Dragons' big grant goes up in smoke
Jacquelin Magnay | September 5, 2007
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/new...oes-up-in-smoke/2007/09/04/1188783239038.html
ONE of the richest outfits in the NRL, St George Illawarra, has had $2 million cut from its annual leagues club grant.
The Dragons' financial woes are the first of what is expected to be savage cuts to NRL franchises reliant on such grants, as leagues clubs groan under the combined weight of additional pokie taxes, which start this month, and reduced turnover from the smoking bans.
A meeting of NRL chief executives yesterday lobbied for no increase in the NRL salary cap.
"No chief executive wants to increase the cap, because the clubs can't afford it and the central administration can't afford it," St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust said.
The Dragons, who have total expenditure of about $12.7million, will have to cut costs across the board to make their forecast budget.
They will have to survive on a $2.5million grant, down from the $4.5million they received last financial year from the St George Leagues Club, and a small contribution from the Steelers Club in Wollongong.
Doust told the meeting of NRL chief executives yesterday that the pokie tax and smoking bans had hit the leagues club hard, resulting in the reduced contribution to rugby league.
It is estimated that the St George Leagues Club, for years known as the Taj Mahal, will pay an extra $6million a year under the new pokie tax laws.
The Bulldogs are expected to be hit hard, too, with their leagues club, Canterbury, facing an extra $11million a year in increased pokie tax.
Parramatta chief executive Denis Fitzgerald said his football club was also in the firing line.
ClubsNSW chief executive David Costello said the 12 NRL-affiliated leagues clubs provided NRL football teams with more than $44million in funding this year, as well as $15million at the junior level, and collectively were facing an increased tax bill of $280million over the next few years.
As well as St George Illawarra, the Bulldogs, Wests Tigers, Manly and Canberra are just some of the other NRL teams whose leagues clubs have reduced their grants recently.
Doust said the Dragons would field only two teams next season - the first-grade outfit and the new national under-20 side - and had declined to enter a team in premier league.
The club is looking at its commitments to junior football, particularly fielding two teams in the representative areas of St George and Illawarra.
"We need to be more cost-effective about the grassroots activities," Doust said.
