Ben Buckley poised to become North Melbourne chairman

[D23D]

Article from realfooty today

Former North Melbourne vice captain and leading sporting administrator Ben Buckley appears poised to assume the role of chairman of his former club later this year.

The Sydney-based businessman is set to take over the position from James Brayshaw, who will stand down after two terms as head of North Melbourne.

On Saturday night the club celebrated the 40th anniversary of their first grand final success against Hawthorn in 1975.

Brayshaw's presidency was never a smooth transition as he led the group vehemently opposed to the Kangaroos leaving its home to be based on the Gold Coast.

Buckley, 47, played 74 games between 1986 and 1993.

He was one of the most popular players of his time as a staunch defender and vice captain from 1990 to 1992.

The Tasmanian-born businessman began a corporate career after football working for Nike and EA Sports before joining the AFL, working as the general manager of broadcasting strategy and later as chief operating officer.

He was unveiled as the FFA's chief executive in 2006, a role he held until 2012.

Buckley became Foxtel's executive director of sports in 2013 and will be a part of the bidding process when the TV rights begin in the future.

Buckley was also on the ill-fated bidding contingent that attempted to bring the soccer World Cup to Australia.

Brayshaw, who hosts the Footy Show on Channel Nine, is an AFL commentator for Triple M.

He became chairman of the Roos in 2012 after playing a key role in the resistance movement against the club moving to the Gold Coast.

Brayshaw emerged when the club was split down the middle on whether the new frontier of the Gold Coast was a better option than remaining in Melbourne.

The wounds of those divisions have only been mended in the past few years.

In 1975, North Melbourne won their first flag under AFL legend Ron Barassi, who went to Saturday night's clash between North Melbourne and Hawthorn for the 40-year celebration of their first flag.

During his reign he oversaw the refurbishment of Arden Street, the long-time home of the club.

Brayshaw is expected to hand the reins over to Buckley later in the year.

 

[Mav]

And his first job will be a full review of the football department.

 

[Juryduty]

Wait a minute didn't Brayshaw become chairman at end of 2007 season and not 2012 as stated in Article. And isn't he in his third term not second


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[jacko57]

Wait a minute didn't Brayshaw become chairman at end of 2007 season and not 2012 as stated in Article. And isn't he in his third term not second


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes. But you can't expect a professional sports journalist to know/check the unimportant s**t like 'facts'.

 

[Flawed Genius]

Buckley has a good track record.

That FFA period between '06 & '12 saw sustained growth of the game in the country and really marketed Australian soccer to the world.

Working at EA Sports and Nike, two of the largest, most profitable organisations in the world, can only be a good thing as well.

I like this move.

 

[GS WARRIORS]

JB mention earlier in the year he hoped Buckley would take over.

We couldn't get him to be CEO but joined the board instead and now chairman is a great result.

 

[danj]

JB mention earlier in the year he hoped Buckley would take over.

We couldn't get him to be CEO but joined the board instead and now chairman is a great result.

Hopefully he will also split the role of CEO from Director, whilst Carl is doing a fine job I do not believe it is best practise in terms of good governance to have a Director who is also the CEO, roles should be split. I'd be happy for Carl to stay in either role.

 

[D23D]

And his first job will be a full review of the football department.

Yep, no doubt.
The report does sound a little speculative but important news for us regardless.

 

[Tas]

 

[Event Horizon]

Pretty good outcome - he is a quality operator. Just hope he has real passion for the club.

 

[Rockstar6]

It will be sad to see JB step down but if we get BB to take over, I won't be too sad. JB deserves to see a premiership while he is still chairman.

 

[numchuks]

Buckley has a good track record.

That FFA period between '06 & '12 saw sustained growth of the game in the country and really marketed Australian soccer to the world.

Working at EA Sports and Nike, two of the largest, most profitable organisations in the world, can only be a good thing as well.

I like this move.

Really?

The Buckley period is generally regarded by soccer fans as the worst period of the governance of the game in the past decade.

He presided over falling crowds in the aleague, a failed world cup bid, two franchises falling over and numerous FFA bailouts of clubs.

He eventually got punted for Gallop because the FFA didn't have confidence in him and whether he could deliver on better TV rights.

I certainly wouldn't say he had a 'good' track record.

 

[Arden]

And his first job will be a full review of the football department.

Towels first.

How does Ben look in a Wonder Woman outfit?

 

[Flawed Genius]

Really?

The Buckley period is generally regarded by soccer fans as the worst period of the governance of the game in the past decade.

He presided over falling crowds in the aleague, a failed world cup bid, two franchises falling over and numerous FFA bailouts of clubs.

He eventually got punted for Gallop because the FFA didn't have confidence in him and whether he could deliver on better TV rights.

I certainly wouldn't say he had a 'good' track record.

On-field though, he presided over the development of the national side which did make it to and perform relatively well in two World Cups. We went from bog average as a nation in the sport to at least qualifying for the World Cup pretty easily. He raised awareness of the sport, presided over continual growth of the A-League in a commercial sense (not sure which franchises folded, and of course I'll defer to you on whether or not it was actually Buckley's fault rather than the owner/operators of said franchises) and ensured that overseas players saw it as a viable option. I don't think you'd argue that the sport has certainly become more popular throughout the last 10 years in this country, going from probably the 5th or 6th most popular sport to now, where we have kids choosing their local soccer club over their local footy club.

I also don't think the WC bid failing could be directly attributed to Buckley, given the numerous allegations of corruption and outside influences in the actual bidding process.

