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In 2005, Peter Holmes a Court and Russell Crowe took over the South Sydney district football club from the people.
The club did not have enough money to be competitive but they had enough to survive, and also had had strong links with the senior leagues club, which had millions in assets. This is what made the football club an attractive proposition for these junior corporate raiders.
Since privatisiation, the club has run up a debt in the millions, while selling the leagues club’s 10 residential units in Chalmers Street Redfern, a 198-car parking station, and 80 percent of a building that had been valued up to $14 million. For what?
One eighth place, and a couple of seasons narrowly missing the eight.
Have we become the Glasgow Rangers of the NRL?
We hear the stories of Cronulla and the Titans but nothing of the Rabbitohs. Is this because News Limited is one of our major sponsors now? Who would have thought we would ever have got into bed with that organisation?
Our website is now outsourced to Bigpond as we do not want to pay the associated costs.
The owners refuse to foot the bill for the players’ reunion each year due to cost. The money from ANZ stadium runs out soon, and then we have to play there for five years and bear any costs if the stadium loses money holding our games. I do not know how we are going to make money if crowds of 12,000 are all we can count on.
Everything is available through the club’s financial reports to members, but not one person seems to care anymore.
The six-year anniversary is up and what will the owners do? Can they afford to keep that one promise of paying $1 and putting us back into the same financial position, even though the Souths “family” has sold 20 to 30 million dollars in assets to appease our owners and keep them from paying out cash?
Our owners this year had to agree for their “loans” to the football club to be extended as they could not be met. Loans? Did the owners not agree to put in the money?
I hope all goes well and we start to get those big crowds needed. I hope that a thousand people a day walk through the leagues club, that we win matches, that sponsors and memberships grow.
But what happens if it all comes to a head?
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