Strategy New St Kilda FC board member: Liz Dawson

[Kildonan]

Saints in AFL first with New Zealander Dawson added to board
Nathan Schmook June 28, 2014 7:37 AM

ST KILDA has taken another step in cementing its New Zealand strategy by appointing to its board a new director who will be based across the Tasman.

Liz Dawson has joined the Saints' board, bringing vast experience in New Zealand sport as the club prepares to play its third game in Wellington on Anzac Day next year.

Dawson is a director of the New Zealand Olympic Committee and the Wellington Hurricanes Super 15 Rugby team, as well as a board member of New Zealand Cricket.

St Kilda chief executive Matt Finnis said the appointment was a strong step forward for the Saints as they look to grow their presence in New Zealand.

"Liz has got an incredibly impressive resumé around governance in sport and she's really well credentialed to assist our club as we develop a strategy to drive AFL in New Zealand," Finnis told AFL.com.au.

"If you think about some of the key milestones in our New Zealand strategy, first and foremost you've got the first game we played on Anzac Day, then you've got our scholarship players.

"Now we've got a director on our board from New Zealand.

"I think it is a really important milestone as part of an evolving strategy to win the hearts and minds of New Zealanders and grow our club at the same time."

...

There were supporter concerns at the most recent Annual General Meeting that the club was on a path to relocation, but president Peter Summers reassured fans that was not the case.

 

[Highlander35]

Welcome to the club Leez.

 

[Persevering Saint]

Wow, now that is very impressive. Hats off to the admin team again. That is a great get.

 

[CALL ME SNAKE]

Saints in AFL first with New Zealander Dawson added to board
Nathan Schmook June 28, 2014 7:37 AM

ST KILDA has taken another step in cementing its New Zealand strategy by appointing to its board a new director who will be based across the Tasman.

Liz Dawson has joined the Saints' board, bringing vast experience in New Zealand sport as the club prepares to play its third game in Wellington on Anzac Day next year.

Dawson is a director of the New Zealand Olympic Committee and the Wellington Hurricanes Super 15 Rugby team, as well as a board member of New Zealand Cricket.

St Kilda chief executive Matt Finnis said the appointment was a strong step forward for the Saints as they look to grow their presence in New Zealand.

"Liz has got an incredibly impressive resumé around governance in sport and she's really well credentialed to assist our club as we develop a strategy to drive AFL in New Zealand," Finnis told AFL.com.au.

"If you think about some of the key milestones in our New Zealand strategy, first and foremost you've got the first game we played on Anzac Day, then you've got our scholarship players.

"Now we've got a director on our board from New Zealand.

"I think it is a really important milestone as part of an evolving strategy to win the hearts and minds of New Zealanders and grow our club at the same time."

...

There were supporter concerns at the most recent Annual General Meeting that the club was on a path to relocation, but president Peter Summers reassured fans that was not the case.

The Warriors in the NRL don't get AFL type crowd numbers to their games. And the NZ games in the 'Super Rugby Union' don't have very big crowds to home and away games either. And these Kiwi peeps are rugby crazy.
There is no freaking way an AFL team would ever relocate to NZ. If you play once or maybe twice a yr you might get a half decent crowd. And a lot of that would be traveling Aussies and people just having a look cos of novelty value.
But if you were playing there several times a yr you would be lucky to even get GWS size home crowds.
Supporters don't have to worry about us relocating. we will just play there once maybe twice a yr and stuff our pockets with the AFLs cash while they are still handing it out.

 

[Dopey BJ]

The Warriors in the NRL don't get AFL type crowd numbers to their games. And the NZ games in the 'Super Rugby Union' don't have very big crowds to home and away games either. And these Kiwi peeps are rugby crazy.
There is no freaking way an AFL team would ever relocate to NZ. If you play once or maybe twice a yr you might get a half decent crowd. And a lot of that would be traveling Aussies and people just having a look cos of novelty value.
But if you were playing there several times a yr you would be lucky to even get GWS size home crowds.
Supporters don't have to worry about us relocating. we will just play there once maybe twice a yr and stuff our pockets with the AFLs cash while they are still handing it out.

How all this NZ stuff ends up working for us who knows, but with 9 Melb. clubs we have to do something outside the box and this appointment shows we aren't going about it half assed.

 

[Defacto]

amazing get!!!!

 

[Manimal_Dunstan]

Welcome to the club.

 

[Sunshine Saint]

An excellent well credentialed appointment. A very good move by the club.

 

[Ian Dunross]

Anyone see Grant Thomas tweet that this was confirmation of his suggestion that the Club is relocating to NZ. I like Grant, but this comment seems unhinged.

 

[Persevering Saint]

He obviously didn't listen to Finnis. Finnis was emphatic that would be club suicide. NZ is a completely raw market. It'll only ever get us a subsidiary bunch of members, at most 10,000 out of the entire population of 4 million.

 

[Defacto]

Anyone see Grant Thomas tweet that this was confirmation of his suggestion that the Club is relocating to NZ. I like Grant, but this comment seems unhinged.

his richard ings twitter convo was hilarious. two disgruntled people talking about their industries that sacked em. so much thinly veiled bitterness

 

[RobbieMuir]

Is Grant Thomas serious? There are apparently about 350,000 people in Australia that follow St Kilda compared to about 10,000 in NZ and he thinks we are going to re-locate? Perhaps maths was not Grant's best subject.

 

[ike2112]

I dont think that this step is anything significant in terms of the Saints moving to NZ.

However I think its naive to think that it might not occur at some point; if not us moving, then another club or a future expansion in around 8-10 years.

When the NFL first put a game in London, it was novelty based on the huge spike in TV viewing ratings. It was such a huge hit that they kept going back. The games are strange, soulless affairs though. 70,000 people all wearing different team jerseys, no more than about 5% cheering for either side actually playing in the game. And the novelty has worn off - they are scheduling more games each year, and its gotten easier and easier to get tickets for the games - despite their published stats I know last years games weren't sellouts, the local association was giving them away in the days before. And Jacksonville want to become regulars, but they'll never become the UK's team.
Instead the crowds will continue to dwindle until (if) they ever sort out a plan for the logistics, and base a team in London/Germany/Europe. Then people will have a proper local team and sport to follow, attend the home games for. Even then, many of the current generation are more likely to stick to the team they currently follow and not change allegience lightly.
Thats where the NFL is at in trying a new country/market. It makes them a packet of cash, but they now need to take a new step or their margins on it will get lower each year.

To me this is exactly the route the AFL are taking with NZ, I know some of the NFL people Eddie et al met with during their NFL trip, were involved in the NFL going to Mexico & London. So for now it'll be one game. Then in 5-6 years when that reaches a decision point, there is a risk. It might be the AFL start sending other clubs and having multilple games. They might try other NZ cities. Or they might situate a club there...