pussycat wrote:adamj1300 wrote:number 1 brand in aus
riddled with debt.
12k members
a crowd average of 10979k in 2013
and 11708k in 2014 so far
any one have the crowd figure from the game? they crowd numbers don't get published to often now days
? It has about about $150m . Almost double what your wealthiest club has Adum!
number 1 brand in aus.
the penrith poke group
THE days of the "superclub" are over - with the Panthers Group preparing to sell off some of its clubs to rid itself of $80 million debt and return to its core business of football.
Falling drink and food revenues, poker machine tax, smoking bans and the cost of servicing its debts have been blamed for the perilous financial position of the Panthers Group, also known as Penrith Rugby League Club Ltd.
Under a plan aimed at reducing the debt burden, the board laid the groundwork at its AGM on Thursday to sell off some assets by declaring 12 clubs in the group as "not core property".
The strategy is being driven by the group's chief executive officer, Warren Wilson, who told The Sunday Telegraph he wanted to refocus management back on rugby league and the football community.
The plan involves keeping the Panthers club at Penrith while reviewing the other 12.
Mr Wilson, formally appointed to the top job earlier this month, said the past practice of amalgamating clubs across the state was over and no longer financially viable. The board would consider each of the clubs to determine which ones would be de-amalgamated, he said.
"Limits on amalgamations, the pokies tax, changes to outdoor smoking, the GFC, rising interest rates -- the business conditions have been challenging and, quite simply, the board wants to go back to basics," Mr Wilson said.
"The reason the Penrith Rugby League Club exists is because of rugby league. That's what it was set up for and that's what we are going back to. A few years ago the centre of the wheel was to become this big business but somewhere we lost touch with the community and created a divide between the club and the football club."
Mr Wilson said he would be working with the Penrith Rugby League Football Club as part of the new strategy. The Panthers annual report posted last week said the key reason behind the proposed sale of assets was a $63 million loan that Panthers has to repay by June next year. The loan was part of a deal Panthers had entered with ING in 2007.
A new deal with the Torchlight Group gave Panthers an 18-month extension.
The Panthers Group has also posted losses of $61 million over the past eight years, including $9.5 million last year.
The report said the forecast profitability over the next few years was not enough for all of its debt to be retired.
"The board has concluded whilst the business is asset rich, (it) cannot generate sufficient free cash required to operate the group at its optimum."
Phil Gould reveals how his great mate James Packer helped save the Penrith Panthers
The pathway out of it involved selling off four of the licensed clubs the group owned, even if some had been turning a profit. "We had no choice," Wilson says.
Critically, it also came down to Packer providing a deposit on the debt. How much? Gould describes it as "millions of dollars".
"There is no getting away from the fact that the enormous assistance given to us by James Packer was crucial in our survival," he says. "He didn't have to do that, but we're deeply indebted to him. It's a great show of friendship that he and I share."
Just as the Panthers Group had to sell off its assets to survive, so did the football club in its bid to be competitive.
The financial pressures on one side of Mulgoa Road were felt on the other at Centrebet Stadium, where the football department was unloved and under-resourced.
"Mulgoa Rd may as well have been the Grand Canyon," Wilson says.
That wasn't half of it.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6598539653
so still having millions of debt, they still needed old packer to spend his millions, to bail them out,
they are nothing but a debt ridden shit show, with the only revenue being pokes & gaming clubs.
me while
the penrith panthers the rl club is worthless
12k members
10k crowd average