Source: The Sunday Telegraph
December 16, 2001
By Sasha Westwood
When home-grown movie star Russell Crowe falls in or out of love, the world notices. But it is his passion for a battling Sydney rugby league team that remains the one constant. Last week Crowe offered to sponsor a South Sydney player for the team's 2002 return to the National Rugby League, and The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the Coffs Harbour local will next month fly the entire Rabbitohs squad to a coaching clinic at his coastal hideaway.
Souths' president George Piggins always knew the "cheeky little bugger", who used to drag his mates to beg a seat in the coaches' box at Redfern Oval, was headed places. "He was a Souths supporter long before he was a movie star," Piggins said of the Rabbitohs' Hollywood ambassador. "I remember Russell when he was a youngster. He used to come and knock on the door of the corporate box and say he wanted to watch the game. He was always something a bit special. "He had plenty of confidence -- that's for sure."
Last week, the celebrity status of the cash-strapped league team was lifted even further with news that Crowe would underwrite a player contract. "Initially he approached us about a particular player, but we were not interested in the player and went another way," Piggins said. "But he made it clear that as soon as we find we need a little help we just have to rattle the can."
Piggins wouldn't discuss the amount Crowe has offered, but a Souths' insider confirmed he would bolster the club's cash reserves so it could spend the maximum $3.25 million on player contracts allowable under the NRL salary cap. "Russell said he wants to help us buy a player or two," the insider said. It is believed a top player costs around $200,000.
Crowe's love affair with Souths started as a young boy filling in time near his father's auto repair workshop in working class Zetland in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Twenty years later, Crowe introduced his old friend, Nicole Kidman's then-husband Tom Cruise to his team at one of the club's last NRL matches before being struck from the competition in 2000.
"Russell is our man in Hollywood now," Piggins said. "He even converted Burt Reynolds to the side when they were making a movie (Mystery, Alaska) together a couple of years ago."
Alongside celebrities such as Ray Martin, Crowe supported the team through its two-year fight to be re-instated by the NRL, even spending $42,000 on the starter bell rung at the first Rugby League match in 1908.
"When Russell bought the bell in a charity auction for the club in 1999, he said it wouldn't be rung until Souths played again," Piggins said. Crowe promised 98-year-old Rabbitohs' supporter Albert Clift -- who donated the bell to the auction -- that he would help him ring it when the club returned to national competition.
Source: Mercury News
December 16, 2006
Excerpt:
For this season, as (Lloyd)Carr discussed publicly last month, his motivational tool for his players was Cinderella Man,a movie that starred Russell Crowe portraying the life of boxer James Braddock, who won the heavyweight title in the mid-1930s.
After first seeing the movie on cable, Carr bought the DVD and took notes. He then spliced about 45 to 50 minutes of what he considered to be the film's most inspirational moments and began showing them to his team before the season started.
"For me, the No. 1 idea of the movie was this guy who's trying to take care of his family and that's really what a team is, in its ultimate sense, a family," Carr said.
But the coach has never publicized what happened after the media latched onto the story. Apparently, word had traveled far.
Here's the addendum: So Carr walked into his office one day a few weeks ago and passed the football executive assistant. Nothing unusual about that, except on this day she said: "Oh, and Russell Crowe is going to be calling you."
"Oh, sure," he replied.
Sure enough, Carr's phone rang. Crowe was on the line.
"We had a great conversation," Carr said Thursday. "We talked for 20 minutes. Of course, when he called, I was not expecting a call from Russell Crowe. I told him how much I enjoyed the film, and he did say that it was one of the great experiences he had and he loved the movie.
"I told the players. They were all excited."
But the conversation didn't end there.
"He said he bought a football team in Australia, where he lives," Carr said. "He asked me if I would be interested in coming to Australia and seeing his team. I said, `Yeah, I'd be happy to.'
"I said, `If we'd have time to drink a beer, I'll come.' He said, `Yeah, we'll do that.' "
OK. So what's on Carr's to-do list for 2007?
The first thing, of course, is to open the New Year with a Rose Bowl victory. He also wants to finish a Shelby Foote novel he's halfway through reading. The book, about the Civil War, is called "Red River to Appomattox."
And then, if that Australia trip "works out," Carr said, well, "that would be a fun thing to do."
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
December 16, 2008
Crowe ends Souths aid to foster self-sufficiency
By Michael Cowley
South Sydney part-owner Russell Crowe believes the time has arrived for the "business to stand on its own", revealing to members he will no longer pour cash into his beloved Bunnies.
At the request of club CEO Shane Richardson and chairman Nick Pappas, Crowe sent a six-minute, emailed video message to each Souths member, speaking about the club and progress, but during the message he admits he "won't continue to put in the type of cash I've had to, forever".
"I'm always going to be a Souths' boy, that won't change," he says. "Next week someone will have to find a couple of hundred grand for gym equipment, 50 or 60 [thousand] more for interior fit-out costs at Redfern [Oval], individual named lockers, ice baths built in, inspirational things, huge photographs, boards with every player from every premiership we've ever won, team photos from every year we have on record, inspirational things the players will benefit from, and an atmosphere which brings them inside 100 years of history.
"Now don't worry about the bill, between generous sponsors and myself, we'll get it done this time. I will tell you this, though, I won't continue to put the type of cash I've had to into Souths so far, forever. The business has to begin to stand on its own. Be quite sure that is not an emotional issue for me, it is what it is."
Richardson said yesterday the message was not about Crowe slowing or stopping his funding, it was about progress, and that meant building membership and making the club self-sufficient. "Membership is the most important thing to clubs," Richardson said. "We're the largest ticketed member club of all the Sydney clubs. Last year we had 6700, this year we're already over the 6000 mark and we want to get to 8000 [next season] and eventually 15,000. All Russell is doing is coming out on the video and explaining the importance of membership and being involved with the club. It was not a media release or put on the website, it's put directly to the members.
"We're projecting to break square next year and membership is a crucial part of that. And I don't think the members see this as doom and gloom, Russell is not putting cash in, I've had nothing but positive feedback from the members.
"He's being honest about his backing for the club, honest about how he sees the club progressing. He's only done this with our prompting. I don't think there is any problem stating the bleeding obvious, you're not going to keep pouring money down the tube if people aren't going to get behind the club."
"I make no apologies. I think Russell is right in what he says ... I don't want Russell to put more money in, I want us to stand on our own two feet because the day that we do, we are a genuine premiership threat."
