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fantastic news!
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...fight-to-tinkler/story-e6frexnr-1226010984983Why the Knights took the fight to Tinkler
- Phil Rothfield Sports Editor-at-large
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- February 24, 2011 12:00AM
NRL boss David Gallop has supported Newcastle's reluctance to sell the Knights to mining magnate Nathan Tinkler under the current terms. Gallop met with the club's CEO Steve Burraston and Knights lawyers this week to get an update on the negotiations that have split the Newcastle community and its army of rugby league supporters.
"It is perfectly reasonable to run a fine toothcomb over a proposal that would see ownership of a club passed over from the members to a private individual - that's a massive step," Gallop said.
"The Knights are loved by all Novocastrians and they are not on the brink of financial trouble. In fact, with the new grandstand and new television money coming up, the club's financial position will only improve in the years ahead.
"I have spoken to Burro in the last 24 hours. They are not opposed to private ownership but are within their rights to be looking for a deal that warrants such a massive change."Gallop's comments came on the day the fight for the Knights turned ugly when it was revealed Tinkler owed the Knights $42,000 for his corporate box at Energy Australia Stadium last year.
Tinkler fired back claiming he was, in fact, owed $457,000 by the club from a loan in 2008.
It was also confirmed the NRL was launching an investigation into Tinkler's phone call to Sharks forward Kade Snowden and whether the player had a legal commitment to the Sharks after verbally agreeing to terms.The prop has told the Sharks he was offered $2 million over five years.
The battle
No wonder Tinkler wants a slice of the action. The Knights are a profit-making business.
They've made a profit for the last two years, one of only three NRL clubs to do so, despite operating on game days with half a stadium and losing $1.7 million in revenue from demolishing and rebuilding the new stand.
Increased club grants from the NRL Independent Commission and the re-negotiation of television rights for 2013 stand to deliver a significant financial windfall for all NRL clubs and make the Knights an even more valuable asset with the potential of making millions a year.
On top of that, there is the likelihood of all clubs getting an extra $1.5 million a year from the sports gambling case of bookmakers being charged for using the game's intellectual property, as has happened in racing.
There is an argument that Tinkler has never actually made a $100 million offer. That it would only be $100 million sale if the Knights didn't have a single sponsor for the next 10 years.
They sold $7 million worth of sponsorship last year and have about the same this season on top of commitments for 2012 and 2013.
"If they've been getting $7 million from sponsors while the team has been struggling, imagine what they'll they become when they are a bit more competitive," said one insider. "In five years they could easily be getting $12 million a year.
"That means Tinkler owns the club but puts absolutely nothing in. Not a cent. Not a bad deal for him and much better than Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court got when they paid with their own cash and lots of it for Souths."
The control freak
COACHES, recruitment managers and chief executives are normally in charge of negotiating with and signing the players.
Not Tinkler. He rang State of Origin prop Kade Snowden himself last week and asked him not to sign with the Sharks because he wanted him in Newcastle.
No one at the Knights was even consulted. How did he know coach Rick Stone and recruitment guru Keith Onslow didn't want Dave Shillington or Tom Learoyd-Lahrs? Or even big Matthew Scott from the Cowboys?
The same with Jamal Idris. How does Tinkler know the coach didn't want Michael Jennings, Joel Reddy or Shaun Kenny-Dowall?
Racing interests
Tinkler has form in the thoroughbred industry.
Anthony Cummings was the first of several trainers he withdrew Patinack Farm-owned horses from. Others were Mick Price, Jason Coyle and Gabrielle Englebrecht.
Cummings and Tinkler are now locked in a court battle.
Andrew Johns
Knights legend Johns attacked the club's directors in yesterday's The Daily Telegraph. Johns left the coaching staff recently over a row about his payments.
"What the hell are they doing? We don't want Greg Bird playing for Gold Coast. We don't want Kade Snowden at Cronulla. We don't want Dane Tilse playing for Canberra," Johns said.
Tinkler's wallet wouldn't have saved any of them.
Bird left for Cronulla at the end of 2001.
It was the year the Knights won the premiership and spent all their money keeping their grand final heroes.
Kade Snowden joined Cronulla because coach Brian Smith didn't want him.
They had the money under the cap to keep him but wanted others instead, including Danny Wicks and Chris Houston from St George-Illawarra.
Dane Tilse ... he was sacked for jumping into bed with a female university student in a drunken incident in Bathurst in 2005.
Like the others, money had no bearing on him leaving.
The same applies to Roosters rookie Boyd Cordner, the teenager featured on the back page yesterday.
The Knights had plenty of money to keep him - but again, Brian Smith didn't want him.
Pressure tactics
Tinkler has a way of getting what he wants.
