Super Rugby Side Waratahs Admits Financial Troubles Have Hit Breaking Point

Super Rugby side New South Wales Waratahs' financial position "is so unstable and precarious that rain on a couple of home-match nights" this season might be all it takes "to drive the franchise to the wall," according to Wayne Smith of THE AUSTRALIAN. Waratahs CEO Jason Allen said that while "he did not subscribe to the panicky talk surrounding the NSW franchise, its finances were unsustainable." He said, "Do we have enough cash to get through this season? At this point, yes. Can we sustain it? No." He admitted that the Waratahs "literally had nothing set aside for a rainy day." Allen said that "the franchise's financial position was '50 per cent worse off' than at the corresponding period last year, primarily as a consequence of the loss of HSBC as full naming-rights sponsor." He said, "We've got our exposure to a level where it's bloody risky but it's not close-the-door time" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 1/30).