FFA Reject Penrith Panthers {RL] to bye WSW

http://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/david-gallop-tells-panthers-boss-phil-gould-that-he-can8217t-buy-the-wanderers-at-any-price/story-fndv34xp-1226701593107

PHIL Gould and his Penrith Panthers have failed in a secret bid to buy A-League super club, the Western Sydney Wanderers.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Panthers recently lodged an expression of interest with UBS, the global financial services firm in charge of selling the club for up to $15 million.

A-League boss David Gallop immediately rejected the Panthers' interest, shutting down the potential for more conflict with his old rugby league arch-rival.

"Why would we contemplate selling the Wanderers to a club from another code?" Gallop said Wednesday night.

"And while we are posing these questions, why would a club from another code want to invest their money and build up a rival?"

Being the face of rugby league in Sydney's West, Gould and his venture into enemy ranks will stun NRL bosses and diehard footy fans in the code's heartland.

League, soccer and AFL are involved in a fierce rivalry in the western Suburbs in junior development.

"Personally I can't believe soccer was silly enough to say no to us," said Panthers supremo Warren Wilson, who confirmed the club's interest.

"They should have at least let us in the door and put a price on the table. We might have been the biggest bidder yet they've shut it down."

But Gallop is firm in his view that the Panthers have no right to be involved with Australia's hottest sporting franchise, currently owned by FFA.

The company UBS was appointed to appraise the market and potential buyers in Australia, Asia and Europe for last year's grand finalists.

A 50-page information document, titled Project Ono, was developed to provide prospective buyers with full insight of WSW financials, business plans, membership, sponsorship, playing roster and community engagement plans.

For prospective buyers to receive the document, FFA needed to approve its release and have interested parties sign a confidentiality deed.

Gallop refused to pass it on to the Panthers.

"The Wanderers sales process needs to not only achieve the right price, but the right owners," Gallop said.

"The community engagement remains a fundamental element of the club and we have given assurances to the fans that the name, colours and culture of the Wanderers will be protected in this process.

"We have to make decisions in the best interests of Australian football, the A-League competition and the Wanderers.

"We won't contemplate a sale to anyone who we believe can't align the community interests with the business interests."

Not that the Panthers would have been the first NRL club to dabble into the round ball game.

The Newcastle Knights and the Jets are a joint venture under the ownership of Nathan Tinkler. The Eels also once owned Parramatta Power in the National Soccer League.

Wilson says the Panthers were disappointed to be rejected without getting to a bidding stage.

"The simple scenario is that the Panthers Group is running a business and we look at all opportunities," he said.

"We're the tenant of a football field that gets used 12 times a year. If I could get it used 24 times a year, it's a more logical proposition to us."

Wilson insists the Panthers could have successfully run rugby league and A-League teams without clashing.

"It's no different to us owning Panthers Leagues Club and Glenbrook Bowling Club five minutes up the road," he said.

"I just thought, there's a business, does it make sense, can I make money out of it and would it add value to all our other assets?

"This wouldn't have affected our rugby league commitment at all. If I could find a baseball team that made a good profit I'd buy them.

"If I could find an ice-cream shop, and it made sense, I'd buy it.

"Would it have made money going forward? Who knows? Unfortunately I wasn't afforded the opportunity to look at their financial records."

bye...

Project Ono??

FFA's WSW have magical first season, Aussie qualifies for Brazil, local NRL teams all having shite-average seasons (Penrith , Parra, Balmain-Wests and Berries), no rugby team to speak of and a joke of an Aussie Rules-marketing-product-launch-of-a-club. That territory is the biggest piece of sports business in this part of the world. FFA are sitting on G.O.L.D.

More likely the Panthers were just trying to get a look at the books and business plans of a rival. That seems to be Gallop's view of it anyway.

I had the same view of it as well Term

 

Gould would not know the first thing about football but he does know a lot of about shit underperforming NRL sides of which he has one in the same territory....

Sure but the bigger picture is that FFA is keen to sell and now is a very good time to be selling. If right buyer comes along, they will be sitting on the most potentially lucrative football franchise in this part of the world.

Main issue was the move to Penrith, they don't want that.

Fascinated that you know Gould so well...

The seasons only overlap a little, lots of sports fans have more than one code they support, I can see why they had a go
 

Panthers chief slams 'short-sighted' FFA

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/1164933/Panthers-chief-slams-'short-sighted'-FFA

Panthers Group CEO Warren Wilson described FFA’s decision to reject his group’s bid for a stake in Western Sydney Wanderers as a “loss for the A-League.”

Speaking in the wake of a Fairfax report detailing FFA chief David Gallop’s concerns with the Panthers bid, Wilson claimed the football governing body hasn’t made an attempt to get in touch with him to discuss his vision for Wanderers.

