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Having a bit of a Force vs Reds niggle over on another forum, and one of the Reds fans (who lives in Perth) mentioned that the long term viability of the Force was in question, due to the fact that the 3rd party sponsorship was drying up. I was of the understanding that sponsorship is not a huge problem at the team as they have Emirates, Volvo, ET Mining, Bankwest, etc, and im sure they might offer some 3rd party money. But I am not in Perth so dont have my fingers on the pulse. What is the level of support like now? This bloke reckons that in terms of money, we were already behind the Tahs and possibly behind the Reds and Brumbies in terms of what we could pay the players.
I think we have more sponsors than last year, and given the previous years were multi year deals I can't see the figures dropping?
Actually, even though it sounds like your mate has pulled some figures out of his ass, I wouldn't go woryying anyway.
Look at the performance of the highest paid Aussie S14 players, they're stinking it up big time. I'd rather have a team of young players with loyalty, who are here to learn rugby anyway.
Volvo, Emirates, TS Marine, BankWest, and a bunch of others are linked with the brand... these aren't all rinky dink little companies, Emirates, and Volvo, in particular would not be keen to see performances slip because they didn't support the team adequately. I think we'll do alright around the contract table, but we need to make sure we match the right players with the right coach....that wasn't done with Mitchell, Valentine and Giteau, I think it damaged the players as well as the team....for the good of Aussie rugby, nobody should concede to the demands of the high priced mercenary.
C'mon the![]()
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WA is the economic powerhouse fuelling the rest of Australia. We have plenty of sponsorship dollars. The Reds are damn near bankrupt forget 3rd party stuff what about just paying them? We have as much if not more to offer than the Tahs.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
The Reds are onthe brink of financial armageddon. They are talking about selling off Ballymore to developers it's so bad.
The Brumbies struggle for big name sponsors. They are the ones b1tching the most about 3rd party deals as they think it makes them uncompetitive.
The Tahs should be able to attract huge corporate dollars being based in Sydney. I believe their balance sheet is in order after being taken over in 2000ish by the ARU when they were busted @rse broke.
The Force are doing OK with sponsors
Controversy corner
What can be paid to the players is uniform across all the 4 franchises.
3rd party sponsorships are the likes of a company supplying a car to a player or a cash incentive in return for "ambassador" roles.
I wouldn't underestimate the level of interest or available $$$$ in WA for now or years to come. Some of the levels of money that are flowing here for mining is mindboggling eg 1 company just buying 5,000 prime movers to service the Gorgon project.
I think your mate is talking out of his arse. No one outside of the players themselves and the sponsoring companies would know whats about.
Just read his post over on PR. Yup. Talking out of his arse.
without a doubt.
the money being put into WA at the moment is phenominal
Aren't we the only franchise in Australia to post a profit last year? And Emirates have signed on for another 3 years a year before the contract was up. And now we also have Bankwest on board.
Money is the least of our problems.
Not to mention we've ditched that giant black hole that was Subiaco.
Reds biggest sponsor is ARU if I read the papers correctly!
'God invented beer to prevent Props from taking over the world'
Ah well, if it all goes bad I guess we will just run to daddy squealing for help...