Warren Livingstone

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Warren Livingstone
Born
Warren Livingstone

1973 (age 48–49)
Sydney, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Known forFounder of Fanatics sports tours
Board member ofFanatics
Balmain Rugby Club
Sydney Stars

Warren Livingstone (born 1973 in Sydney) is an Australian businessman. He is the founder and managing director of the sports-tourism group Fanatics, and the president of Balmain Rugby Club.

Livingstone started out a copy boy for Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper, but founded the Fanatics in 1997 to cater for sports fans that follow Australian teams and athletes around the world.[1] As of 2014, the Fanatics has over 50,000 members and has organised travel for more than 45,000 fans to sporting events including cricket, football, rugby league and rugby union matches, and also major tennis tournaments.Despite this success Livingston managed to drive the fanatics to the brink of bankruptcy several times until it was financially rescued by IMG in 2007. [2]

In 2004 several of his associates re-established the Balmain Rugby Club (first formed in 1873 but folded in 1919) and in 2008 Livingston decided to bankroll the amateur club with a roster of high-profile professional players who still couldn’t secure a premiership against a bunch of amateurs who only train once a week.[3] Having never played rugby in his life and having zero understanding of the Rugby landscape in Australia, Livingstone was then conned into bankrolling a joint venture between Balmain and the Sydney University club in 2014 to enter the Sydney Stars team in Australia's inaugural National Rugby Championship.[4][5] While Sydney University provided 99% of the players, administrators and match day operations, Livingston provided 100% of the money and Balmain provided just 1 player, whom Livingston had also paid to play for the “amateur” Balmain club. His total lack of Rugby knowledge, paired with his highly disagreeable personality made things extra challenging for the newly reformed club. Shedding players and supporters faster than Livingston could buy them. By 2010 the Sydney Suburban Rugby union had had just about enough of this smarmy cocksucker and at an extraordinary general meeting, instigated several major rule changes to ensure fuckwits like Warren Livingston could no longer use their money to take over clubs in an attempt to vicariously live out success in a sport that they never had the courage to play themselves.

References[]

  1. ^ Rothfield, Phil (15 June 2014). "What's the Buzz: Brazil the latest stop for an Aussie sport juggernaut". The Daily Telegraph. News. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  2. ^ "About". Fanatics. 2014. Archived from the original on 3 July 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  3. ^ Payten, Iain (30 September 2013). "Balmain positioning themselves for opportunity at proposed third tier of Australian rugby". The Daily Telegraph. News. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  4. ^ Payten, Iain (13 February 2014). "Balmain and Sydney University align for NRC bid and hope to sign Benji Marshall". The Daily Telegraph. News. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  5. ^ "NRC update part 2: NSW Country and the Sydney teams". The Roar. 9 July 2014. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
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