Eels’ new home to save them from dud ANZ Stadium deal
Parramatta Eels chairman Max Donnelly. Picture: Brett Costello
Parramatta Eels chairman Max Donnelly has pleaded with the club’s fans to look at “the big picture” while admitting the club is stuck in a shocking deal with ANZ Stadium.
Donnelly has also revealed the Eels will lose $5 million this year, taking their total losses over the past three years since the club’s salary cap scandal was exposed to $27m.
But the experienced administrator said a sound financial plan and the pending return to Parramatta Stadium would transform the club. He issued a direct message to fans to take a long-term outlook for 2019 and beyond, rather than their poor on-field performance this year that has seen the club languishing at the bottom of the NRL table.
In a wide-ranging interview with
The Australian, Donnelly told Eels fans: “You’ve got a financially sound owner who funds you, a brand new stadium that will have the best game day experience in rugby league, and room to move in the salary cap.
“Parramatta fans have to look at the big picture. I agree the performance this year is unsatisfactory — no doubt. We should be making the semis eight out of 10 years. But they also need to know the long term future should be pretty rosy.”
The latest loss is a hangover from deals negotiated by the Eels’ previous board and senior management, who were sacked in the wake of the revelations of the salary cap scandal.
One deal saw a contract negotiated between the sacked previous board of the Eels and ANZ Stadium, on highly unfavourable terms for the club.
Donnelly said this contract meant the club loses money every time it plays a home match at the Olympic stadium.
“We have an unsatisfactory arrangement with ANZ Stadium, because we don’t make any money from playing our games, plus we’ve inherited some residuals from the salary cap scandal. It’s a shocking arrangement at ANZ,” Donnelly said.
The Eels have already begun negotiations to ensure they have a better deal when they return to Parramatta next year. The new state-of-the-art Parramatta Stadium — located next door to Parramatta Leagues Club — will likely open for the Easter NRL round in 2019.
Donnelly is confident of securing a profitable leasing deal at the new stadium.
The Parramatta chairman has also revealed there is a significant silver lining for the club in last week’s retirement of former State of Origin and Test forward Beau Scott. “It gives us a lot of room in the salary cap.”
He also said that the club’s $5m loss, while large, was half of what Eels NRL club lost in 2017, and $7m lower than the $12m the club lost in 2016, which was a record loss for any club in the history of the NRL.
Donnelly has attributed much of the improvement to the fact the club have been able to shake off their scandals and attract big sponsorships.
“We’ve got increased sponsorships and proper management. Now we’ve got to improve the football performance,” he said.
The club is understood to be currently on the verge of hiring an external firm to take charge of a review into the club’s player culture, in conjunction with CEO Bernie Gurr and two Eels board members.
The six-week review comes amid suggestions the Eels are already shopping around star playmaker Corey Norman to other clubs a year before his contract is due to expire at the end of 2019, amid a series of off-field incidents.
But Donnelly has denied the club has come to a conclusion either way about its player culture.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...l/news-story/91b120ed749731c84bfcccdb3d12f720
