Wests Tigers financial shortfall covered for now … but that may not always be the case
It is almost impossible for an NRL club to go broke today, given the ARL Commission effectively pays the players’ salaries and provides $5 million to each club for administration expenses, but Wests Tigers have finished the 2023 season $1.4 million in debt.
It won’t push the wooden spooners into bankruptcy, especially not while they are backed by the rich Wests Ashfield licensed club, which can fund any deficit.
But if the ARLC was to suddenly reduce the annual grants to NRL clubs or the Wests Ashfield directors were to lose control of the board and the money dried up, the football club would retreat to where it was nearly 50 years ago.
Back then, when the Magpies played at Lidcombe Oval and club president Bill “The King” Carson was at war with the Wests Ashfield board, the annual grant from the licensed club would have funded the salary of just one top player.
The discord was such that when the Magpies secured a major sponsor from lawnmower company Victa in the late 1970s, the Wests Ashfield board cut the annual grant by the amount of the sponsorship.
The arguments over funding continued when Wests merged with Balmain to form Wests Tigers in 1999, with the two foundation clubs having equal numbers on the then 10-director board of the NRL’s new joint venture. Any call for cash to meet a shortfall required Balmain and Wests to contribute equally.
However, Balmain resisted this because they were broke. They were able to stall the inevitable because they dominated the Wests Tigers board via the representative of Wests League Club at Campbelltown, who traditionally voted with the Tigers.
So, Wests Tigers operated with fewer funds than other NRL clubs because Balmain couldn’t contribute.
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