{"id":381668,"date":"2024-04-04T00:05:54","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T00:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=381668"},"modified":"2024-04-04T01:03:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T01:03:25","slug":"airline-and-mining-magnate-in-30m-bid-to-buy-rebels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=381668","title":{"rendered":"Airline and mining magnate in $30m bid to buy Rebels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Qantas chairman and ex-Rio Tinto executive Leigh Clifford is leading a private equity consortium to acquire the cash-strapped Melbourne Rebels<\/a> and give them a new home.<\/p>\n

A deal worth up to $30 million has been tabled to take over the running of the Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> club and have them moved to Melbourne's west.<\/p>\n

Wyndham Regional Football Facility, the home of A-League<\/a> team Western United<\/a>, would become the new Rebels base.<\/p>\n

Watch all the action from the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season, with<\/strong><\/em> every match ad-free, live and and on demand on Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Under the plan, the Rebels would no longer play at AAMI Park (Melbourne Rectangular Stadium) and instead play at the new 5000-capacity Tarneit stadium.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

It's expected the stadium capacity will be expanded to 15,000 by the start of the 2026\/27 A-League season.\ufeff<\/p>\n

The Rebels have racked up $23 million in debt, of which $11 million is owed to the Australian Taxation Office.<\/p>\n

Club directors have been issued penalty notices and are personally liable for the debt.<\/p>\n

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Victorian government-owned entities the Melbourne Olympic Park Trust and the State Revenue Office are owed $2 million.<\/p>\n

The Rebels have been in limbo since going into administration before the start of this year's Super Rugby Pacific season.<\/p>\n

The club's licence is currently held by Rugby Australia and any change of ownership would need to be approved by the sport's governing body.<\/p>\n

\"Leigh<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Clifford-led consortium issued a statement confirming its plans to raise between $20 million and $30 million to acquire the Rebels.<\/p>\n

The Australian businessman was CEO at Rio Tinto from 2000 to 2007 and then the chairman of Qantas from 2007 to 2018.<\/p>\n

Melbourne Rebels director Georgia Widdup and spokesperson for the consortium said the move west would be a "game-changer" for the club and the sport which Victoria "desperately needs" to survive.<\/p>\n

"We have an exciting vision and a detailed, common-sense plan to grow the sport of rugby in the fastest-growing municipality in Australia," Widdup said.<\/p>\n

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"The Rebels are committed to the women's game, the Pasifika community and important programs for the western region's youth and this move will enable us to significantly expand these critical areas.<\/p>\n

"This is an opportunity to grow rugby's grassroots supporter base and attract significant new private investment to make the game sustainable into the future.<\/p>\n

"We are passionate about keeping rugby in Victoria but we realise for the Rebels and the sport generally to thrive we need to innovate and be smarter."<\/p>\n

The Rebels host the Fijian Drua in round seven of Super Rugby Pacific in Melbourne at 7.35pm AEDT.<\/p>\n

Coverage is live, ad-free, and exclusively on Stan Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Qantas chairman and ex-Rio Tinto executive Leigh Clifford is leading a private equity consortium to acquire the cash-strapped Melbourne Rebels and give them a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":381671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=381668"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381678,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381668\/revisions\/381678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/381671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=381668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=381668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}