Massive Losses at Panthers

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Panthers, Australia's largest licensed club empire, is in financial meltdown and is expected to report an $11 million loss to members.

Reporter Eamonn Duff wrote that the Penrith based club's loss, confirmed by outgoing Chief Executive Glenn Matthews, is the largest in reversals spanning more than five years. It will also strip at least $1 million from the Penrith club's NRL playing budget and threatens 900 employees across the state.

Matthews, who resigned last week after 26 years at the club, said discussions had been held with the NSW Government and Clubs NSW to offload some of its 14 properties across Sydney and NSW.

Matthews was quoted as stating "there's no doubt we've had a trying year and suffered loss ... it will amount, with some write-downs, to about $11 million. There's parts of our strategy we need to revisit. We have 14 clubs at present. That will change this year."

Matthews said it was coincidence that he'd decided to quit days before members received copies of the club's annual report.

"My decision to call it a day has nothing to do with financial performance."

From humble beginnings as a small rugby league clubhouse in Penrith, Panthers grew to become the biggest licensed club brand in Australia with more than 140,000 members across seven clubs in Sydney and seven across regional NSW, including Port Macquarie, Newcastle, Bathurst and Lavington, near Albury.

At the upcoming annual general meeting, a survival strategy will be unveiled and is expected to include a sale of assets.

Club chairman Don Feltis, who took over the role in November, said he was "very disappointed" with the financial performance of the group, but was confident the position could be turned around.

"I'm not making any excuses about our financial position at the moment," Feltis explained, "it's not good but we're trying to do something about it. We've got no problems as far as our financial holdings or assets are concerned. In the short-term we need to turn our cash flow positive so we can go into profit."

Feltis said the club planned to offload several of the poorer performing clubs, but declined to name which ones.

"I'm extremely confident that this time next year, the current problems the Panthers Group is having will be significantly reduced," he said.

Marketed as a family retreat where people could eat, drink, gamble and socialise, Panthers outgrew its rugby league roots by installing attractions including a water-ski park, tennis courts, land- and water-based driving ranges as well as plush conference and banquet facilities.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted an unnamed boardmember as saying "the amalgamation strategy was appropriate at the time, but then along came the non-smoking laws and poker machine tax increases.

"The club landscape changed forever. It had an effect on everyone, but more so on Panthers because we had 14 clubs in the stable."

Clubs NSW Chief Executive David Costello was reported as saying that he was alarmed to hear of the club's latest loss, "the industry is facing massive challenges. There are plenty of clubs currently struggling to break even but none have encountered losses as bad as that. I don't understand exactly what has occurred up there. I'm at a loss, really I am. I'm staggered by that."