General Warriors General News

I can understand some of the teams pulling out. The ones at the bottom of the table who need to get their act in order after years at the bottom of the table.

The teams that went this year talked about enjoying it and being willing to come back. I can understand them not being considered to spread the teams going around.

But it is quite a few listed as not wanting to go. Can see this fizzling out like the Auckland 9s or any other time we have tried to grow the game as clubs take care of their own interests.
 

​

Kai Kara-France: UFC fighter and Warriors’ wrestling coach​

Kia Kara-France with Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. Picture: Instagram

Kia Kara-France with Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. Picture: Instagram
He is one of the UFC’s most dangerous flyweights and now Kai Kara-France has looked to transfer his wrestling skills to the Warriors.

Working across all grades in Auckland, the long-time fan has used his experience fighting in the UFC to share skills adaptable to rugby league.

“I’m not here to teach these boys how to play rugby league, I’m here to stay in my field, which is purely contact related,” Kara-France said.

Knowing the side already had previous wrestling coaches, he still chose to build from the ground up, bringing his own style to the Warriors’ defensive game.

Having never played rugby league, Kara-France may seem out of his depth, but the Kiwi has found many similarities to his chosen sport.

Kai Kara-France at Warriors’ training.

Kai Kara-France at Warriors’ training.
“Body awareness, being efficient with your energy, there are so many things which cross over to rugby league from martial arts,” he said.

“Even the mindset, in fighting it’s all on you. It’s an individual sport, you need a team to prepare but ultimately you need to deal with that pressure with no one to hide behind.

“On the field it may look like you have a team to hide behind, but what we try to install in the boys is being accountable with your actions, which is the same with fighting.”
 

You’ll never guess which NRL club is performing best – and worst – off the field​

Adrian ProszenkoMay 31, 2024 — 5.30am
Listen to this article
They have been in the competition for less than two seasons, but the Dolphins have emerged as the NRL’s new financial powerhouse.
The NRL has benchmarked the commercial performance of all its franchises – bar the publicly listed Brisbane Broncos – and ranked them based on their overall revenue for the financial year. The benchmarking document, obtained by this masthead, shows the Dolphins have come out on top alongside the Rabbitohs, each generating $23.5 million in revenue.
That’s well above the median figure of $15.7 million, with Manly ($11.5 million) and the Warriors ($11.6 million) bringing up the rear.
Souths made a 56 per cent profit off their revenue figure for a total profit of $14 million, just above the Dolphins with 55 per cent ($13.75 million).
Penrith ($23 million; 57 per cent profit), Cowboys ($22.7 million; 63 per cent profit), Parramatta ($19.3 million; 59 per cent profit) and the Roosters ($18.2 million; 71 per cent profit) were the next-best performing clubs in terms of revenue generation. Had the Broncos been involved in the benchmarking exercise, they would likely have come out on top in most categories.
However, the unexpected success story is undoubtedly the Dolphins, who only entered the competition in 2023.
Even before a ball had been kicked in their inaugural season, the Redcliffe-based franchise had 20,000 members and $10 million in sponsorship. Their bottom line continued to improve after they won their opening game against the Sydney Roosters, just as a documentary on their journey to the big time, Dawn of the Dolphins, premiered on Stan.
“We’ve had wonderful support from day one,” said Dolphins chief executive Terry Reader. “The measure of success for us - and this showed that Brisbane didn’t just want another team, but needed another team – is that our last two home games of the year were our second– and third-biggest crowds of the year.
“That happened when we weren’t in contention for finals, which illustrates how much people were behind our club and had bought in.
“That backed up the decision that we should have had two teams in Brisbane a long time ago.”
The Wayne Bennett-coached newcomers collected more revenue in sponsorship than any other club, with $10.9 million, pipping the Roosters, with $10.4 million. The Raiders ($4.6 million) and Manly ($4.7 million) generated the least.
“A lot of our partners were new to rugby league, it was important we didn’t cannibalise the other teams in QLD Morons,” Reader said.
“The Broncos having Brisbane for themselves for over 35 years, there would have been a lot of partners locked out of sponsoring up here in Brisbane.
“Bringing a second team allowed them [an opportunity], and that’s one of the great things about the Dolphins’ entry: we’ve brought a lot of new partners into rugby league because of that.
“That’s a testament to how much rugby league is supported here in Brisbane and the good work that has been part of starting up our club.”
Manly CEO Tony Mestrov said the club’s home ground of 4 Pines Park at Brookvale had brought financial challenges.
“It’s a great place for the team to play, but it’s a challenge from a commercial point of view and that’s represented by our standing in the benchmarking,” Mestrov said.
“We’re endeavouring to change that with the redevelopment and with funding, as we’re seeing with Leichhardt Oval.”
Parramatta chief executive Jim Sarantinos said their result allowed them to reinvest funds into the club’s football program.
“Quite a number of years ago we were much lower down the list,” he said.
“Our club has improved a hell of a lot. The move to CommBank Stadium has helped because of the experience we can provide to members, fans and corporate partners. The club having a better period of football, than has been the case historically, over a period of three or four years helps a lot, particularly in terms of bringing on corporate partners and the like.
“The most important part is the more money we generate, the more we can invest back into our football program.”


Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
 
Ozwarrior said:

You’ll never guess which NRL club is performing best – and worst – off the field​

Adrian ProszenkoMay 31, 2024 — 5.30am
Listen to this article
They have been in the competition for less than two seasons, but the Dolphins have emerged as the NRL’s new financial powerhouse.
The NRL has benchmarked the commercial performance of all its franchises – bar the publicly listed Brisbane Broncos – and ranked them based on their overall revenue for the financial year. The benchmarking document, obtained by this masthead, shows the Dolphins have come out on top alongside the Rabbitohs, each generating $23.5 million in revenue.
That’s well above the median figure of $15.7 million, with Manly ($11.5 million) and the Warriors ($11.6 million) bringing up the rear.
Souths made a 56 per cent profit off their revenue figure for a total profit of $14 million, just above the Dolphins with 55 per cent ($13.75 million).
Penrith ($23 million; 57 per cent profit), Cowboys ($22.7 million; 63 per cent profit), Parramatta ($19.3 million; 59 per cent profit) and the Roosters ($18.2 million; 71 per cent profit) were the next-best performing clubs in terms of revenue generation. Had the Broncos been involved in the benchmarking exercise, they would likely have come out on top in most categories.
However, the unexpected success story is undoubtedly the Dolphins, who only entered the competition in 2023.
Even before a ball had been kicked in their inaugural season, the Redcliffe-based franchise had 20,000 members and $10 million in sponsorship. Their bottom line continued to improve after they won their opening game against the Sydney Roosters, just as a documentary on their journey to the big time, Dawn of the Dolphins, premiered on Stan.
“We’ve had wonderful support from day one,” said Dolphins chief executive Terry Reader. “The measure of success for us - and this showed that Brisbane didn’t just want another team, but needed another team – is that our last two home games of the year were our second– and third-biggest crowds of the year.
“That happened when we weren’t in contention for finals, which illustrates how much people were behind our club and had bought in.
“That backed up the decision that we should have had two teams in Brisbane a long time ago.”
The Wayne Bennett-coached newcomers collected more revenue in sponsorship than any other club, with $10.9 million, pipping the Roosters, with $10.4 million. The Raiders ($4.6 million) and Manly ($4.7 million) generated the least.
“A lot of our partners were new to rugby league, it was important we didn’t cannibalise the other teams in QLD Morons,” Reader said.
“The Broncos having Brisbane for themselves for over 35 years, there would have been a lot of partners locked out of sponsoring up here in Brisbane.
“Bringing a second team allowed them [an opportunity], and that’s one of the great things about the Dolphins’ entry: we’ve brought a lot of new partners into rugby league because of that.
“That’s a testament to how much rugby league is supported here in Brisbane and the good work that has been part of starting up our club.”
Manly CEO Tony Mestrov said the club’s home ground of 4 Pines Park at Brookvale had brought financial challenges.
“It’s a great place for the team to play, but it’s a challenge from a commercial point of view and that’s represented by our standing in the benchmarking,” Mestrov said.
“We’re endeavouring to change that with the redevelopment and with funding, as we’re seeing with Leichhardt Oval.”
Parramatta chief executive Jim Sarantinos said their result allowed them to reinvest funds into the club’s football program.
“Quite a number of years ago we were much lower down the list,” he said.
“Our club has improved a hell of a lot. The move to CommBank Stadium has helped because of the experience we can provide to members, fans and corporate partners. The club having a better period of football, than has been the case historically, over a period of three or four years helps a lot, particularly in terms of bringing on corporate partners and the like.
“The most important part is the more money we generate, the more we can invest back into our football program.”


Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
Click to expand...
Warriors make the least in the NRL? And last year was reported as a financial bumper year for the team with sold out grounds, etc.

We need to introduce more jersey’s and get the sales up!
 
Not surprised that the Warriors are last. Surprised the sponsorship is as good as is stated, but we've always been the club most exposed to Fair Weather Friendship, our Season Membership has always been 9-12k, making us really reliant on the Walk-Up Crowd, which is obviously affected by Warriors form, weather, alternative entertainment and, when it comes down to it, if there's a clash between the Warriors and the Blues/Auckland NPC Team (not even at the same time, just the same weekend), most WUC folk will plump for going to the Blues/Auckland NPC game because as per a line from "Hunt For The Wilderpeople": "Those bloody Warriors are useless!"....
Given that this talks about the Dolphins, obviously they're including 2023 figures.
I'm terrified to see how shit things would be if last year (bearing in mind things obviously took time to warm up crowd wise, which is fair enough, given historical performance!) wasn't taken into account.
 
Last edited:
Ozwarrior said:

You’ll never guess which NRL club is performing best – and worst – off the field​

Adrian ProszenkoMay 31, 2024 — 5.30am
Listen to this article
They have been in the competition for less than two seasons, but the Dolphins have emerged as the NRL’s new financial powerhouse.
The NRL has benchmarked the commercial performance of all its franchises – bar the publicly listed Brisbane Broncos – and ranked them based on their overall revenue for the financial year. The benchmarking document, obtained by this masthead, shows the Dolphins have come out on top alongside the Rabbitohs, each generating $23.5 million in revenue.
That’s well above the median figure of $15.7 million, with Manly ($11.5 million) and the Warriors ($11.6 million) bringing up the rear.
Souths made a 56 per cent profit off their revenue figure for a total profit of $14 million, just above the Dolphins with 55 per cent ($13.75 million).
Penrith ($23 million; 57 per cent profit), Cowboys ($22.7 million; 63 per cent profit), Parramatta ($19.3 million; 59 per cent profit) and the Roosters ($18.2 million; 71 per cent profit) were the next-best performing clubs in terms of revenue generation. Had the Broncos been involved in the benchmarking exercise, they would likely have come out on top in most categories.
However, the unexpected success story is undoubtedly the Dolphins, who only entered the competition in 2023.
Even before a ball had been kicked in their inaugural season, the Redcliffe-based franchise had 20,000 members and $10 million in sponsorship. Their bottom line continued to improve after they won their opening game against the Sydney Roosters, just as a documentary on their journey to the big time, Dawn of the Dolphins, premiered on Stan.
“We’ve had wonderful support from day one,” said Dolphins chief executive Terry Reader. “The measure of success for us - and this showed that Brisbane didn’t just want another team, but needed another team – is that our last two home games of the year were our second– and third-biggest crowds of the year.
“That happened when we weren’t in contention for finals, which illustrates how much people were behind our club and had bought in.
“That backed up the decision that we should have had two teams in Brisbane a long time ago.”
The Wayne Bennett-coached newcomers collected more revenue in sponsorship than any other club, with $10.9 million, pipping the Roosters, with $10.4 million. The Raiders ($4.6 million) and Manly ($4.7 million) generated the least.
“A lot of our partners were new to rugby league, it was important we didn’t cannibalise the other teams in QLD Morons,” Reader said.
“The Broncos having Brisbane for themselves for over 35 years, there would have been a lot of partners locked out of sponsoring up here in Brisbane.
