News $15,000 a pop: NRL clubs reach out to fans for funding amid crisis

beastwood89

Kennel Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 20, 2013
Messages
1,806
Reaction score
2,958
LEAGUE NEWS
$15,000 a pop: NRL clubs reach out to fans for funding amid crisis
The Australian Sports Foundation is emerging as a lifeline for cash-strapped clubs during COVID-19 with two Sydney clubs at the forefront.
NRL clubs are flooding the Australian Sports Foundation website with appeals asking for tax-friendly donations of up to $15,000 to keep them afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two of Sydney's most famous clubs, Canterbury and South Sydney, have launched and amended pitches with the ASF, which is a fundraising platform for sporting organisations from grassroots to elite level.
The Bulldogs announced plans for 17 donors to become founding members of the Premiership Patrons, which requests a pledge of $15,000 to help a project titled 'Bulldogs tackling COVID-19'.
A 'Club 1935' category has also been set up, with a limited 100 places, for individual contributions of $1935.
The Bulldogs, who are also asking for small donations, are one of several Sydney clubs under huge financial stress due to the closure of its leagues club amid the coronavirus crisis. They started the season without a major sponsor and its ASF blurb claims it is under "unprecedented pressure to survive in the toughest rugby league competition in the world".
South Sydney's ASF project has also been rewritten to ask its members and supporters to "stand shoulder to shoulder" to overcome one of the club's "greatest ever challenges".
It says 90 per cent of staff were stood down when the NRL season was suspended with "COVID-19 ... putting at risk the operations of our club".
It says the money raised through the ASF will help "core functions including re-employing Rabbitohs staff across the business to ensure that the club can remain viable into the future".
"We noticed that a lot of AFL clubs had success in raising funds for their community programs or high-performance centres," Rabbitohs chief executive Blake Solly said. "Through Souths Cares we do a degree of fundraising anyway, it's a registered not-for-profit anyway.
"In some ways the sports foundation was just another vehicle for either our community programs or the high-performance centre, but when this all hit we went out and said, 'We've got this, we might need to do something about it for staff or Souths Cares'."
The ASF has helped raise more than $345 million for sporting clubs across Australia, and any donation of $2 or more is subject to a tax deduction. The organisation claims it can be up to half of the donation depending on the individual's income.
Most NRL clubs already run fundraising initiatives through the ASF, ranging from community-based projects to pledges for high-performance equipment and facilities.
The Raiders have been asking for donations of $250 or more from supporters to have their name featured on a playing jersey this year. The initiative has already banked more than $42,000.
The Tigers have raised more than $1m through the Wests Tigers Foundation, becoming one of the first elite rugby league clubs to list with the ASF.
"This was an initiative put forward by AFL clubs and the Wests Tigers spent a lot of time with Richmond and formulated its own model, which was the Wests Tigers Foundation," Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis said.
"It's proven incredibly successful among a host of top-tier sponsors and fans. We've created a Foundation XIII in which sponsors pay up to $100,000 and it's a perpetual membership of the foundation.
"It creates a connection between the fans and the club in a tax-effective way and makes the funds available for use for other facilities in the club which may not be available."
The NRL has initially been buoyed by the response of members who are capable of using their season membership as a donation to the club this year with little certainty about whether they can watch a game live.
The code will also grapple with issues surrounding sponsorships in coming weeks as it inches towards a May 28 return date.
 

Kaz

Kennel Immortal
Joined
Sep 25, 2006
Messages
18,846
Reaction score
11,571
The clubs must be desperate for money.

So a few months of closure & the leagues club can't afford the funding.

I thought the Bulldogs Leagues Club was one of the richest. Well that's what I have read here.

I know my club have rolled this years membership into next year, if members want it that way or if not they get their money back.
 

Smartseal

Kennel Participant
Joined
Oct 11, 2017
Messages
330
Reaction score
738
No idea of Bulldogs club position, but Magpies here in Mackay, Qld (& most sports clubs I understand) can only have a certain amount of operating capital to maintain their tax free/non-profit status, so they generally don't have the huge cash reserves one may expect. I know this as Magpies had to some serious community donations a few years back to avoid a big tax bill
 

Motorhead

Kennel Enthusiast
Premium Member
2 x Tipping Champ
Joined
Mar 9, 2019
Messages
2,694
Reaction score
3,406
The clubs must be desperate for money.

So a few months of closure & the leagues club can't afford the funding.

I thought the Bulldogs Leagues Club was one of the richest. Well that's what I have read here.

I know my club have rolled this years membership into next year, if members want it that way or if not they get their money back.
Doesn't your club want it's members to hurry up and die so they can bequeath the Broncs their life savings in their will? :mask:
 

Kaz

Kennel Immortal
Joined
Sep 25, 2006
Messages
18,846
Reaction score
11,571
Doesn't your club want it's members to hurry up and die so they can bequeath the Broncs their life savings in their will? :mask:
At least my club waits till they die before getting the money.

Your club is doing it before they are dead. Just in case the will is disputed. :joycat:
 

boggie23

Kennel Addict
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
7,194
Reaction score
4,986
No idea of Bulldogs club position, but Magpies here in Mackay, Qld (& most sports clubs I understand) can only have a certain amount of operating capital to maintain their tax free/non-profit status, so they generally don't have the huge cash reserves one may expect. I know this as Magpies had to some serious community donations a few years back to avoid a big tax bill
Exactly right.