 

[Augustine]

Buckley's administration of the A-League had one big failure, the Queensland experiment. They should never have put teams on the Gold Coast nor in North Queensland. Bad Stuff ups.

Before Buckley Joined (2005):
11,628 average
1,046,558 total

When Buckley Left (2012):
12,658 average
1,772,133 total

Now (2015):
12,549 average
1,719,277 total

He left the game in good shape. The Queensland experiment is a blight on his FFA record but the World Cup bid was out of his hands. Its not his fault FIFA is corrupt. I reckon Buckley will be great for us.

 

[DarwinRoo]

Hopefully he will also split the role of CEO from Director, whilst Carl is doing a fine job I do not believe it is best practise in terms of good governance to have a Director who is also the CEO, roles should be split. I'd be happy for Carl to stay in either role.

Funnily enough for the company I work for the President is also CEO.

And if he ever reads this what a fine job you are doing Sir. Keep it up.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Smooth operator.

Let's hope he can make the hard calls.

 

[Tas]

Hopefully he will also split the role of CEO from Director, whilst Carl is doing a fine job I do not believe it is best practise in terms of good governance to have a Director who is also the CEO, roles should be split. I'd be happy for Carl to stay in either role.

It is common enough, but it is frowned upon unless the person in the dual role is exceptional or the organisation is insiginificant in size or scope.

The problem is the board is meant to evaluate the role and performance of the CEO, if he isn't doing a great job it can be problematic to address it at board level.

 

[numchuks]

On-field though, he presided over the development of the national side which did make it to and perform relatively well in two World Cups. We went from bog average as a nation in the sport to at least qualifying for the World Cup pretty easily. He raised awareness of the sport, presided over continual growth of the A-League in a commercial sense (not sure which franchises folded, and of course I'll defer to you on whether or not it was actually Buckley's fault rather than the owner/operators of said franchises) and ensured that overseas players saw it as a viable option. I don't think you'd argue that the sport has certainly become more popular throughout the last 10 years in this country, going from probably the 5th or 6th most popular sport to now, where we have kids choosing their local soccer club over their local footy club.

I also don't think the WC bid failing could be directly attributed to Buckley, given the numerous allegations of corruption and outside influences in the actual bidding process.

I think you're mixing up the successes under the O'Niell era (qualification for the WC in 06, awareness raising) and attributing that to Buckley.

Buckley came into the sport after O'Niell when popularity was at an all time high, and squandered that success.

He has a lot of critics in soccer circles.

He also had a lot of criticism for failing to deliver on investors for the Sydney Rovers licence, which was his baby.

The criticism re: The World Cup bid, was always that he took the eye off the game locally whilst promoting the bid. Two clubs went under, another half dozen went into FFA administration and average crowd dropped from 14k high when he took over from O'Niell, to substandard 8k.

The crowds only picked up again in his last year on the back of Lowy ramming the Western Sydney franchise through into the league in 2012.

Like I said above, he got replaced by Gallop because the FFA had lost confidence in him and his negotiating and management skills.

Regardless, he certainly has credentials and I'm not saying he will be a failure. Just trying to give some perspective to the decision.

 

[GoNorth]

Yes. But you can't expect a professional sports journalist to know/check the unimportant s**t like 'facts'.

Especially when the journo works for The Age!

 

[muttley45]

Cue the usual suspects in the press to raise the old " conflict of interest " chestnut

 

[Flawed Genius]

I think you're mixing up the successes under the O'Niell era (qualification for the WC in 06, awareness raising) and attributing that to Buckley.

Buckley came into the sport after O'Niell when popularity was at an all time high, and squandered that success.

He has a lot of critics in soccer circles.

He also had a lot of criticism for failing to deliver on investors for the Sydney Rovers licence, which was his baby.

The criticism re: The World Cup bid, was always that he took the eye off the game locally whilst promoting the bid. Two clubs went under, another half dozen went into FFA administration and average crowd dropped from 14k high when he took over from O'Niell, to substandard 8k.

The crowds only picked up again in his last year on the back of Lowy ramming the Western Sydney franchise through into the league in 2012.

Like I said above, he got replaced by Gallop because the FFA had lost confidence in him and his negotiating and management skills.

Regardless, he certainly has credentials and I'm not saying he will be a failure. Just trying to give some perspective to the decision.

Of course. I don't profess to know much about the internal workings of the FFA and why certain licences failed, but what I have seen is the A-League come a very long way since its inception and no doubt Buckley has played a pivotal role in that, having been there since almost its formative year.

Combined with the growth of the actual sport in this country, especially in NSW and VIC where there are already incumbent sports which dominate market share and popularity, and I think those 6 years he spent in charge of the FFA definitely had positive elements.

I do hope this move happens.

 

[scooby1279]

http://www.nmfc.com.au/news/2015-05-04/brayshaw-corrects-report

 

[giantroo]

James Brayshaw has clarified his position as North Melbourne chairman after a report in The Age suggested he would soon be stepping down, to be replaced by Ben Buckley.

“I don’t finish until February 2017, at which point by constitutional law, I will have to hand the position over,” Brayshaw said on Triple M’s Rush Hour.


“I’m on record as saying all of this…that I’m going to go through until the end of my third term.”

Brayshaw started as chairman in 2007 after rejecting the AFL’s relocation bid and has held the position ever since, overseeing a period where the Kangaroos have solidified themselves in Melbourne.

“It is categorically incorrect,” Brayshaw repeated.

“At the AGM in 2017 I will hand over, and where I hope (the report is) right is I think Ben Buckley would be an outstanding next chairman of the football club.”

 

[Tas]

Video of JB's clarification...