“Bringing a second team allowed them [an opportunity], and that’s one of the great things about the Dolphins’ entry: we’ve brought a lot of new partners into rugby league because of that.
“That’s a testament to how much rugby league is supported here in Brisbane and the good work that has been part of starting up our club.”
Manly CEO Tony Mestrov said the club’s home ground of 4 Pines Park at Brookvale had brought financial challenges.
“It’s a great place for the team to play, but it’s a challenge from a commercial point of view and that’s represented by our standing in the benchmarking,” Mestrov said.
“We’re endeavouring to change that with the redevelopment and with funding, as we’re seeing with Leichhardt Oval.”
Parramatta chief executive Jim Sarantinos said their result allowed them to reinvest funds into the club’s football program.
“Quite a number of years ago we were much lower down the list,” he said.
“Our club has improved a hell of a lot. The move to CommBank Stadium has helped because of the experience we can provide to members, fans and corporate partners. The club having a better period of football, than has been the case historically, over a period of three or four years helps a lot, particularly in terms of bringing on corporate partners and the like.
“The most important part is the more money we generate, the more we can invest back into our football program.”


Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
Click to expand...

This is specifically why the commercial property investment has been made (Not just a pub but also a food outlet and tyre shop are leasing off the club too).

Will be very interesting to see these numbers again next year - we will be well off the bottom.

Cameron George has been very vocal about how Covid exposed the clubs reliance on NRL money.

Dolphins should not be a surprise to anyone, their group income from major asset ownership (retail mall etc) was the cornerstone of their application - they were always flush with cash.
 
Makasene said:
This is specifically why the commercial property investment has been made (Not just a pub but also a food outlet and tyre shop are leasing off the club too).

Will be very interesting to see these numbers again next year - we will be well off the bottom.

Cameron George has been very vocal about how Covid exposed the clubs reliance on NRL money.

Dolphins should not be a surprise to anyone, their group income from major asset ownership (retail mall etc) was the cornerstone of their application - they were always flush with cash.
Click to expand...
The phins had a great supporter base and club, before they got in the nrl
 
Makasene said:
This is specifically why the commercial property investment has been made (Not just a pub but also a food outlet and tyre shop are leasing off the club too).

Will be very interesting to see these numbers again next year - we will be well off the bottom.

Cameron George has been very vocal about how Covid exposed the clubs reliance on NRL money.

Dolphins should not be a surprise to anyone, their group income from major asset ownership (retail mall etc) was the cornerstone of their application - they were always flush with cash.
Click to expand...
Would a stadium that can close the roof help with numbers, just curious as in bad weather I wouldn't want to sit there freezing my A$$ off
 
~Navigator~ said:
Would a stadium that can close the roof help with numbers, just curious as in bad weather I wouldn't want to sit there freezing my A$$ off
Click to expand...

As valuable as it would be, doubt it would make any material difference to these numbers.

Would be different if the club owned the stadium like many do In the Premier League or NFL.

As someone else posted though, it's not just about revenue, profit is the important number.

Next years numbers will also include all the additional costs from the pathways comps we've entered.
 
Makasene said:
As valuable as it would be, doubt it would make any material difference to these numbers.

