Sydney Kings owner lashes Dragons

[muzby]

The most sensible way to work together is to have St George as the NRL team and Illawarra Stealers as the Junior Development and feeder club.

Why?

There’s been one constant across every screw up over the past 21 years and it’s not Illawarra..

This latest article reinforces it..

 

[Dragonsamy]

There's never been any doubt that Danny Robinson is a huge huge reason for the club's predicament

Grouch you nailed it absolutely

 

[possm]

Grouch you nailed it absolutely

Could you please expand on this for me?

 

[BLM01]

Could you please expand on this for me?

I'll do it for you Possm

"Grouch you really nailed it this time relative to the topic....absolutely"

 

[muzby]

Could you please expand on this for me?

The comment grouch made summed up the situation completely.

His insight shone a spotlight on exactly where the root cause can be found.

He was able to say in one sentence what many others failed to say in multiple paragraphs.

 

[Warabrook saint]

He wouldn't have to butt heads with Win because he'd own one half and St George Leagues the other......and yes he would have had trouble dealing with St George Leagues. The whole place is a cow paddock. South Sydney got rid of their burden and are doing great now

 

[Saints Forever]

It seems Mr Smith is confused

Illawarra sold its stake in the JV to WIN

Illawarra essentially transferred its interest in the JV for debt it had accumulated to WIN.

St George Leagues Club and the NRL had no ability to veto the Illawarra sale to WIN as long as the JV debt to the NRL was extinguished.

Illawarra’s decision was predicated upon the basis that it had a long standing relationship with WIN and that WIN was perceived by Illawarra as it proxy or protector of the Illawarra stake in the JV.

Hence as much as I agree that the St George Leagues Club board is complacent and incompetent, the choice of JV partner going forward was made by Illawarra

Sour grapes Smithy, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[getsmarty]

ON THIS DAY


NRL.com's On This Day: Steelers get green light
Author
NRL.com
Timestamp
Fri 13 Dec 2019, 06:00 AM


1980
Illawarra become the 13th team to be included in the 1982 premiership through a vote of the NSWRL general committee. A team representing Canberra are named the 14th team early in 1981.



This article contains information from the official records of NRL historian David Middleton.



https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2019/12/13/nrl.coms-on-this-day-steelers-get-green-light/

 

[getsmarty]

It seems Mr Smith is confused

Illawarra sold its stake in the JV to WIN

Illawarra essentially transferred its interest in the JV for debt it had accumulated to WIN.

St George Leagues Club and the NRL had no ability to veto the Illawarra sale to WIN as long as the JV debt to the NRL was extinguished.

Illawarra’s decision was predicated upon the basis that it had a long standing relationship with WIN and that WIN was perceived by Illawarra as it proxy or protector of the Illawarra stake in the JV.

Hence as much as I agree that the St George Leagues Club board is complacent and incompetent, the choice of JV partner going forward was made by Illawarra

Sour grapes Smithy, nothing more, nothing less.

I doubt it Re sour grapes....Loves the club...has the knowledge and contacts in sport...Yep..would have been a Poor choice LOL...

How are our 3rd party deals going ?...Sponsorships etc....add to this appointments of certain people who allegedly have friends on the Board...Yep no problems...we are only heading in one direction...

Put a broom through the whole place....

 

[RufusRex]

How are the kings doing?

The article says things about both sides ..

Firstly the choice made by the Illawarra side to sell to Gordons over TSE. That is pathetic for so many reasons - the most obvious being that Gordon Jr was in there with a massive conflict of interest.

The secondly was that TSE recognise that as part owner he would have been butting heads with the St George side of things and called them out basically as a big old boys club ...

There is plenty of mismanagement and blame to share around here ...

 

[possm]

It seems Mr Smith is confused

Illawarra sold its stake in the JV to WIN

Illawarra essentially transferred its interest in the JV for debt it had accumulated to WIN.

St George Leagues Club and the NRL had no ability to veto the Illawarra sale to WIN as long as the JV debt to the NRL was extinguished.

Illawarra’s decision was predicated upon the basis that it had a long standing relationship with WIN and that WIN was perceived by Illawarra as it proxy or protector of the Illawarra stake in the JV.

Hence as much as I agree that the St George Leagues Club board is complacent and incompetent, the choice of JV partner going forward was made by Illawarra

Sour grapes Smithy, nothing more, nothing less.

All now spilt milk. Let sell the St George Leagues Club shares to Smith on the condition that both WIN and Smith each allocate 10% of their shares to St George Football Club.

 

[muzby]

All now spilt milk. Let sell the St George Leagues Club shares to Smith on the condition that both WIN and Smith each allocate 10% of their shares to St George Football Club.

So St George get a financial kick from the sale of their shares, then get an automatic 20% equity stake in the JV for nothing?

Are you one of the old boys?

 

[Willow]

Interesting how he calls out St George as the problem in the JV....

I wouldn't fly that flag just yet. It was JV in name only when the 50% came up for sale. Remember... Illawarra Steelers became financially unviable in the JV and from that perspective they were a dead weight. This forced a situation where a new JV partner needed to be brought in. So let's not speculate too much as who was the "problem in the JV."

St George Leagues Club were essentially the vendor in these negotiations. So who else is Paul Smith going to take a swipe at?

I agree that St George LC has a certain culture that can only be resolved by a revolution at board level. I've been calling for that for ages but the fan base we have now isn't the same that we had in the mid-1990s when SOS were around and later when R2K were in full flight. Hopefully that will change and more supporters will take up the 5 year full membership of the Leagues Club so we can get some votes together.

