J'ON puts ARU back in the black

[Gagger]

Australian Rugby Union announce $9.19 million turnaround


March 26, 2009

The Australian Rugby Union has announced an extraordinary $9.19 million turnaround in its financial fortunes for the 2008 calendar year.
The ARU says it has recorded a surplus of $712,000, wiping a much-publicised deficit of $8.48 million in 2007.

Chief executive John O'Neill had described the code in Australia as being in ?deep s--t? on his return to the helm of the governing body in June, 2007.

Since then, he has scrapped the controversial Australian Rugby Championship, pulled Australia A out of the Pacific Nations Cup, announced pay cuts for players and staff and shed jobs at the ARU's Sydney headquarters.

That has resulted in cuts in expenditure of eight per cent, from $80.69 million in 2007 to $73.99 million in 2008, an ARU statement said on Thursday.

Revenue increased four per cent to $83,251,000 with gate takings the major driver, up almost 50 per cent to $21.78 million from six Tests in 2008 and more than justifying the appointment of New Zealander Robbie Deans as Wallabies coach.

A fourth Bledisloe Cup clash in Hong Kong last year provided another windfall for the ARU.

Cash reserves were restored to $15 million, the statement said.

?It was imperative for the business to return a surplus after allocations (of $8.5 million to member unions),? O'Neill said in a statement on Thursday.

?In the end it was a huge turnaround considering the multi-million dollar deficit recorded 12 months earlier.?

The result was announced at the ARU's annual general meeting in Sydney.

Say what you like about Damien Omen but he sure knows how to run a business

 

[rugbywhisperer]

Should NEVER have let him go in the first place.
Whatever his price it's never too much.

 

[Lindommer]

Re: JON puts ARU back in the black

Should NEVER have let him go in the first place. Whatever his price it's never too much.

Lee and I were sitting behind Dilip Kumar at ANZ Stadium last Saturday night; funnily enough the subject of JON's departure from the ARU in 2003 struck us both at the same time. Kumar and another from Queensland misled JON and then the ARU board over the matter of the board's confidence and his subsequent resignation. Utterly disgraceful. Kumar tried to get involved when the kite about private equity was flown last year. Thankfully, wise heads at the NSWRU (surprisingly there are a few) prevailed and he was told to bugger off.

You're right, whispers, JON should never have been let go. The damage done to rugby with the establishment of the A-League will hurt us for many years to come.

 

[Scarfman]

OK, businesses can't be run in the red for too long. Fair enough, this is good news.

But let's not believe that you can shred jobs and costs without reducing the effectiveness of your organisation. It all looks great in Year 1, but how about when those cuts flow through the game of rugby in the next few years?

 

[fatprop]

But let's not believe that you can shred jobs and costs without reducing the effectiveness of your organisation.

:-\ That also assumes that the organisation wasn't bloated and need some trimming.

 

[TOCC]

actually scarfman, its quite feasible and practical to shred jobs and improve the overall efficiency, corporate restructuring takes place all the time and is a recognised practice for improving effeciency and profit margins.

 

[Ash]

actually scarfman, its quite feasible and practical to shred jobs and improve the overall efficiency, corporate restructuring takes place all the time and is a recognised practice for improving effeciency and profit margins.

Don't forget about stripping the money from the business first, then loading them up on debt and selling them loaded with debt.

Wait, you don't work in private equity, do you?

 

[TOCC]

actually scarfman, its quite feasible and practical to shred jobs and improve the overall efficiency, corporate restructuring takes place all the time and is a recognised practice for improving effeciency and profit margins.

Don't forget about stripping the money from the business first, then loading them up on debt and selling them loaded with debt.

Wait, you don't work in private equity, do you?

no, not anymore, im a retired millionaire these days, splurging other peoples retirement benefits on my prawn cocktails and silly looking hats

 

[Scarfman]

actually scarfman, its quite feasible and practical to shred jobs and improve the overall efficiency, corporate restructuring takes place all the time and is a recognised practice for improving effeciency and profit margins.

Thanks for that, TOCC. I learn something new every day.

