Toast Ben Buckley- "We have less than $1 million [debt] which is very manageable"

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Thought this deserved its own thread.

BB answering questions on facebook as part of fan engagement, mentioned we are now down below 1m debt from 8m a couple years ago.

Absolutely phenomenal effort by the club and supporters over the last 5 yrs, never thought it would be this low this quick.

Here's to becoming debt free in the next year or so!
 

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Groin guru

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Apr 21, 2017
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Great news and a fantastic effort by the club and the members!
Nah mate just need Groin guru to turn kangatech into the online gambling app

KANGABET
I'd love to help the club but i don't do gambling. Kangatech is founded on scientific research with statistically significant results. Asking me to adopt a gambling approach would be like asking james hird not to bring the game into disrepute.
 
We can all be proud.
Awesome efforts by the members.

I remember having to explain to my wife all those years ago about forking out that extra dough on top of our membership.
Wasn't an easy argument because 1. She was born and bred in Sydney. 2. Didn't understand AFL. 3. Followed no team.
Near 10 years on she's loves AFL, a passionate North supporter and member and assisted me in assuring the kids stay loyal to North and not for heavens sake barrack for some heathen other team.
Paying off the debt to me was a no brainier as a life long supporter. For my wife it was an even bigger thing and it's to her I say thanks!
I am so upbeat about our club and its direction!
 
Sep 21, 2008
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With the Arden Street re-development, the crap etihad deal and serious investment in our coaching/membership and media departments its a huge effort by the club to get it down this low. Its not like we've taken short cuts and cut cost over the last 5-6 years to make it happen.

We are a hell of a long way from the Laidley era.

Its an amazing what a little bit of direction can do. Lets hope its continues to be this way for the next 100 years.
 

Le Grille

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I'd like to know this too. Although i remember reading the bigfooty accountants mentioned something about being in slight debt = a good thing. I could be mistaken.

Yep, a small amount of debt is fine as it allows expansion and seeing that we are investing more and more and looking to redevelop Arden Street further I would explain it as similar to someone buying a house and using a loan or better yet the adage "it takes money to make money"

Apart from trade creditors and accruals the only other payable liability is the commercial bill (this I assume is what has come under $1m. The fact that the drawn amount is a low percentage of the available facility suggests we are able to comfortably manage the facility.

From the financials

2016 2015
Facilities available at year end 3,000,000 3,000,000
Amounts drawn at year end (1,250,000) (1,650,000)
Available undrawn facilities at year end 1,750,000 1,350,000

Also I noted this in the preamble, I thought it makes for encouraging reading (granted inflation makes up a small portion of the increases). This further evidences the expansion theory,

Metric 2007 2016 Change
Membership 22,516 45,118 22,602
Gross sponsorship revenue $ 4,302,721 $ 8,559,657 $ 4,256,936
Football department expenditure $ 11,968,155 $ 22,337,950 $ 10,369,795
No. of permanent staff 36 97 61
Total player payments (% of limit) 92% 96% 4%
 
Jun 9, 2001
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Yep, a small amount of debt is fine as it allows expansion and seeing that we are investing more and more and looking to redevelop Arden Street further I would explain it as similar to someone buying a house and using a loan or better yet the adage "it takes money to make money"

Apart from trade creditors and accruals the only other payable liability is the commercial bill (this I assume is what has come under $1m. The fact that the drawn amount is a low percentage of the available facility suggests we are able to comfortably manage the facility.

From the financials

2016 2015
Facilities available at year end 3,000,000 3,000,000
Amounts drawn at year end (1,250,000) (1,650,000)
Available undrawn facilities at year end 1,750,000 1,350,000

Also I noted this in the preamble, I thought it makes for encouraging reading (granted inflation makes up a small portion of the increases). This further evidences the expansion theory,

Metric 2007 2016 Change
Membership 22,516 45,118 22,602
Gross sponsorship revenue $ 4,302,721 $ 8,559,657 $ 4,256,936
Football department expenditure $ 11,968,155 $ 22,337,950 $ 10,369,795
No. of permanent staff 36 97 61
Total player payments (% of limit) 92% 96% 4%

Someone is moving in on Tas' turf.

Accountant fight Accountant fight
 

Groin guru

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 21, 2017
10,261
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Destination Club
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North Melbourne
Yep, a small amount of debt is fine as it allows expansion and seeing that we are investing more and more and looking to redevelop Arden Street further I would explain it as similar to someone buying a house and using a loan or better yet the adage "it takes money to make money"

Apart from trade creditors and accruals the only other payable liability is the commercial bill (this I assume is what has come under $1m. The fact that the drawn amount is a low percentage of the available facility suggests we are able to comfortably manage the facility.

From the financials

2016 2015
Facilities available at year end 3,000,000 3,000,000
Amounts drawn at year end (1,250,000) (1,650,000)
Available undrawn facilities at year end 1,750,000 1,350,000

Also I noted this in the preamble, I thought it makes for encouraging reading (granted inflation makes up a small portion of the increases). This further evidences the expansion theory,

Metric 2007 2016 Change
Membership 22,516 45,118 22,602
Gross sponsorship revenue $ 4,302,721 $ 8,559,657 $ 4,256,936
Football department expenditure $ 11,968,155 $ 22,337,950 $ 10,369,795
No. of permanent staff 36 97 61
Total player payments (% of limit) 92% 96% 4%
Thank you for posting that. Very interesting reading the changes over time (normally i get a nose bleed reading that sort of stuff but you've outlayed it well). # of permanent staff - previously 36... wow.
 
Don't mean to be a party poop but I feel our debt has been at this 'manageable' level for quite a while now.

Mate around 2007 we had turnover (how much money comes in the door) of somewhere between $15m and $20m and debt of about $8m. Debt was about 50% of turnover.

In 2017 we have turnover of $40m and debt of 800k. Debt is now about 2% of turnover.

That's not just 'manageable', it's just bog-standard trading debt. Any time we want we could repay the $800k in a heart beat, but there's no real need or purpose. It is now a question of what we want to spend our money on, whereas a decade ago we had no choice in this regard.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - where we are now, our greatest existential threats are the AFL wanting to ship us off somewhere, and trying to keep up with the Joneses like the scum and the filth who happily throw millions upon millions of dollars at football and off-field operations in the desperate belief that you can win premierships by throwing money at the problem. We have lots of millions now but they have lots more millions than us, and their financial silliness creates an inflationary effect in the football operations marketplace - everyone from the coach to the bootstrapper starts think they're worth more money than they actually are. So long as we keep our heads and only spend on football ops what we earn (or less), then we make profits every year (and have been). It's only if we go crazy and start paying overs again that we will find ourselves back in bad debt land.

Really happy with where the club is at.
 

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