Essendon can't live without pokies funding says David Barham

[Cyber_punk]

How is it that the poorest clubs can do without them but one of the big 4 can't? At least with St Kilda it's believable because of their debt.

Does anyone actually believe this slimey sh!tbag?

Essendon president David Barham says Bombers aren’t in a financial position to give away pokies revenue​

December 19, 2023 - 6:00AM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

The Bombers won’t step away from the pokies game anytime soon, with president David Barham saying at the club’s AGM the club was not in a financial position to give up the revenue.

Essendon is still not in a position to live withoutpoker machine revenue with president David Barham saying there would be “massive damage” if the club cut off the controversial financial lifeline.

Barham faced questioning about the Bombers pokies interests at the annual general meeting, saying the club was actively searching for alternative sources of income.

Essendon is one of four clubs – alongside Carlton, Richmond and St Kilda – who own gaming venues. The Bombers have two venues – Windy Hill, which has 101 machines, and Melton Country Club, which has 89 machines.

Five AFL clubs have weaned themselves off poker machines over the past four years: Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.

“All I can say is this club is not in a financial position at the moment to step away from the venues we have at the moment and the venue revenue we have,” Barham said.
“So the only way we can do this realistically, and I am genuine when I say this, is that this club is actively looking at alternative sources of revenue, that’s the only way we can do it without there being massive damage to the football club.
“I can’t give any cast iron guarantees and I can’t give you any promises that other people have to keep but we are committed to trying to find ways to bring revenue into this footy club to give us choices,”

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Can live without them, it would just mean cutting costs and/or getting a bigger distribution of funds from the AFL.

It's not something you can just switch off, you need to transition it. As he said, they're looking at ways to do that.

 

[LFTWNG11]

Get Dodo in the Finance department to sort it out.

 

[bobs head soup]

Can live without them, it would just mean cutting costs and/or getting a bigger distribution of funds from the AFL.

It's not something you can just switch off, you need to transition it. As he said, they're looking at ways to do that.

View attachment 1874906

My biggest take out from those figures is that EFC spent over $1.5mill on IT expenses last year, but still nobody can retrieve that pesky spreadsheet.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

 

[DeanoDocker]

My biggest take out from those figures is that EFC spent over $1.5mill on IT expenses last year, but still nobody can retrieve that pesky spreadsheet.

Gold

 

[Thrawn]

The last four presidents of Essendon look like Mr Burns. Coincidence?

 

[Danw0w]

How is it that the poorest clubs can do without them but one of the big 4 can't?

This is why.

 

[mako_roo]

View attachment 1874926
This is why.

Absolute crap, your Friday night blockbusters covers the difference. Equalization funds are given according to the AFL "fixture" of TV rights. Nothing more, nothing less

 

[Boxhead_31]

How is it that the poorest clubs can do without them but one of the big 4 can't? At least with St Kilda it's believable because of their debt.

Does anyone actually believe this slimey sh!tbag?

Cause that would mean David and the Essendon board would have to do some work and find other income sources and that is just too much work for the poor petals to be expected to do.

 

[Gavin Excell]

If you must fleece the community with pokies then at least spare us all the BS about social responsibility and "commitment to the community"

 

[Gavin Excell]

Carlton
Essendon
Richmond
St Kilda

The shameful 4

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Personally it doesn’t bother me. If there was a solution that saw the machines closed then I’d be all for it. But there’s not. The licenses are just passed to somebody else and they operate them. It makes zero difference to the people playing them.

Plenty of clubs and organisations trumpet exiting pokies, the reality is they have done absolutely * all to remove pokies - they’ve just brought forward the revenue through a big sale price rather than taking it each year. The machines are still there and still spin away.

 

[adammania9]

Does anybody else not give a poop about clubs profiting off of pokies? Blame the dummies who put their coin in. It's simply a wise investment.

 

[Danw0w]

Absolute crap, your Friday night blockbusters covers the difference. Equalization funds are given according to the AFL "fixture" of TV rights. Nothing more, nothing less

Can't wait for all zero of our Friday night blockbusters next year to cover the difference.

 

[Kreuuuzeurns]

How is it that the poorest clubs can do without them but one of the big 4 can't? At least with St Kilda it's believable because of their debt.

Does anyone actually believe this slimey sh!tbag?

The poor clubs like North and St Kilda just get a bigger share of that AFL Sportsbet money.

 

[mako_roo]

Can't wait for all zero of our Friday night blockbusters next year to cover the difference.

Gifted games all year on prime time for many many years, cry me river.

 

[Danw0w]

Gifted games all year on prime time for many many years, cry me river.

Gifted? You mean earnt?

 

[mako_roo]

Gifted? You mean earnt?

Earn't? How long has Richmond vs Carlton been prime time? When was the last time you both played finals to earn that game. Gifted for many years - sook somewhere else. Equalization fund evens it out. Your lucky the AFL looks after you 'so' called clubs

 

[mako_roo]

Gifted? You mean earnt?

Your original post was stupid - You know it & everyone knows it

 

[emblurr]

The AFL gets over $50 million a year from betting companies. Telstra, Seven and Foxtel have a new deal for $643 million a season from 2025 to 2031. Betting companies pay millions to advertise on those platforms. This revenue goes to the equalization fund. Whether clubs have pokies or not, they are all getting money from gambling.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Personally it doesn’t bother me. If there was a solution that saw the machines closed then I’d be all for it. But there’s not. The licenses are just passed to somebody else and they operate them. It makes zero difference to the people playing them.

Plenty of clubs and organisations trumpet exiting pokies, the reality is they have done absolutely * all to remove pokies - they’ve just brought forward the revenue through a big sale price rather than taking it each year. The machines are still there and still spin away.

Other clubs with worse stadium deals and less revenue from selling merchandise and memberships than Essendon have figured it out in recent years, though.

And nobody's saying that the clubs themselves have any moral responsibility to promote the wider anti-pokies cause in society, just that ownership of pokies and goes against the purpose and foundations of a club, ones that are non-profit, and exist to support a sense of community and general good health, and pokies ownership wouldn't and doesn't represent the wishes of the members and the general desires of members for clubs that are in least theory democratic in nature.

 

[Danw0w]

Earn't? How long has Richmond vs Carlton been prime time? When was the last time you both played finals to earn that game. Gifted for many years - sook somewhere else. Equalization fund evens it out. Your lucky the AFL looks after you 'so' called clubs

Seems like you're the only doing any sooking here.

 

[Danw0w]

Your original post was stupid - You know it & everyone knows it

Just sharing facts. For the record I'm very anti-gambling, but let's not pretend that North would be doing financially better than any of the other clubs without the additional funding.

 

[Gavin Excell]

The defence by supporters of clubs with pokies is weak given most others have weaned themselves off them