 

[Pfitzy]

About 30% of companies get it wrong though - they shed jobs at the coalface (funnily enough, middle management never seem to get cut even though they're the most useless bloated bit) and find within 24 months they need to re-hire anyway, and in the meantime run at woeful inefficiency. Some of those companies never recover because of the cost of re-training. Yet their executives get busy splurging other people's money on cocktails and ... well you get the rest.

Good guys don't win in business. If you want to retire young, be a complete fluffybunny.

Hey mods - where is the word substitution for the c-word?

 

[naza]

Good guys don't win in business. If you want to retire young, be a complete fluffy-bunny.

And how is life up on the Gold Coast ?

 

[disco]

NTA is right though, John O'Neil is a ruthless businessman but he gets the results.

From the outside it seems that Rugby is one of his passions & he demands a lot from his employees but nothing more than what he asks of himself.

The 3 majors things that he has done that pissed me off that I now agree it was the right decision.

1.Waited for the AB's to reject Deans
2.Cut the ARC
3.Dropped out of the PNC (Pacific Nations Cup)

 

[Scarfman]

I think #1 will be his biggest contribution. Faked an illness to quasi-legitimately delay the Australian process so that we could see what the Kiwis did. Genius!

I also agree with the PNC (Pacific Nations Cup) but I'm not nearly so sure about the ARC. QLDers mightn't miss it because of their teams' performances, but I believe that it provided an excellent standard of competition for the next tier of players, and was something that we desperately needed. I know that nobody apart from us wanted to watch it, but you need a comp like that to keep the Wallabies winning in 5 years' time. And if the Wallabies (and the S14 teams) don't win, the whole financial picture turns ugly.

 

[Pfitzy]

Speaking of which I've got a few games from the MARC to upload... watch that space.

 

[Gagger]

From RugbyHeaven:

[size=10pt]Boardroom battle has shamed ARU[/size]

John Connolly | March 29, 2009

AT THE start of the week I promised myself I would not make any comment on last Thursday's ARU meeting in which new president Ron Graham was elected.

But being privy to the outrageous behind-the-scenes wrangling by some quarters to split the NSWRU vote, I cannot help myself. Enough's enough.

The plethora of phone calls I've received since Thursday from people concerned the ARU is being run on the personal agendas of chief executive John O'Neill just made my decision easier.

O'Neill's dislike for Graham - a good friend of mine - stems back to his sacking in 2003, when Graham was a member of the board responsible for cutting O'Neill loose.

There were extensive efforts in the week building up to the meeting to have NSWRU members reject voting the company line. And if not for the efforts of chairman Ed Zemancheff to pull his delegates into line, NSW could have been in trouble.

Outgoing president Paul McLean thanked everyone on his departure but expressed disappointment at the push to have new vice-president Dick McGruther leap-frog Graham into the top role, while Zemancheff revealed his disappointment at the lack of communication between the ARU and the states. Graham has served four years as vice-president, the natural process to take on the top job, and deserves the promotion - why anyone wouldn't want him is beyond me. It all comes back to personal agenda.

New vice-president Dick McGruther, an unwilling party in the behind-the-scenes tug-of-war, is another friend of mine who I've known for 30 years, and he'll make a great president once he's done his apprenticeship. Both men, to their credit, refused to get involved in the driven personal agendas.

Making matters worse on Thursday, O'Neill - the self-proclaimed saviour of Australian rugby - took credit for the ARU's 2008 financial upturn. That's far from the case. I was in the meeting in 2007 when the financial situation of the ARU was aired. The then Gary Flowers-led administration explained that 2007 was always going to be a tough year because of the World Cup and there being only one Bledisloe Cup game.

The administration put measures in place to ensure 2008 would make up for the loss. Those included extra Bledisloe Cup matches (one the Hong Kong Test), winning a $2 million Queensland Government grant to have a Bledisloe match played in Brisbane, the game at Wembley Stadium against the Barbarians and an extra Welsh Test.

How O'Neill can take credit for this and not attribute the real people behind it is beyond belief, especially when you consider the swathe that's been cut through middle management due to "budgetary contraints". A lot of that money has gone straight to the top end; all while O'Neill boasts that he's saving the game.

Victims of the cuts include Tim Shaw, Rob Smith, Peter Rowles, Pat Wilson, Brian Thornburn, Deb Wilcox and Peter Marshall.