How it works with the leagues club is huge turn over. But to save on massive tax bills they have a lot going on. Lots of expenditure and loans and that. So in effect the club is making minimal profit on the books even thought its rolling in huge money in revenue.

And that was under the pretences that they will keep going 24/7. Doubt they ever expected closures of up to 2 months or more. So I can understand why the money has dried up at the leagues club.

Once the doors open up (when ever that will be) it will help ease the pressure Greatly. But until that happens it will be tough.

it won’t take them long to catch up. But when you consider the average pokie turns over something like $2500/day there is a lot of venues where the money dried up overnight.
 

Alan79

Kennel Legend
Joined
Mar 10, 2007
Messages
13,193
Reaction score
18,939
Exactly right.

How it works with the leagues club is huge turn over. But to save on massive tax bills they have a lot going on. Lots of expenditure and loans and that. So in effect the club is making minimal profit on the books even thought its rolling in huge money in revenue.

And that was under the pretences that they will keep going 24/7. Doubt they ever expected closures of up to 2 months or more. So I can understand why the money has dried up at the leagues club.

Once the doors open up (when ever that will be) it will help ease the pressure Greatly. But until that happens it will be tough.

it won’t take them long to catch up. But when you consider the average pokie turns over something like $2500/day there is a lot of venues where the money dried up overnight.
I heard that Australia wide, the poker machine revenue was 35 million per day.
 

TwinTurbo

Kennel Legend
Gilded
Joined
Oct 22, 2018
Messages
9,346
Reaction score
15,416
The clubs must be desperate for money.
So a few months of closure & the leagues club can't afford the funding.
I thought the Bulldogs Leagues Club was one of the richest. Well that's what I have read here.
I know my club have rolled this years membership into next year, if members want it that way or if not they get their money back.
We invest in assets, make a reasonable profit and keep a minimum in cash reserves, that's prudent for any business as interest rates aren't exactly high. To free up some cash we could sell some of our huge value assets, but right now they would be sold at the bottom of the market. Then when we needed those assets we wouldn't have them, because we sold them. So we would have to buy them back, at a price no longer at the bottom of the market.

Go Dogs
 

south of heaven

Kennel Immortal
Premium Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2014
Messages
29,247
Reaction score
25,695
I would happily put a sledge hammer through the window of every farking one of them, a computerised parasite.
We play them every so often if we go to pub for lunch at work,3 of us usually throw a $20in each more often than not we get a small profit that covers lunch and a beer then walk away that's good enough for me .
 

Rodzilla

Terry Lamb 1996
Joined
Dec 22, 2004
Messages
42,535
Reaction score
6,140
they always ask for donations except usually its disguised as a poker machine
 

Kelpie03

Kennel Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Messages
4,449
Reaction score
3,223
I would happily put a sledge hammer through the window of every farking one of them, a computerised parasite.
Thank you Kambah One, no more pokies will mean the end of our Bulldogs, having known several other Rooster supporters and their feelings, I really believe that if we were out of the comp it would make all Rooster supporters very sad.
 

Trafford10

Kennel Addict
Gilded
Joined
Jun 26, 2015
Messages
6,414
Reaction score
5,240
No idea of Bulldogs club position, but Magpies here in Mackay, Qld (& most sports clubs I understand) can only have a certain amount of operating capital to maintain their tax free/non-profit status, so they generally don't have the huge cash reserves one may expect. I know this as Magpies had to some serious community donations a few years back to avoid a big tax bill
No the not for profit status is governed by the Australian Taxation act 1936.
Plenty of non for profit operations would have huge capital reserve such as credit unions, healthcare providers & private health insurers.

In fact I think the requirement for capital adequacy is higher for not for profit operations than public companies because they can't go to the market to raise capital.

I imagine the club would be bleeding cash but it does have a strong balance sheet.

Anyway will follow this, I'm sure Bulldogs will rally to support the club as required.
 

KambahOne

Kennel Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 3, 2019
Messages
3,659
Reaction score
4,735
Thank you Kambah One, no more pokies will mean the end of our Bulldogs, having known several other Rooster supporters and their feelings, I really believe that if we were out of the comp it would make all Rooster supporters very sad.
I would be I love our rivalry.
 

KambahOne

Kennel Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 3, 2019
Messages
3,659
Reaction score
4,735
We play them every so often if we go to pub for lunch at work,3 of us usually throw a $20in each more often than not we get a small profit that covers lunch and a beer then walk away that's good enough for me .
I'd probably join you bud, but luckily for us we aren't addicted to those things. I've seen my aunty put half her wages through them for her entire life. Lives alone and no dependents so it's her money, but she has ploughed hundreds of thousands through them and now has nothing but the pension, of which she ploughs as much as she can through them still. It's a sad life.
 

south of heaven

Kennel Immortal
Premium Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2014
Messages
29,247
Reaction score
25,695
I'd probably join you bud, but luckily for us we aren't addicted to those things. I've seen my aunty put half her wages through them for her entire life. Lives alone and no dependents so it's her money, but she has ploughed hundreds of thousands through them and now has nothing but the pension, of which she ploughs as much as she can through them still. It's a sad life.
For sure I watch a mate do in over 800k after a pay out at the time could of bought 2 properties but feed the machines till it was all gone now on a sole parent pension complaining lol he had more chances than most
 
Top