just wow
and this is really only the tip of the ice berg as I have explained on many occasions. this article here says they started their property buying 2 years ago, it started about 7 years ago in fact when they snapped up 10 licensed clubs across NSW & QLD adding to several they already had... & they have been buying & buying ever since.
when this inner city development is complete in about 3 years or so , well jeez louise they will be the rolling in coin like no other sporting organisation in this country.
theres talk they may be in such a strong financial position in the coming years to become part owners of the new rectangle indoor stadium to be built with the Govt with an option of buying it out over time , imagine the Raiders being the Brumbies Landlords
the Football club board oversees it all but they just let the Raiders group management team who report to the football board .... to just keep doing what they are doing ... the bank balance just keeps going up ... & up , the asset wealth the same.
eleven years ago there was talk of liquidation , folding .. we had nothing
we were pennyless .. we could barely pay our players ... we couldn't afford to spend up to the cap which was only about 3 million back then , so we had an average roster as thats all we could afford & we were going around in circles
wow
how things have changed , the Raiders are now the model for everyone off the field , well done raiders , well done. =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>
THE AFL has a future fund and the Rugby League Commission plans one, seeking $200 million in savings over the life of the new broadcasting contract.
Clubs are in a different position, with some depending on next year's season-ticket sales to meet this year's cost overruns.
The Raiders may be near the bottom of the NRL premiership ladder and the Rabbitohs at the top, but the asset base of the two clubs offers stark contrasts.
Two years ago, the Raiders bought a couple of commercial properties in Brisbane - a 10-storey office block in the city, and a smaller one at Milton. In July 2011, they added a Bunnings property at Seven Hills in Sydney to their portfolio of investments.
The Raiders' next big project will be a mixed-use development on a site at Braddon in the ACT.
A development application has been lodged to build 161 apartments, with about 2200 square metres of retail space, and 3000 square metres of commercial space. It's an $80 million development.
The Raiders' investments yield $3.3 million a year in income and expect it to reach $8 million within five years.
This approximates what the Bulldogs receive from their licensed-club grant to meet the difference between what the football club spends and what they receive from the NRL, gate takings and sponsorship. While the Bulldogs and many Sydney clubs rely on poker machines, the Raiders are diversifying to more traditional forms of investment, with a good long-term income stream.
The Rabbitohs don't have a licensed club to subsidise them.
Souths on Chalmers closed its doors and is in administration, owing $5.65 million, comprising $2.6 million to a private lender (who has security over the half-floor premises) and $2 million to the Castellorizian Club (which has security over the business), $400,000 to a former director and $600,000 to tradesmen who worked on the development.
The assets that were present when the Rabbitohs were down the bottom of the ladder under the presidency of George Piggins have disappeared. The $15 million-plus in real estate when the club was privatised has been sold.
High Concept Commercial Pty Ltd, the joint venture developing the four-level building and 198-space car park, went into administration last year, unable to pay its bills.
Its guarantor is the football club, which has been served with a demand for $1.1 million and a yet-to-be-determined sum for loss of trading at the leagues club.
Souths under Piggins were described by the administrator as ''asset rich, cash poor''.
They are now ''asset poor, cash rich'', that is, cash rich by the standards of most NRL clubs. Their gate takings, membership income, merchandising sales and sponsorship income, in total, would be surpassed only by the Broncos. Considering the Broncos are a one-city club, while Souths must compete with eight other Sydney clubs, the Rabbitohs administration is entitled to boast it is as good at raising revenue as its team is scoring points.
But with no assets, they must rely on a successful football team to generate revenue and the charity of owners Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court.
And now, with the Rabbitohs served with demands from the now closed leagues club, it faces a reversal of the traditional income flow where a leagues club funds a football club.
Of the sale of a community-owned leagues club to buy a privately owned football team, Piggins says: ''I could have done that.''
Canberra is showing the way to an ''asset rich, cash rich'' future.
Raiders' Group general manager Simon Hawkins says, ''One of the selling points we have when recruiting players is explaining to them about the financial strength of our group and the stability of our corporate structure. We have around 660 employees across ACT, NSW and Queensland, and all of these people either work for the Raiders and rugby league, or for one of the companies which support rugby league.
''There are still people here who were also around in the early '90s, when things weren't so rosy [Raiders players were forced to take a salary cut]. This corporate memory allows us to focus on making investment decisions that are good for the long term. We're all passionate about our footy, but there is a team of us here who concentrate on ensuring we have the finances to continue supporting it.''
Raiders fans would probably like to swap positions on the premiership ladder with the Rabbitohs but Canberra's management would not swap asset bases
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... z2PolDqoO5