“There was an expression of interest put out and we put our hand up to have a look at it,” Wilson said. “I would have thought they at least would have spoken to us, found out what our credentials are, asked us what our plans were, asked us what our thoughts were.”

“It’s a loss for the A-League as opposed to a loss for us. They lose more than we lose.

“They would have been playing under the Wanderers banner, because they are the Wanderers.

"They would have been part of the panthers group and there would have been some great leverage there and some great opportunity.”

According to the Fairfax report, Gallop’s main concerns were Panthers’ intention to relocate Wanderers from Parramatta to Penrith and the group’s ties with the National Rugby League (NRL) through its Penrith Panthers club.

“We have been clear from day one that we want to identify the right owners who will respect the culture of the Wanderers and the western Sydney football community,” Gallop said.

“We have given assurances to the fans that the name, colours and the key elements of the club will be enshrined in the sale process.

“Why would we think about selling the Wanderers to a club from another code? And equally you have to wonder why a club from another code would want to invest their money and spread their resources to build up a rival?”

Wilson offered a blunt retort, claiming his group would protect the integrity of the Wanderers brand and cited Newcastle Jets as an example of the rival codes working closely together.

“According to today’s paper they’re worried about preserving jersey colours and names,” Wilson said. “Well someone should have at least asked us and said ‘would you do that’. Of course we wouldn’t we’re not interested in changing their colours or anything like that.

Valued at $20 million, Wanderers, which has attracted more than 14,000 members since its establishment in April 2012, is an attractive proposition for investment groups, with on-field success complimented by an expanding fan base. This year the club is competing in the AFC Champions League. 

“We’re interested in having a look at good sporting opportunities, that’s what we’re about,” Wilson said.

“Newcastle’s got rival codes sitting side by side. Parramatta did years ago. It happens overseas.

“Penrith Rugby League Club is just the head body. Underneath that we have nine individual clubs throughout NSW. We have a rugby league team headed up by Phil Gould and we have a whole lot of other ventures.

“We are a club business that’s interested in the community. We’re setting ourselves up as a massive community and sport franchise and I think it was a bit short-sighted that they didn’t even say hello.

Wilson hinted that he is open to discussions with FFA, should the football governing body be interested in entertaining a second bid.

“We’re not bitter and twisted about it and we’d be quite open to having a chat with them if they wanted to re-open the door. Away we go."

Channel 7. FFA probably don't want to go through that again.

Yeah they would have taken one look at it and put it straight in the "f*ck that" pile 

Tis very interesting .... old soccer bidding for the Drive Bys ... training ground ... junior academy already in place.. licensed club...

[url]http://m.smh.com.au/sport/football/stallions-join-race-to-take-reins-at-wanderers-20130822-2sehz.html[/url]

Stallions join race to take reins at Wanderers

Former National Soccer League club Marconi Stallions are aiming to return to the top flight of Australian football and will bid for a controlling stake in the Western Sydney Wanderers.

Marconi are eager to end their nine-year hiatus from professional sport and are making an ambitious bid to purchase the licence of the flourishing club from its current owners, Football Federation Australia.

A day after it was revealed an offer from the Penrith Panthers had been knocked back by the FFA, Marconi president Vince Foti said his club will ''definitely'' join the bidding war for ownership of the Wanderers but are yet to submit their application to the governing body.

''We're certainly investigating what the possibilities could be,'' Foti said. ''We have to be looking for something like that because of our history, and we want to be back in the top league of Australia.''

Marconi was one of the many ethnic-based clubs booted out of the top tier of domestic football during the transition from the National Soccer League to the A-League in 2004. They now play in the NSW Premier League, a semi-professional competition. They were on the verge of collapse ten years ago with debts related to their social club reportedly totalling $25 million. They recovered from their financial crisis and are now in a healthy position, enabling them to make an offer for the ownership of the Wanderers. ''The club has turned around dramatically. The debt is manageable and lower than the past. Football has matured a lot in the A-League and the game can now stand on its own two feet,'' Foti said.

Marconi's bid is yet to leave the boardroom but under the proposed offer there will be no change to the Wanderers' name, brand, identity and colours. They will likely train at Marconi Stadium in Bossley Park and play at Parramatta Stadium, if they were successful with their bid. However, Foti said there was a possibility the club could permanently move to Marconi Stadium if the venue underwent a significant redevelopment to increase the capacity and improve facilities.

''I would love to see a team like the Western Sydney Wanderers training at our fields. We would offer our stadium and an upgrade could become a possibility,'' Foti said. ''There's a lot of development around our area. It was the centre for the NSL in those days.''

