So how did Hetherington turn around the business side of things?

“We inherited about £5.5m of debt and the business was losing close on half a million a year,” he says. “And to compound matters, the team’s fortunes took a considerable dive in 1996 when they narrowly avoided relegation. It’s fair to say the Leeds club didn’t embrace the move to summer rugby. Crowds were declining and so was income in general. The big challenge was to change the culture but that only happens over a period of time.

“We’ve doubled the turnover over the last five or six years, we have 100 full-time staff here, double the number of 1996 and we’ve created a very good rugby business. We have excellent, high-quality staff who deliver high standards and the fact we’re profitable has enabled us to invest without the fear of debt. We’ve put £7.5m into the ground and we’ve put half-a-million pounds into the training facility at Kirkstall. There’s been significant investment in the education centre too.

“The thing we’re most proud of is that we’re one of the few sports businesses who owns its own facility and doesn’t have a penny of debt. We’ve got facilities that have been developed significantly and we’ve got a successful team. That’s as good as it gets.

“Going forward, there are still major challenges and one of them is that we’ll have to replace the South Stand with something that will cost around £6m, so that is inevitably going to take us back into significant debt. It’s got to be affordable, but we could be sat here in a year with a new South Stand.”

That was Hetherington talking in December 2010 about us dipping back into debt with the building of the new soutstand - full article here if anyone hasn't read it before-

richarddelariviere.co.uk/?p=256

So how did Hetherington turn around the business side of things?

“We inherited about £5.5m of debt and the business was losing close on half a million a year,” he says. “And to compound matters, the team’s fortunes took a considerable dive in 1996 when they narrowly avoided relegation. It’s fair to say the Leeds club didn’t embrace the move to summer rugby. Crowds were declining and so was income in general. The big challenge was to change the culture but that only happens over a period of time.

“We’ve doubled the turnover over the last five or six years, we have 100 full-time staff here, double the number of 1996 and we’ve created a very good rugby business. We have excellent, high-quality staff who deliver high standards and the fact we’re profitable has enabled us to invest without the fear of debt. We’ve put £7.5m into the ground and we’ve put half-a-million pounds into the training facility at Kirkstall. There’s been significant investment in the education centre too.

“The thing we’re most proud of is that we’re one of the few sports businesses who owns its own facility and doesn’t have a penny of debt. We’ve got facilities that have been developed significantly and we’ve got a successful team. That’s as good as it gets.

“Going forward, there are still major challenges and one of them is that we’ll have to replace the South Stand with something that will cost around £6m, so that is inevitably going to take us back into significant debt. It’s got to be affordable, but we could be sat here in a year with a new South Stand.”

That was Hetherington talking in December 2010 about us dipping back into debt with the building of the new soutstand - full article here if anyone hasn't read it before-

richarddelariviere.co.uk/?p=256