But back to the point,... With the 50% sell out, it comes down to who they want to work with, and WIN got the gig over TSE. Smith is suggesting that he would have shaken the place up, and maybe that was too much for the old regime. Just guessing.

But again, he was never going to take a swipe at the defunct Illawarra Steelers LC stakeholders, no point it having a go at non-combatants. And he certainly wasn't to take a swipe at his corporate neighbours in WIN Corp, that would be seen as sour grapes.

I might also add that we don't know the full context of this interview. The author of the article says Smith had to be 'cornered' and was previously silent the matter.

 

[Willow]

It seems Mr Smith is confused

Illawarra sold its stake in the JV to WIN

Illawarra essentially transferred its interest in the JV for debt it had accumulated to WIN.

St George Leagues Club and the NRL had no ability to veto the Illawarra sale to WIN as long as the JV debt to the NRL was extinguished.

Illawarra’s decision was predicated upon the basis that it had a long standing relationship with WIN and that WIN was perceived by Illawarra as it proxy or protector of the Illawarra stake in the JV.

Hence as much as I agree that the St George Leagues Club board is complacent and incompetent, the choice of JV partner going forward was made by Illawarra

Sour grapes Smithy, nothing more, nothing less.

Well said.

 

[SaintPauli]

I wish TSE won the bid, however, it would have been good if the article expanded on what TSE had planned for taking the club forward. I agree they would have butted heads, however, the comments from TSE do come across like “sour grapes” because they were not successful. A more detailed article would have been great.

Agreed it would have gone a long way to "Drain The Swamp" I dare to still dream!

 

[SaintPauli]

The most sensible way to work together is to have St George as the NRL team and Illawarra Stealers as the Junior Development and feeder club. I don't have a problem with the SGI name remaining.

If that process re-installs our history in which we can add onto, e.g. 16 Premieships, I am all in Possm.

 

[SaintPauli]

I wouldn't fly that flag just yet. It was JV in name only when the 50% came up for sale. Remember... Illawarra Steelers became financially unviable in the JV and from that perspective they were a dead weight. This forced a situation where a new JV partner needed to be brought in. So let's not speculate too much as who was the "problem in the JV."

St George Leagues Club were essentially the vendor in these negotiations. So who else is Paul Smith going to take a swipe at?

I agree that St George LC has a certain culture that can only be resolved by a revolution at board level. I've been calling for that for ages but the fan base we have now isn't the same that we had in the mid-1990s when SOS were around and later when R2K were in full flight. Hopefully that will change and more supporters will take up the 5 year full membership of the Leagues Club so we can get some votes together.

But back to the point,... With the 50% sell out, it comes down to who they want to work with, and WIN got the gig over TSE. Smith is suggesting that he would have shaken the place up, and maybe that was too much for the old regime. Just guessing.

But again, he was never going to take a swipe at the defunct Illawarra Steelers LC stakeholders, no point it having a go at non-combatants. And he certainly wasn't to take a swipe at his corporate neighbours in WIN Corp, that would be seen as sour grapes.

I might also add that we don't know the full context of this interview. The author of the article says Smith had to be 'cornered' and was previously silent the matter.

Well said Willow. I agree you are pretty darn close to the mark.

 

[possm]

So St George get a financial kick from the sale of their shares, then get an automatic 20% equity stake in the JV for nothing?

Are you one of the old boys?

The St George brand name is worth much more than 20%.

 

[muzby]

I wouldn't fly that flag just yet. It was JV in name only when the 50% came up for sale. Remember... Illawarra Steelers became financially unviable in the JV and from that perspective they were a dead weight. This forced a situation where a new JV partner needed to be brought in. So let's not speculate too much as who was the "problem in the JV."

St George Leagues Club were essentially the vendor in these negotiations. So who else is Paul Smith going to take a swipe at?

I agree that St George LC has a certain culture that can only be resolved by a revolution at board level. I've been calling for that for ages but the fan base we have now isn't the same that we had in the mid-1990s when SOS were around and later when R2K were in full flight. Hopefully that will change and more supporters will take up the 5 year full membership of the Leagues Club so we can get some votes together.

But back to the point,... With the 50% sell out, it comes down to who they want to work with, and WIN got the gig over TSE. Smith is suggesting that he would have shaken the place up, and maybe that was too much for the old regime. Just guessing.

But again, he was never going to take a swipe at the defunct Illawarra Steelers LC stakeholders, no point it having a go at non-combatants. And he certainly wasn't to take a swipe at his corporate neighbours in WIN Corp, that would be seen as sour grapes.

I might also add that we don't know the full context of this interview. The author of the article says Smith had to be 'cornered' and was previously silent the matter.

Don’t spoil my fun...

 

[Dragonslayer]

Sour grapes, or a true reflection on how our club us run, or is it a mixture of both?
Would this even be a 'headline' if we had been competing for the premiership in 2019? Maybe not.
If the heirachy we 'all-in' on finding the best comfort fit rather than the $$$, then this may have backfired miserably. Being comfortable in a position is different than being in a comfortable position. The former is the notional ideology of our BOD.
The idea was further exemplified by the kick down effect with the appointment of BJ and the final insult of extending McGregor. All was meant to enforce the kick down kiss up theory.
Would the TSE management change things? Probably, and it may have provided the spark that turned the comfortable into actual action.
We may never know.