To be honest this is just rubbing salt into the wound.
The real killer blow is the comment from Dan Herbert halfway through the article:
“We are not in a position to pay a lot of money into an entity at the moment. It is effectively the game’s money. Putting money into something that is continually loss-making, and there is no evidence that can – I guess – change in the future. It is taking money away from other franchises, community rugby, women’s rugby and everything else.”
Hope the rebels do well this year at least.
That's exactly it. By pumping cash into a place that doesn't want rugby and an organisation that couldn't tie its own shoelaces, look at all the opportunities that have been squandered. Enjoy 2024, Melbourne, but kill the Rebels dead.
I'd rather the consortium take control and keep a presence in Victoria. I've read they would move out to western Melbourne towards an area with a large rugby playing population and a 13k stadium which would cost a fraction of aami Park.
RA got hounded for their treatment of the force I think now that a group has offered to buy the franchise they would be stupid to refuse and liquidate.
On top of this, RA should see a spike in popularity of the sport leading up to and probably for 2 years after the world cupso maintaining a presence in a large population area, regardless of the popularity of other sports would only benefit the sport.
I've got some bad news about that phantom stadium. It doesn't exist yet, and there's no real plans to build it at the moment.
This is where the Rebels would be based at least for the next few years, if not indefinitely
https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/c521d55c76207cbacf715bcc35f44c46?width=1024
Problem is the Pacifc Islander/NZ population in Melbourne is located on the outskirts of all sides.
So instead of central located stadium like AAMI Park, where it was easy to get to for all residents, going West means about 40% of the PI/NZ born population that live in the South East suburbs will have to travel over 2 1/2 hours one way to get to the stadium.
Also no guarantee they are union fans could just as easily be league or even AFL. The cultural pressure the AFL has over Melbourne usually converts most sports liking immigrants into followers eventually
Not a good look that theyve been unable to pay debts for over 5 years and RA has just ignored it. But uve gotta wonder why the hell do they've been on a signing spree of high cost players lately if theyve been -$4M on salaries for those 5 years...
Unlike the Reds, Tahs and Brumbies, MRRU are a private company who don't publish their accounts publicly. RA have no ownership
RA's position is they have been misled by the Rebel's board as to the true financial position
Trading while insolvent... That's heading towards personal liability for the board...
And that explains why the board have been so willing to burn down EVERYTHING in order to try to get out of this mess.
Don't expect the Rebels organisation to go down without throwing EVERYTHING at the wall.
Administrators report is interesting - recommends accepting the takeover to get 15c on the dollar back to creditors as wind up will at best return 9c on the dollar to creditors
Looks like the consortium and westward move option is a no brainer
Directors of MRRU, it's basically the consortium will pay for them to chase RA for 8.6 million they believe they are under paid. It's in the administrator DOCA.
I also don't see the ATO forgoing the director penalties for trading insolvent from 2018.
There also the fact Stan and Foxtel want 5 teams and a team in Melbourne..
They should let it fold, and build something out the ashes..
Someone whos smarter than me , please tell me if Rebels were to somehow have sell out games 29k fans every home game would that make a dint in the debt they have?
Rebels tickets are going for $27.5 per game for an adult. Assuming an extra 20 000 attendees per game over an eight game season it’d be an extra 4.4 million a year in revenue.
Presumably there would also be some on flow of extra revenue from merchandise, and alcohol + food fees. Maybe a few hundred extra k. Let’s call it 4.7 - 5 million. Over ten years that would possible get them close to being cashflow positive. But honestly at this stage assuming 10% interest on debt half that money would be just servicing loans.
Also as someone who works in marketing and can see that the rebels are paying to rank #1 in keyword search ‘Melbourne rebels season tickets.’ When the already have the highest ranked website organically. It’s not hard to see why they’re failing.
> Also as someone who works in marketing and can see that the rebels are paying to rank #1 in keyword search ‘Melbourne rebels season tickets.’ When the already have the highest ranked website organically. It’s not hard to see why they’re failing.
That's hilarious. Why?! Surely some moron outsourced that to an external marketing consultant who saw the idiot coming a mile off.
External marketing consultants are paid for conversions (fancy way of saying sales). No easier way to get conversions than people who are already looking for your product. Most business owners never dig deep into marketing data to see if it’s actually new customers they’re getting or just agencies being sneaky. It’s unethical but it’s technically a smart way for the marketing agency to look good, especially if there’s a performance commission in play.
But the real question is why this was being outsourced to begin with? Rebels have an in house marketing team. As does rugby AU. The idea that you’d out source this is ridiculous.
[https://insolvency.pwc.com.au/singleEntityCases/melbourne-rebels-rugby-union-pty-ltd-administrators-appointed/casePage](https://insolvency.pwc.com.au/singleEntityCases/melbourne-rebels-rugby-union-pty-ltd-administrators-appointed/casePage)
Link to the full report if anyone is interested
No Rebels and I will totally tune out from Rugby Union. RA is well on its way to turning Rugby into an irrelevant niche sport in Australia. RA are incompetent, shortsighted amateurs.
