'Tax gouging puts our game at risk' - Gould

[Copa]

Strange how other sports seem to get by without pokies.

which sports??

AFL clubs in Victoria bring in millions from poker machines... lots of local soccer clubs are connected to clubs with poker machines etc..

Some teams get by without poker machines... but hardly any sports.


Re: Phil Gould... hopeless management puts our game at risk

 

[Winston Smith]

What this tax does is highlight what a poor business model rugby league has. Gate receipts and broadcast rights are insufficient to enable the sport to operate sustainably at its current cost structure. This has long been the case. Most teams have long relied on a generous club or a corporate donor to keep them going. This is not something sudden, it has been the case, even when I first started following footy in the 70s. There has been a lot of time to come up with better, and sustainable business models but 30 years of club and league administrations have failed to do this.

For league to be sustainable it needs either to generate better revenues from TV and radio, or other sources of revenue, or cut costs, which means player salaries mainly.

 

[gottabegood]

I can't claim to know the ins & outs of the timing of this, but you can't just gouge their life blood in a short time frame and expect business as usual. Whether it was pokie money or not, they were lawfully and understandably weighted there income on something very popular that was raining money. The clubs should have (may have been??) been given plenty of time to find their feet, considering there was a double blow with the ciggies, & the other points Gould raises.
Same thing say with loggers, you can't just say that's it, stop (or minimize) chopping, were gunna save the trees, disregarding a community were logging has fed the family for generations.

 

[Perth Red]

which sports??

3 of the 4 pro sports teams in Perth made healthy profits without pokies last year. It can be done if you have decent management at club level. The money given to the WAFL from the two AFL franchise was millions of $'s which the WAFL uses for jnr development. With well run profitable clubs the ARL will have plenty of $'s to develop the game.

TBH it seems the Pokie clubs have only themselves to blame. They have for years made vast profits whilst only a limited % of it has gone back to the community.

I think we will see some short term pain that will eventually lead to RL being in a much stronger position, standing on its own two feet in years to come.

 

[taipan]

The clubs have for decades relied on leagues club grants (result of poker machine profits) to pay players and support juniors.They can't anymore,regardless of which govt being in power.
With the huge sums they were making in the early years,why did not more of them invest in their own home ground with decent facilites,instead of council owned grounds.
Because they naively thought the pot of gold would continue ad infinitum.They had little opposition from other codes,so they thought the game would just sell itself.
Admittedly the SL war didn't help,as the ARL had conservatively $15-20m in the bank prior to the wham bam.
Each club in order to not only survive but thrive, is to get of its backside and promote,sell memberships and get involved if need be property developments,or privatise itself such as Manly and Sth Sydney.The alternative is death,relocation or amalgamation neither a pleasant thought.

 

[eastsrule]

Pokies are the stain on society.

Whilst this is just revenue gaining by the idiotic Iemma government, I don't think anyone can justify having pokies being so reliant upon for revenue.

People go on to say that clubs help the community. So do charities. Pokies ruin far more lives than what they help.

Professional teams throughout the world gain money from 3 sources: merchandise, broadcasting and gate revenue. The first thing league needs to do is to get distribute more to the teams from broadcasting revenue and then secondly increase attendance. Both of those will increase merchandise sales.

 

[butchmcdick]

I know this sounds far fetched, but could there be a chance the AFL have bribed the NSW govnmt into bringing in this pokie tax to destroy League? Just an idea.

Yes they did and they also conspired to have cocaine put in wendall sailor's drinks to give union a black eye as well as slipping johns a few E's whilst he was in the UK.

Boy that AFL. If only they hadn't told howard that saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

 

[butchmcdick]

which sports??

AFL clubs in Victoria bring in millions from poker machines... lots of local soccer clubs are connected to clubs with poker machines etc..

Some teams get by without poker machines... but hardly any sports.


Re: Phil Gould... hopeless management puts our game at risk

I don't see pokies doing much for rugby union or cricket.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

I know this sounds far fetched, but could there be a chance the AFL have bribed the NSW govnmt into bringing in this pokie tax to destroy League? Just an idea.

They might pay news organisations for coverage but bribing state governments is another thing altogether. AFL clubs have their own pokie farms anyway, it's not like this law will only be affecting rugby league.

 

[eastsrule]

Does anybody think that they should reduce the salary cap?

Some clubs can afford it, others can't. But the fact is if you can't you have to try and spend as close to it as possible to be competitive when signing players.

If the game can't afford to cover the costs at a grassroots level at the expense of paying the top flight players, then shouldn't costs associated with the most expenditure be cut?

Just remember, Rugby League has no divine right not to be affected by the other impacts of being in a business market. Including competition, regulation and trends. It looks like the other sports are handling it a bit better.

I guess it is a two-fold argument in that it is the top players that are responsible for most of the revenue.

 

[Hanscholo]

Cry me a f**king river. Yet another paid advertisement for the NSW cliubs assoc. I stand by the fact that poker machines have done a hell of a lot worse in this country than they have done good. The fact that NSW is actually trying to do something to reduce club dependancy on them and reduce their effect is imo a great thing. Poker Machines are designed to be addictive, they are also programmed to win, if its possible for something to be evil these things have to be as close to it as possible. I walk into my local RSL and i am confronted with 300 poker machinesa all with someone on them that should probably be doing something other than tossing their cash into them.

 

[Frailty]

I work in a club, and as much doom and gloom there is about this tax, the fact of the matter is there a numerous amounts of ways the money can be earned back. Instead of putting more pokies to get cash (as the easy option), clubs have started to think outside the box. Building larger function centres and creating new restaurants.

Instead of catering for the normal club going pensioner, they might start looking to increase patronage from other demographics.

 

[Perth Red]

Does anybody think that they should reduce the salary cap?

Some clubs can afford it, others can't. But the fact is if you can't you have to try and spend as close to it as possible to be competitive when signing players.

If the game can't afford to cover the costs at a grassroots level at the expense of paying the top flight players, then shouldn't costs associated with the most expenditure be cut?

e.

err, no! Bad enough we are losing players hand over fist to Sl or ARU without cutting salaries more. In reality player salaries are only a small % of a clubs expenditure (around 30% or less for most). If anything i would put it up and let the strong survive and the weak clubs play in a league they can afford.

 

[eastsrule]

err, no! Bad enough we are losing players hand over fist to Sl or ARU without cutting salaries more. In reality player salaries are only a small % of a clubs expenditure (around 30% or less for most). If anything i would put it up and let the strong survive and the weak clubs play in a league they can afford.

Where does the other expenditure go?

 

[Perth Red]

Good question but as NRL clubs have an income of $12-20mill and salary cap with under 20's is around $5mill they have lots of other expenses I guess?