Knights to be sold by Dec

[Nuffy]

Robert Dillon is reporting in the Newcastle Herald today that the club could be sold by Dec.

Seems the NRL is still talking up the valuation, seems the club is worth tens of millions. Who knew.................

Also amazingly, on field performance has no impact on valuation, tell that to Dick Smith shareholders.

Hopefully this is right and we can get away from the NRL and forge our own future.

 

[Silent Knight]

I'd buy that for a dollar.

 

[Medievalknight]

I'd buy that for a dollar.

fifty cents

 

[perverse]

 

[slotmachine]

Who is going to sped $10-$20million to lose $1m+ a year, every year, in perpetuity?.

 

[Silent Knight]

Who is going to sped $10-$20million to lose $1m+ a year, every year, in perpetuity?.

Maybe they can offer the buyer some incentives. Like, I don't know, if you order the Newcastle Knights NRL club right now we'll throw in a free Matt Gidley. And if you're one of the first 30 callers through we'll include a Michael Hagan at no extra charge.

Actually, now that I think about it we don't really have any real incentives do we? Never mind.

 

[slotmachine]

It's weird. The club has zero assets other than it's IP and a few steedens, barely made money when the best rugby league player ever was in town and has come last 2 years running.

 

[perverse]

Yeah, well if you're trying to sell something - you don't tell everyone who will listen that it's a busted piece of shit, do you?

Additionally, I would presume the new owner would come in with a bit of a mandate to stop us leaking $1million a year. Hopefully they can start by putting a competitive team on the field, so more punters are willing to part with their hard-earned.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

I still dont understand the point of flogging the club off to the highest bidder, watching them tear apart all of the stuctures that have been built since Tinks left and having the ARLC potentially buy back another smoking ruin in 2 years...

The point of a private owner isnt to put their own money into the club, they are meant to attract sponsors with their business skills.

So rather than flogging us off to the highest bidder, why not sell each seat for a more modest price to allow the ARLC some discretion in getting the "most qualified" rather than just "the richest".

Selling that way would give us a few different groups in charge for a balance of power and it would let the ARLC hold onto a few seats for Independent Directors

 

[Hawkins]

I feel bad for Trent Hodkinson

 

[perverse]

lol, Hodkinson is lord of the nuffies. He fits right in here.

 

[Jono078]

Some positive news for once and no one gives a f**k. That's the saddest part in all of this.

I hope this eventuates. We need someone to take us to the top and compete with the top NRL clubs.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

No one cares because we have no interest in the club anymore and it's hard to believe any sort of good news until it actually happens and also works out.

Until we are owned by someone and are reaping the benefits on and off the field there is nothing to be excited about.

 

[slotmachine]

Hopefully some Chinese billionaire comes out of the woodwork. Take one home game a year to Shaghai.

Selling us off to a bloke who's worth 30 or 40 mil isn't going to change anything. They can't afford to lose a million in a year, so we'd be behind where we are now with the NRL covering the losses.

 

[Noname36]

I'm not sure how I feel about being owned by anyone that was stupid enough to buy us...

 

[Knight76]

My concern is this sold by end of year bit. I thought the NRL was giving us time to work through our current situation and become competitive again prior to selling.

Seems the timeline has been shortened and I fear this indicates we won't get the right buyer. Wests buying us would be the ideal outcome I think, but they have said they are not interested. Who was that billionaire from the UK (I think) that was interested but we seemed to ignore the interest?

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

My concern is this sold by end of year bit. I thought the NRL was giving us time to work through our current situation and become competitive again prior to selling.

Seems the timeline has been shortened and I fear this indicates we won't get the right buyer. Wests buying us would be the ideal outcome I think, but they have said they are not interested. Who was that billionaire from the UK (I think) that was interested but we seemed to ignore the interest?

You talking about Marwan Koukash? No thanks. He bought Salford, not long later they were found to have breached the salary cap by some ridiculous amount. He is just Tinkler Mk2 and a rugby league team is just a toy.

 

[Knight76]

This from a 04/08 article in the herald.

"
He said the NRL’s priority was not necessarily to secure the largest up-front fee but install a new owner, or owners, with the “wherewithal’’ to guarantee Newcastle’s future.

“We’ve always said that the NRL is not a long-term owner of the Knights,’’ he said.

“The sale, when it occurs, has to be good for the club, good for the community and good for the game.’’"

It will be interesting to see who is selected as the buyer, which meets the above criteria!

And yeah no thanks, we don't need anything like another tinkler.

 

[Haffa]

What are the NRL going to do with the money they get from the Buyer?

 

[Knight76]

Good question. The right thing to do would be to give it all to Newcastle, hahaha.

The members club holds a 20% stake in the club still. So will they retain the 20% stake or is the club 100% being sold. If 100% the members club would have to get 20% of the sale price. The rest who knows.

The NRL has no doubt spent some cash keeping the Knights afloat so will want to recoup those expenses.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...financial-future/story-fni3fbgz-1226948749451

"The business assets of the old club have been transferred to a new entity, called Knights Rugby League Pty Ltd in which the Members Club will take a minority 20 per cent interest."