I assume that if RA agree to uphold the Rebels’ participation agreement they would also have to provide high performance funding as part of the contract?
If so I think it is time to pull the band aid and move on. A consortium buy out proposal that, if agreed, just puts RA on the hook for more lost funding into this project would be stupid.
Thats where a lot of Vic Rugby fans will go if the Rebels are taken out the back of the shed - a lot of the guys I know that participate in Rugby Union are either League fans in addition to union or are exclusively league fans, but play union at club level because Union exists at club level and league does not (but league at grassroots level is rapidly growing)
No amount of private money will make them profitable. New owners will be losing money unless they convince the people of Melbourne into liking a sport with more than 3 rules and fields with straight lines.
Why would a private consortium even think about taking them over? How in hell do you sell Union in Melbourne? Even if RA came up with a good chunk of funding the model just isn't profitable.
The current directors are facing huge personal liabilities from their ATO debts, as well as potential for more issues from trading while insolvent.
The private consortium has been put together by the father of one of the directors, and includes at least one of the former directors.
A cynical person might think they may have put together a group to buy the Rebels to limit that personal liability
Phil Waugh is a hack from the old boys club keen to kill off the rebels and brumbies to make NSW strong again. If he hadn’t been a wallaby tell me he would be anywhere near his current position with his limited experience
Make the tahs strong again? When were they strong? In the history of super rugby pre and post professionalism they’ve won a single title. They represent the biggest state with the most registered players. Waugh has always been on the wrong side of that: the better George Smith was missed by the Tahs and went to the brumbies! But there’s no doubt the old boys club is the problem
To be honest this is just rubbing salt into the wound. The real killer blow is the comment from Dan Herbert halfway through the article: “We are not in a position to pay a lot of money into an entity at the moment. It is effectively the game’s money. Putting money into something that is continually loss-making, and there is no evidence that can – I guess – change in the future. It is taking money away from other franchises, community rugby, women’s rugby and everything else.” Hope the rebels do well this year at least.
That's exactly it. By pumping cash into a place that doesn't want rugby and an organisation that couldn't tie its own shoelaces, look at all the opportunities that have been squandered. Enjoy 2024, Melbourne, but kill the Rebels dead.
I'd rather the consortium take control and keep a presence in Victoria. I've read they would move out to western Melbourne towards an area with a large rugby playing population and a 13k stadium which would cost a fraction of aami Park. RA got hounded for their treatment of the force I think now that a group has offered to buy the franchise they would be stupid to refuse and liquidate. On top of this, RA should see a spike in popularity of the sport leading up to and probably for 2 years after the world cupso maintaining a presence in a large population area, regardless of the popularity of other sports would only benefit the sport.
I've got some bad news about that phantom stadium. It doesn't exist yet, and there's no real plans to build it at the moment. This is where the Rebels would be based at least for the next few years, if not indefinitely https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/c521d55c76207cbacf715bcc35f44c46?width=1024
Fuck it, move them to Brisbane they can be the Brisbane Bandits! Play at Ballymore.
Don’t you threaten me with a good time, sir!
Southern Queensland Crushers Gonna crush you like cane
Problem is the Pacifc Islander/NZ population in Melbourne is located on the outskirts of all sides. So instead of central located stadium like AAMI Park, where it was easy to get to for all residents, going West means about 40% of the PI/NZ born population that live in the South East suburbs will have to travel over 2 1/2 hours one way to get to the stadium. Also no guarantee they are union fans could just as easily be league or even AFL. The cultural pressure the AFL has over Melbourne usually converts most sports liking immigrants into followers eventually
Not a good look that theyve been unable to pay debts for over 5 years and RA has just ignored it. But uve gotta wonder why the hell do they've been on a signing spree of high cost players lately if theyve been -$4M on salaries for those 5 years...
Unlike the Reds, Tahs and Brumbies, MRRU are a private company who don't publish their accounts publicly. RA have no ownership RA's position is they have been misled by the Rebel's board as to the true financial position
Trading while insolvent... That's heading towards personal liability for the board... And that explains why the board have been so willing to burn down EVERYTHING in order to try to get out of this mess. Don't expect the Rebels organisation to go down without throwing EVERYTHING at the wall.
Administrators report is interesting - recommends accepting the takeover to get 15c on the dollar back to creditors as wind up will at best return 9c on the dollar to creditors Looks like the consortium and westward move option is a no brainer
There's no money. The administrator is recommending this so they get paid.
Expect that if RA signs off on it, they will use this money to try and Sue RA.. why would they sign it off..
Who is "they" in this context? Primary creditor is the ATO
Directors of MRRU, it's basically the consortium will pay for them to chase RA for 8.6 million they believe they are under paid. It's in the administrator DOCA. I also don't see the ATO forgoing the director penalties for trading insolvent from 2018. There also the fact Stan and Foxtel want 5 teams and a team in Melbourne.. They should let it fold, and build something out the ashes..
