Brisbanes Financial Crisis

[Homer]

The Brisbane Lions have closed their Social Club in Brisbane .Without consultation to their members. Its the lead story on the newsbreaks in Brisbane. It appears the club is having massive financial problems.
They have budgeted for a crowd of 28,000 for each home game this year, but for whatever reasons have only been able to average 23,000 people through the gate. They have lost over 3000 members.
Lets hope that this is not deja vu for the Fitzroy part of the club.Financial troubles. The club not informing members of their decisions. The 1st they hear of any problems is on the news.
Disgraeful Brisbane.
Maybe they need a full makeover and clean out like Freo.
All their board except 2 have been around for over 5 years.The CEO has been their for about 10 years.
They are playing very poorly.
They are in strife.
Why the silence Brisbane

 

[Mr Ripper]

Maybe we should draft Rabbi Gutnick as Pres. He don't BS the members.

 

[choppy]

I don't beleive this story. If it was true Caroline would have broken it and be harping on about it for the next three months.

 

[Roylion]

Homer, you are being overly melodramatic. If the media in Queensland is reporting that the Lions social club is closed, then they need to get their facts straight. The Lion's social club is not closed, it no longer trades seven days a week. That's all. It will still be open on AFL match days for cricket days in the summer and for other major sporting events and will provide the normal facilities and services. The social club made a $500,000 loss last year (and this was clearly detailed in the 2000 annual report that I have a copy of, and received in February and should be no surprise to Lions members who bothered to read it). As a voting member I would expect the directors to take the action that they have instead of trying to continue to prop up an entity that clearly is financially struggling, perhaps to the detriment of other areas such as the football operations. In any case the site where the Social Club stands may soon be demolished. The Lions were definitely not going to invest a huge amount of money into the social club to make it a viable operation, when the site will be demolished anyway. In my view they've made the only responsible decision that they could.

Why does the club have to inform the members of every single decision they make? Do they have to conduct a poll for every decision they are planning do they? We elect them to make the decisions don't we? If we're not happy with their performance then we can vote them out. We have an opportunity each year. If you are not a voting member then BECOME ONE and do something to address your concerns. As to not informing the members of their decisions, all the information above is currently posted on the Lions website and no doubt will be in the next edition of 'The Lions' Tale'.

The Board can't win can they? Give me the present Board conditions over the Noel Gordon days or what is currently happening at the Melbourne Demons anytime. Remember that many of the current Board members were personally endorsed by the late Alan Piper and I've yet to meet anyone who thought badly of him personally, his credentials or his management/leadership style. The loss of 3,000 members is a concern, but perhaps the reasons for that can be put down to other things other than Board mismanagement. Three possible causes that spring to mind are the lacklustre start to the season by the team causing fickle supporters not to renew their memberships. Secondly similar to Melbourne and the MCG trust, some former members are choosing to take out a Gabba membership and not the Lions. Perhaps the Board could be criticised for the membership prices this season but Blind Freddy could have worked out that was going to happen due to the effects of the full GST kicking in and also the fact there are twelve matches at the Gabba this season, not eleven.

I don't mind criticising the Board when criticism is warranted, but in this case it isn't!

 

[Danni]

Roylion, I am taking it that were not at the AGM? Perhaps if you were, you may have a different view about it.

The lions social club was a very hot topic that night, and one that the Board did not want to address. Some of the things that came out that night were:

1) seeing as the rent for the visitors and players rooms were under the social club, they were being paid for out of the social club budget instead of the football departments or match day budgets, why?

2) now that those rooms had been taken over again by the Trust, was that going to lessen the 'loss' that the social club was incurring?

3) Why have services been so severely diminished? ( I have listed a number of them on the similar topic on the Brisbane Board).

4) Were they intending to start providing similar services and advertising again, that would bring people back to the club and aleviate the financial situation?

5) What happened to the rather large 6 figure sum that the Lions were reported to have recieved as compensation for loss of trading revenue throughout the construction of the southern stand and the resurfacing of the ground?

None of these issues were addressed, and the board made it clear they didn't want to discuss it. Rather than build the social club back up to what it was a couple of years ago - and I have a post merger article here where the social club was reported to be one of the best in Qld - they were going to keep it open till they found an off site premises suitable for a club. NOw that hasn't happened either.

I personally am bitterly disappointed that people like myself and many others that patronised it, were given no warning. Sure if it isnt' making money - then close it - that is a sound financial decsion by the board.

But it runs deeper than that. It was allowed to get to a situation where that happened. Why? The general feeling amongs Lions supporters that I have spoken to today, and there are quite a few of them, is that they were happy to allow it to go down hill, so they could justify the closure.

The permancy of the building is a virtual non-issue, it is going to be 3 or more years before that happens, and a very profitable social club could still have existed in the building until then. Had their been a change of government up here in February, it would have been different, the opposition had promised to 'finish' the Gabba. But that didn't happen.

Anyway as someone who has patronised the club for years, met and formed friendships with some wonderful ppl there, it has been heartbreaking to watch it go down hill, and the Club not try and pull it out of it.

And it is even sadder to say goodbye to it all together - having to give up without a fight. It wasn't given a fighting chance.

And yes the media has reported that it is no longer trading on a 7 day basis, only on match days and some cricket days. But also remember, for all intents and purposes it may well be closed, for alot of the regulars, that actually avoid it on match day as it is too crowded. And also the full members that pay $50 per membership more to have full access to the social club (and their voting rights). That leaves a bitter taste too.