Financial services company UBS was appointed to assess the value of the Wanderers and began privately seeking potential owners. UBS created a 50-page document on the club outlining their finances, membership, sponsors, staff and community engagement. It is made available to prospective buyers from the FFA once documents of interest are submitted and confidentiality agreements are signed.

Fairfax Media understands the FFA offered ownership of the Wanderers to Mounties Group before the start of last season but the organisation passed on the opportunity. The sport and social club said the asking price was out of their budget and that the club's location in Parramatta would not service their members and could, potentially, benefit rival organisations. ''They did approach us prior to joining the competition and put a proposal to us to own the team. The money was more than we wanted to spend,'' a Mounties spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Panthers chief executive Warren Wilson hit back at the refusal of FFA chief executive David Gallop to enter negotiations over the purchase of the Wanderers, a move he said was ''short-sighted''. Gallop said the FFA was not interested in selling the club to rival codes, out of respect to the football community. Wilson said the FFA had passed up an opportunity to build a strong cross-code partnership in Penrith.

''This is a big miss for soccer. We have the western Sydney sports community centre which will be built here which will be massive. We have 200 acres out here which we are developing and we are setting ourselves up as a massive sport and community franchise,'' Wilson said.

Stallions and unicorns.  A good fit?

(ooh err)

Got to love David Gallop, very astute and glad he's with the FFA.

In my opinion Gallops missed out on a fantastic opportunity by not talking with the Panthers.

They wont find a better setup for a sports club with the facilities they have at Penrith and they will only get better with their expansion plans. 

I may be blinded by ignorance but I don't know any successful cross code club and personally I believe that an oval ball code has no business owning a football team, also given the obvious competition between the codes at a junior level you have to question the intention behind the move.

It has obvious advantages in being able to have year round control over a stadium, maybe even being able to own their own. Shared administration, being able to attract more sponsors.

It isn't unique for Football clubs to be involved in other sports, Real Madrid are also a Basketball club. Most clubs that use the name 'Sporting' have multiple sport represented by the club.

The key is to find balance between the codes, so it doesn't feel like one is funding the other or taking up too much resources.

Agree with you Jono. There's nothing wrong with cross codes (look at the Jets and Knights) but as you say, it just had wrong all over it. Gould never does anything without an ulterior a motive.

My questions from this is why did the Panthers not front foot and say we are looking to expand our horizons and look into different sports prior to their announcement? When they did come out it they were saying that it's a dumb move by the A League. Gallop was head of the biggest sporting code for a while and did the job very well. He is also very familiar with all these people from his time in charge so fully back him.

Look at the Knights and Jets?

It's pretty well known that the Knights are serial bankrupts who cant afford to pay their bills week in week out and the fact that they are being "bankrolled" by someone like Nathan Tinkler who has his fair share of financial issues as well is a major source of concern to me.

The only saving grace is that the NRL cannot afford to lose the Knights from their competition but if they are forced to bail them out at any stage in the future, they are likely to cut lose any dead weight first. That means goodbye Jest!

Insaying that though, Penrith Panthers are not short of a few quid so you have to wonder what their motive is all of a sudden!

 

Yes I feel the same, I understand there are advantages but I just don't feel comfortable about 2 codes who are in competition with each other having the same owner, there has to be a conflict of interest.

See I look at the Knights and Jets as having the cash, but a tight fisted owner only paying when he has to. Again, I come from a position of ignorance on that so I bow to your knowledge.

"all of a sudden"

 I would suggest it is because the club "all of a sudden" is currently been put up for sale.

Pretty sure the FFA were looking for interested parties when the club was first announced.

 

Not trying to chalk one up over you here JV. I apologise if I worded my rant in that way.

It is quite true that the Knights have struggled financially for a long time now and have been bailed out by many different parties over the years (NRL, NSW Government, Tinkler + others) in some way, shape or form. The thing that has hamstrung them the most is a problem we A-League fans know very well and that was a less than favourable stadium deal. Couple that with the fact that they don't have their own viable Licenced Club to help bankroll them like most other clubs in the NRL do, makes for very nervy times.

Ironically, Panthers own a major licenced club in Newcastle. The other major Licenced venues in Newcastle are all owned by a local rugby league outfit called Wests (who own 3 venues around Newcastle. One of which is only a 10min walk from the stadium). Wests have sponsored the Knights since their inception into the NRL in 1988. While the Knights now have their offices and media centre at Wests Lambton they to don't want to invest in the Hunter Sports Group as they see them as a huge financial risk.

Oh I know you were not and no need to apologise. I was filling the gaps with what I thought I knew. That paints a much clearer picture