With the Knights it's a case of: take the offer or I'll get my highly-paid PR advisers to orchestrate a media campaign to throw you out of office.
Enter Tim Allerton, the managing director of City PR who handles the accounts of many of Sydney's biggest movers and shakers. He also handled Crowe and Holmes a Court's purchase of Souths.
He doesn't allow journalists who talk to Tinkler to grill him about the Knights offer. Interviews are done by email - or not at all.
Enter Richard Fisk, the veteran footy administrator and media man who has spent the last eight weeks leaking negative stories about the Knights to anyone who cares to take his phone calls.
Last night Newcastle directors were meeting to consider a new offer from Tinkler's lawyers. In the wake of this offer, another chapter in the dispute could be written as early as today.
http://www.theherald.com.au/news/lo...ating-table-with-clarified-offer/2085453.aspxTinkler returns to negotiating table with 'clarified' offer
BY BRETT KEEBLE AND ROBERT DILLON
24 Feb, 2011 04:00 AM
TALKS: Knights chief executive Steve Burraston yesterday.
Nathan Tinkler's bid to take over the Knights is back on the table after a dramatic day in which NIB chief executive and former club director Mark Fitzgibbon played peacemaker between the warring parties.
Tinkler Sports Group executive chairman Ken Edwards said a "clarified" version of Tinkler's 10-year, $100million proposal had been forwarded to Knights chief executive Steve Burraston and chairman Rob Tew last night for discussion at the club's monthly board meeting.
Fitzgibbon would not comment when contacted by the Newcastle Herald last night.
Edwards said the TSG approached Fitzgibbon to act as an intermediary because he was a former Knights director, a "very smart" businessman and was "passionate" about Newcastle's NRL side.
"I'm happy to confirm that in our view the deal was too important for Newcastle and the region to let it fall over. That's the first thing," Edwards said last night.
"Secondly, to try and get the parties talking together again we engaged the services of Mark Fitzgibbon, and he was able to do that.
"He was able to present a clarified offer to the Knights board and they've agreed to consider it."
Edwards hoped the revised deal would meet with the Knights' approval.
"We're not wasting our time. We wouldn't recommence negotiations with them if we didn't think we could satisfy or explain the issues that they had raised," he said.
Edwards said the clarifications were "reasonably straightforward" and the TSG would await a response from the Knights.
Speaking after the meeting last night, Tew said no agreement had been reached yet but "the parties are talking, we've considered a revised offer and we'll wait on the documentation".
Tew was confident of resolving their differences with TSG and reaching an agreement on the revised proposal by the weekend.
Speaking before last night'smeting, Burraston said: "Until we see what's in that offer, it would be premature for me to comment any further, but as I've always said, if the deal is right, we'd be happy to support it."
Burraston said any new offer would still be subject to scrutiny by the board and their legal counsel but, irrespective of the outcome of that process, the Herald understands Knights members will get to vote on Tinkler's third attempt to take control of the NRL club.
Since making an upgraded offer on January 17, Tinkler always maintained that bid was for 10 years and would guarantee the Knights up to $10million in annual sponsorship revenue.
After the Knights sought clarification on four issues - the definition of sponsorship revenue, members' buy-back rights, the guaranteed term of the deal, and junior development expenditure - an exasperated Tinkler withdrew his proposal on Monday and said he would not negotiate with the Knights under the management of Burraston and Tew.
It is understood the revised proposal will address the four main sticking points and will be structured in a simpler, more straightforward document.
More than 75% of Knights members would have to vote in favour of Tinkler's proposal to make the necessary changes to the club's constitution.
The multimillionaire mining and racing magnate already owns the Jets A-League soccer franchise and is determined to run a "Team Newcastle" sporting super club.
After Tinkler withdrew his offer on Monday, the Knights announced they would instead pursue a patrons' trust funding model, worth between $6million and $10million in the next four years.
One of the three patrons, Andrew Poole, explained on Tuesday that the money was a donation and not a loan that needed to be repaid. Exactly what impact the events of yesterday and last night will have on the proposed patrons' trust remains to be seen.
The Knights had planned to publish a full-page advertisement in the Herald today, outlining their reasons why they could not recommend Tinkler's offer.
But Burraston, having been instructed by the board, contacted the Herald at 6pm yesterday to withdraw that advertisement.
Earlier in the day, Burraston met with members of the supporters club, the Excalibur Club, the Carlson Club, the Knights Crusade and the Knights Nanas to brief them on the Tinkler issue and the Patrons' Trust.
It is understood the Knights will proceed with a members' information session scheduled for next Monday night to update members on the dramatic developments of the past four days.
Reading too much into it.