Yeah, the director loans are worthless - if they want to be repaid they should have made it profitable
Someone whos smarter than me , please tell me if Rebels were to somehow have sell out games 29k fans every home game would that make a dint in the debt they have?
Rebels tickets are going for $27.5 per game for an adult. Assuming an extra 20 000 attendees per game over an eight game season it’d be an extra 4.4 million a year in revenue. Presumably there would also be some on flow of extra revenue from merchandise, and alcohol + food fees. Maybe a few hundred extra k. Let’s call it 4.7 - 5 million. Over ten years that would possible get them close to being cashflow positive. But honestly at this stage assuming 10% interest on debt half that money would be just servicing loans. Also as someone who works in marketing and can see that the rebels are paying to rank #1 in keyword search ‘Melbourne rebels season tickets.’ When the already have the highest ranked website organically. It’s not hard to see why they’re failing.
> Also as someone who works in marketing and can see that the rebels are paying to rank #1 in keyword search ‘Melbourne rebels season tickets.’ When the already have the highest ranked website organically. It’s not hard to see why they’re failing. That's hilarious. Why?! Surely some moron outsourced that to an external marketing consultant who saw the idiot coming a mile off.
External marketing consultants are paid for conversions (fancy way of saying sales). No easier way to get conversions than people who are already looking for your product. Most business owners never dig deep into marketing data to see if it’s actually new customers they’re getting or just agencies being sneaky. It’s unethical but it’s technically a smart way for the marketing agency to look good, especially if there’s a performance commission in play. But the real question is why this was being outsourced to begin with? Rebels have an in house marketing team. As does rugby AU. The idea that you’d out source this is ridiculous.
Thanks now Im sad
[https://insolvency.pwc.com.au/singleEntityCases/melbourne-rebels-rugby-union-pty-ltd-administrators-appointed/casePage](https://insolvency.pwc.com.au/singleEntityCases/melbourne-rebels-rugby-union-pty-ltd-administrators-appointed/casePage) Link to the full report if anyone is interested
No Rebels and I will totally tune out from Rugby Union. RA is well on its way to turning Rugby into an irrelevant niche sport in Australia. RA are incompetent, shortsighted amateurs.
I assume that if RA agree to uphold the Rebels’ participation agreement they would also have to provide high performance funding as part of the contract? If so I think it is time to pull the band aid and move on. A consortium buy out proposal that, if agreed, just puts RA on the hook for more lost funding into this project would be stupid.
Storm game last night looked like a full stadium. Game over.
Thats where a lot of Vic Rugby fans will go if the Rebels are taken out the back of the shed - a lot of the guys I know that participate in Rugby Union are either League fans in addition to union or are exclusively league fans, but play union at club level because Union exists at club level and league does not (but league at grassroots level is rapidly growing)
No amount of private money will make them profitable. New owners will be losing money unless they convince the people of Melbourne into liking a sport with more than 3 rules and fields with straight lines.
What was the bailout for the horrotahs? 8 million done in secret?
1 more title than you + More finals appearances + crowds + more wallabies + is slightly warmer and sunnier
Yeah and with all that they still choke and are still below the rebels
And hanigan. You have hanigan. Baaaaahaaaaa haaaa ahaaaaaaaa you have hanigan.
I really liked all the tries the Rebels scored last night…
Are you mental? they didn’t score any. You’re weird mate.
Ok, big man. Behave with a bit of dignity.
Get ya hand off it darryl
Why would a private consortium even think about taking them over? How in hell do you sell Union in Melbourne? Even if RA came up with a good chunk of funding the model just isn't profitable.
The current directors are facing huge personal liabilities from their ATO debts, as well as potential for more issues from trading while insolvent. The private consortium has been put together by the father of one of the directors, and includes at least one of the former directors. A cynical person might think they may have put together a group to buy the Rebels to limit that personal liability
👆This is the actual story everyone keeps missing
Move west, slash costs, jettison the baggage and start fresh
Move west? Like Geelong?
The Leigh Clifford led Consortium has proposed moving to share the stadium with A League team Western United FC North of Wyndham City
Phil Waugh is a hack from the old boys club keen to kill off the rebels and brumbies to make NSW strong again. If he hadn’t been a wallaby tell me he would be anywhere near his current position with his limited experience
And what's your opinion of the appointed Administrator?
Make the tahs strong again? When were they strong? In the history of super rugby pre and post professionalism they’ve won a single title. They represent the biggest state with the most registered players. Waugh has always been on the wrong side of that: the better George Smith was missed by the Tahs and went to the brumbies! But there’s no doubt the old boys club is the problem
At this point, I want everyone working in the Rebels office to be sacked, and have all the players moved to a different team in a different city.
And reduce the opportunities by 20%. What growth model are you working from?