Cats plea to AFL for financial help (Age)

[Hawkk]

hawthorn is a weird example. they were broke the 90s after more success than geelong and nearly merged. are only doing well financially now because they have partially relocated to Tassie and are paid a boat load by the Tassie govt.

Not quite

Hawthorn generated $67m in revenue last year ($8m more than the 3rd biggest club)...Athey also have 73,000 members. Where would the Hawks be without its $3m a season in Tasmania (did I mention that they are our major sponsor and we just signed Audi as a short sponsor?) and our 8,000 Tasmanian members

 

[Hawkk]

the problem is eddie. now you have the the hawthorn president of Hawthorn Andrew Newbolt, attempting to do an eddie! they beat their chest about how financially successful they are & arrogantly care to comment about other clubs. FFS give other clubs the hand outs and exposure those clubs have had and they will become financial success stories like the pies and hawks

You're delusional now...

How did Geelong and St Kilda compare to Hawthorn and Collingwood in terms of revenue, members and home and away attendances in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012?

 

[PieLebo87]

yeah go and look at the history of boards Eddie ast on, events victoria and athletics victoria.
go and look in to the redevelopment of the running surface of the olympic park stadium, then the redevelopment of the former bob jane stadium & new home of athletics victoria.

now every time eddie is on radio he whore's out the pies on radio & always giving out collingwood freebies

So what's the problem again? What's he done wrong? lol you wish he was the Essendon President bud.

 

[telsor]

Never said anything about closing clubs down. I just said there needs to be accountability of some type. Because at the moment there is little to none at club level.

So what did you mean by "they don't need to bail clubs out"?

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Nice diversion, the real issue here is that you have to travel the least out of any team. You should have to play more interstate games than other sides to even the equation.

No. I think all Vic sides get roughly he same amount of interstate trips, 5-6. As it should be too.

 

[Ando727]

How does this help? Force people to pay more for something they won't use and the ones that aren't prepared to can f*** off entirely? Basically just arbitrarily extract more money from the consumer by limiting their choice with a take it or leave it offer? With an attitude like that you would do well at AFL house.

I've explained it elsewhere in this thread. You're not smart enough to understand the answer so I won't bother explaining any further. And yes, I'm aware that this reply is rude, but your reply to me is ridiculous. Who do you think you are?

 

[Demonic Ascent]

the problem is eddie. now you have the the hawthorn president of Hawthorn Andrew Newbolt, attempting to do an eddie! they beat their chest about how financially successful they are & arrogantly care to comment about other clubs. FFS give other clubs the hand outs and exposure those clubs have had and they will become financial success stories like the pies and hawks

Just because they talk the loudest doesn't mean the AFL have to listen.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

There are no GA memberships in Perth (because there is no GA).

So $700 is for a premium membership?

 

[Seeds]

People really need to get out of this 'profit and loss' mentality.

Clubs, as 'not for profit' entities are more like people than companies....

If you or I make more than we spend this year, we didn't make a 'profit', we saved some money. Similarly if we spend more than we earned, we didn't make a loss, we spent some of those savings.

Clubs don't try to 'make a profit', they try to bring in as much money as possible so they can spend it on making the football team more successful and any surplus is only there due to conservative accounting/budgetting practices and putting money aside for a 'rainy day'.

good post. the afl is thebusiness. the clubs are divisions of that business. the AFL needs to redistribute to maximise the business and there

And yet we pay the highest tier!

You want us to pay your boot studder too?

in the real world higher income earners pay a higher percentage of there income in tax than middle income earners. in the football world collingwood not only dont pay a higher rate of tax then middle income earners, they pay a lower rate of tax. would you think its ok for people earning much more income than you to pay a lower rate of tax than you do? seriously answer that question?

 

[hawker19]

Let's not forget the lights are not there to increase attendances.

The lights are there to hold more games at night to increase TV ratings (and attendances be damned).

My point is the Cats lobbied long and hard for the installation of lights and fans now complain that they want more day games. Hence, the club cites the number of night/twilight games as a reason for diminishing memberships, smaller crowds and a downturn in income. If that's the case, then clearly the club erred in pushing hard for their installation in the first place.

 

[SJ]

My point is the Cats lobbied long and hard for the installation of lights and fans now complain that they want more day games. Hence, the club cites the number of night/twilight games as a reason for diminishing memberships, smaller crowds and a downturn in income. If that's the case, then clearly the club erred in pushing hard for their installation in the first place.

Did they push hard?

In either case, it's not just about night games. Sunday games which a few years ago would have been on at 1:10 have now all been at 3:20PM. If you drive an hour and a half home from the footy (like most people in Melbourne or the western districts, who both make up sizeable portions of Geelong's supporter base) then pushing it back over two hours on a Sunday will make a significant impact on attendance.

 

[Rob]

So $700 is for a premium membership?

I can only speak for Freo, but I believe West Coast is very similar.
There are 5 categories of seats - budget (about 15% of the ground) standard (about 25%), premium (40%), premium gold (20%) and restricted view (handful).

Prices for adult 11 games are $305, $410, $600, $715 and $280 respectively. Not sure if that's what you mean by a 'premium' membership - you don't get anything more than a better seat by upgrading your category, you don't get an invite to the presidents lunch or anything like that. There are higher levels, but then you're looking at paying thousands.