Would be different if the club owned the stadium like many do In the Premier League or NFL.

As someone else posted though, it's not just about revenue, profit is the important number.

Next years numbers will also include all the additional costs from the pathways comps we've entered.
Click to expand...
I understand that the Warriors is a brand, which they must sell but if we had a stadium like penrith with shopping and restaurants near by then you could make a decent night of it all.
The closed roof like Forsyth Barr would make the night more enjoyable I'm sure
 
I am not sure if the other clubs have been doing this or not but the Warriors have been doing a lot of deals for kids getting in free. I think Cameron George said it was part getting reconnected with the community after being away from covid. For the first few game in 2023 in may have been partly to boost the attendance. The results obviously took care of that as the season went on.

After a good season where it looked like the club was doing well seeing where they are positioned is a bit of a shock. It does highlight how big a business sport is in Australia. Even the Sydney clubs in a crowded market place seem to be doing well.

The things like the bar where the club is diversifying should help long term.
 
wizard of Tauranga said:
Warriors make the least in the NRL? And last year was reported as a financial bumper year for the team with sold out grounds, etc.

We need to introduce more jersey’s and get the sales up!
Click to expand...
Jersey sales, memberships and gate takings are not where its at. It's sponsors. One could rock up and invest more money than those 3 things put together. Add in a few of them and you can see where the real money is.

Sponsors, advertisers, business and financial partners. This where population and popularity combine to give regions like Brisbane an advantage over most clubs. Broncos also have an exclusive club called the Thoroughbreds who are rich people given access to players where secret deals and dodgy one sided bets are placed over rounds of golf. Broncos also regularly sell enough season passes a year to sell out Mt Smart every game. Can't be forgetting their awesome club rooms, sponsorship deals from an international car maker, casino chain and brewery. Our sponsors back pockets pail into comparison.

A club like the Roosters while languishing at the bottom with us are far from broke because they have Saint Nick who has setup foundations to ensure the financial viability of the club long after he has passed. That use to Eric Watson in his early days but he then ran the club off the smell of an oily rag after that. The new owners look to be putting a lot of investment into the club particularly in junior development but they don't have the wallets of Uncle Nick.

Warriors are between a rock and a hard place. While the game day experience is extremely popular we lack a facility that can bring people in outside of that and we will almost never be able to enjoy the vast losings gathered by most Aussie clubs from pokie machines. Having a bar is a step in the right direction but that could also be a white elephant that the Auckland Warriors of old know only too well after a failed series of official bars went belly up in the early days. We should all be extremely grateful that Vodafone/One NZ have stuck around so long and invested so much into the club. It's not easy getting sponsorship but if there was ever a time for the club to capitalise it would be right now...
 
Rizzah said:
Here is the Graph from the article.
View attachment 7667

www.smh.com.au

You’ll never guess which NRL club is performing best – and worst – off the field

An NRL document has ranked the financial performance of every club. There are some big surprises – at the top and bottom of the ladder – in this revenue reveal.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au
Click to expand...
Profit margin is pretty decent. Our outflow seems to be pretty low compared to other teams especially considering team is based in NZ, and has pretty much the whole of NZ to deal with. Surely the owners would be pretty happy with how lean and efficiently the club is performing financially.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

tyrael
Recruitment What things should the Warriors do outside of 1st Grade to gain/retain fans?
2
Replies
26
Views
3K
j_p
tajhay
Social 🧛 PSA - Social Media - Impact on mental health
2
Replies
36
Views
1K
MrFrankWhite
MrFrankWhite
mt.wellington
  • Showcase: Item
Player Kahu Capper
Replies
2
Views
478
mt.wellington
mt.wellington
tyrael
General Warriors' Sponsors
Replies
2
Views
681
tyrael
tyrael
mt.wellington
  • Showcase: Item
Player James Fisher-Harris
3 4 5
Replies
88
Views
7K
run_it_str8_again
Back
Top