peter. Leagues club now dead and doors shut for good. "Pride of the League"

Promises come to nought as Souths Leagues shuts with debts of $5.5m

Paul Kent
The Daily Telegraph
March 26, 2013 12:00AM

THE South Sydney flyer was full of wonderful intent.

When Peter Holmes a Court and Russell Crowe made their bid to buy the building that housed South Sydney Leagues Club they issued a flyer promising to spend $3 million developing the new Leagues Club premises on level three.

They promised the football club would give the Leagues Club 100 per cent ownership of the top floor, worth $8 million.

They promised the struggling club would be debt free, with cash reserves of $4.5 million. They promised it would be operational within 18 months. Promised a Rabbitohs Hall of Fame.

And South Sydney fans, tired of never being competitive, bought it.

Yesterday afternoon, South Sydney Leagues Club called last drinks.

Instead of cash reserves of $4.5 million, as promised, the club has debts of more than $5.5 million and, after being in voluntary administration for three weeks, administrators called staff in yesterday to tell them they were jobless.

At 3.30pm, the Leagues Club that was once home to the Pride of the League closed its doors for the last time.

"Unfortunately, it's a sign of the times," Rabbitohs chief executive Shane Richardson said. Still shell-shocked, Leagues Club CEO Liam Rogers preferred not to comment.

Rogers was lured from his previous job to run the Leagues Club on January 14 and was given no clue as to its financial state until he started.

Now he is jobless, as are dozens of others.

The football club (75 per cent of which is owned by Crowe and Holmes a Court, the remaining 25 per cent by football club members) has distanced itself from the club's failings, pointing to the developer (and football club's equal partner) High Concept going into receivership last year.

In a statement from Leagues Club's lawyers, Gells Lawyers, on February 22, 2007, the Leagues Club was advised there was: "A guarantee from the football club of the developers' obligations under the deed."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6605802512