Edit: Turns out I was looking at 2014 prices, so add another 5% or so to those for 2015.

 

[Rob]

So what did you mean by "they don't need to bail clubs out"?

Don't just provide an open chequebook to clubs.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

I can only speak for Freo, but I believe West Coast is very similar.
There are 5 categories of seats - budget (about 15% of the ground) standard (about 25%), premium (40%), premium gold (20%) and restricted view (handful).

Prices for adult 11 games are $305, $410, $600, $715 and $280 respectively. Not sure if that's what you mean by a 'premium' membership - you don't get anything more than a better seat by upgrading your category, you don't get an invite to the presidents lunch or anything like that. There are higher levels, but then you're looking at paying thousands.

Edit: Turns out I was looking at 2014 prices, so add another 5% or so to those for 2015.

Jfyi, those prices are not dissimilar to here. For rfc (which has one of the smaller upgrade cultures, so softer prices), my reserved seat was around $600

The issue of course is demand for those seats, as most weeks you can get a good seat in GA, the pressure to pay extra for a reserved seat still is low for most clubs thanks to the capacity of the G

 

[ziad]

merge is the only viable solution, this isn't the greek football league

Tassi want a team

 

[telsor]

Don't just provide an open chequebook to clubs.

and the result of that would be????

 

[madmug]

Tassi want a team

Dont drop your e's. Its bad hinglisch

 

[Rob]

and the result of that would be????

Clubs actually taking some financial responsibility.

This isn't rocket science here.....

 

[Demonic Ascent]

I can only speak for Freo, but I believe West Coast is very similar.
There are 5 categories of seats - budget (about 15% of the ground) standard (about 25%), premium (40%), premium gold (20%) and restricted view (handful).

Prices for adult 11 games are $305, $410, $600, $715 and $280 respectively. Not sure if that's what you mean by a 'premium' membership - you don't get anything more than a better seat by upgrading your category, you don't get an invite to the presidents lunch or anything like that. There are higher levels, but then you're looking at paying thousands.

Edit: Turns out I was looking at 2014 prices, so add another 5% or so to those for 2015.

Seems pretty similar to what people pay here for memberships. A few years back I was an MFC Premium member (reserved seat, guaranteed GF Tix I know haha but no Presidents lunch or anything) and it was about $500. That would be the second last category, there was also a higher level of membership with better seats about $750. These are probably cheaper than some other clubs in Vic.

 

[Micksy]

One gold bus that goes to every afl game in Victoria and the one I take each week, the Ballarat cats supporters bus (Tim la Trobe Ballarat buses).

Do they pick up and put down on Geelong Rd/Canadian Lakes area?

 

[Cptn Courageous]

I've explained it elsewhere in this thread. You're not smart enough to understand the answer so I won't bother explaining any further. And yes, I'm aware that this reply is rude, but your reply to me is ridiculous. Who do you think you are?

I am chastened! Give me some time to reacclimatise to life as a "non-smart" person!

You've suggested elsewhere that, since allowing 3-game memberships, Geelong's revenue has declined. That suggests that, given the choice, Cats members would actually prefer to pay for the right to attend fewer games, because they are disinclined or unable to attend more games. As a mere non-smart person, I would very humbly suggest that the way forward might be for Geelong or the AFL to address the root cause of that, rather than just squeeze money out of football fans for games they are unable to or do not want to attend.

Please report that to the meritorious committee of smart people and report back to me with their feedback.

 

[Sydney Bloods]

tax is doing exactly what its supposed to, role back spending.
the idea isn't just to real in big club spending, its designed to stop the "arms" race.

If geelong doesn't have the money to pay the tax don't spend over the limit.

 

[aCunningPlan]

Do they pick up and put down on Geelong Rd/Canadian Lakes area?

Haha, the station, and the globe in sebas are the two major stops.

 

[1892]

Reading through the article Geelong have a shortfall of more than $1 million, 500k is a result of membership downgrades, so there's still 500k+ from elsewhere. Other areas mentioned are crowd numbers and gaming profits. COOK states Geelong focused more on football at the expensive of managing their stadium and gaming venues, which Geelong reckon will be fixed with outside operators to manage the ground and venues.

Changes to crowd numbers isn't something a club can control, but not putting the time into managing the stadium and gaming venues is their fault and mismanagement. The 'pies lost millions on poor pub investments, yet didn't seek a handout despite their failure causing massive losses.

Carlton is possibly the bigger worry, "unforeseen financial burdens see the blues headed for another significant loss". Sure penalties for breaching the salary cap crippled their recruiting for a couple of years, but they've hardly helped themselves with poor draft choices, trying to buy success through massive contracts to previously great coaches and over reliance on financial beneficiaries instead of good management.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Did they push hard?

In either case, it's not just about night games. Sunday games which a few years ago would have been on at 1:10 have now all been at 3:20PM. If you drive an hour and a half home from the footy (like most people in Melbourne or the western districts, who both make up sizeable portions of Geelong's supporter base) then pushing it back over two hours on a Sunday will make a significant impact on attendance.

I remember reading that the lights were partly to attract alternative sports which makes the venue multipurpose and in turn improves the bargaining chip for further development.

The most notable alternative sport they're trying to attract is a big bash franchise.