Another sore point was O'Neill's axing of the Australian Rugby Championship, which fosters rugby between the club and Super stages. On a salary around the seven-figure mark, O'Neill had the gaul to label it "unaffordable".

There's no doubt costs went well over, but this will have a drastic effect on the future of Australian rugby, especially if the Super 14 comp is expanded to include Melbourne. We'll need the ARC to develop more players.

O'Neill has three years to go on his contract, but unless he starts bringing the unions and states together, Australian rugby is in for a tough ride.

In my view, his shameless self-promotion at the expense of others brings little credit to himself and more importantly, the game.

His goal should be to unify the game, to work with the volunteer committees who are the lifeblood of rugby, rather than shun them. We don't want personal agendas or conflict. We want unity and for O'Neill and co to swallow their pride and bring everyone together, with the goal of every supporter in mind: winning the World Cup in 2011.

Looks like someone doesn't agree!

The "it was all OK financially before JO'N" doesn't quite wash when you look at the hole the ARC was gonna leave.

 

[Lindommer]

Victims of the cuts include Tim Shaw, Rob Smith, Peter Rowles, Pat Wilson, Brian Thornburn, Deb Wilcox and Peter Marshall.

Tim Shaw? But wait, there's more! Surely Knuckles meant Geoff Shaw, the former NSW Country/Queensland inside centre.

To put Knuckles' blast into context, who was the ARU boss when Knuckles flew his kite during the RWC about keeping the Wobblies coaching gig? And then said he intended to retire after it all along. Cunning turd. If Australia had've won the bloody thing the ARU would've needed the aid of dynamite to remove him. Patently Knuckles wasn't up to it and JON ensured we got a bloke who is.

 

[Biffo]

Victims of the cuts include Tim Shaw, Rob Smith, Peter Rowles, Pat Wilson, Brian Thornburn, Deb Wilcox and Peter Marshall.

Tim Shaw? But wait, there's more! Surely Knuckles meant Geoff Shaw, the former NSW Country/Queensland inside centre.

To put Knuckles' blast into context, who was the ARU boss when Knuckles flew his kite during the RWC about keeping his Wobblies coaching gig? And then said he intended to retire after it all along. Cunning turd. If Australia had've won the bloody thing the ARU would've needed the aid of dynamite to remove him. Patently Knuckles wasn't up to it and JON ensured we got a bloke who is.

AAA

 

[naza]

O'Neill - the self-proclaimed saviour of Australian rugby - took credit for the ARU's 2008 financial upturn. That's far from the case. I was in the meeting in 2007 when the financial situation of the ARU was aired. The then Gary Flowers-led administration explained that 2007 was always going to be a tough year because of the World Cup and there being only one Bledisloe Cup game.

The administration put measures in place to ensure 2008 would make up for the loss. Those included extra Bledisloe Cup matches (one the Hong Kong Test), winning a $2 million Queensland Government grant to have a Bledisloe match played in Brisbane, the game at Wembley Stadium against the Barbarians and an extra Welsh Test.

How O'Neill can take credit for this and not attribute the real people behind it is beyond belief, especially when you consider the swathe that's been cut through middle management due to "budgetary contraints". A lot of that money has gone straight to the top end; all while O'Neill boasts that he's saving the game.

No surprise there. Standard Operating Procedure for a prick CEO. Shit on the previous leadership whilst claiming their victories as yours.

O'Neill's 2nd bite at the job has been a disaster. He cares nothing for rugby. He cares only for stroking his massive ego. Why piss the Saffers and Kiwis off so much ? Its like he's on a mission to shoot Australian rugby in the foot. Thanks again for those anti-England comments before the RWC2007 QF that gave the Poms a rev up.

SACK O'NEILL NOW !!

 

[Scarfman]

OK naz. I know you're not fond of grey. Black and white are your mates. But what do you think of JON's tactics during the Henry / Deans situation. Would you be happy with Link, Nucifora, Jones (!!!!!!!!) or Fisher as coach?

 

[naza]

Yeah, fine, you got me there.

More interesting question - who is next in line to coach the Wallabies ?