Tigers outline plan to help pay debt
By Dan Oakes
December 23, 2004
It will be belt-tightening all round at Punt Road next year as the Tigers begin to chip away at the debt pile that sparked the recent campaign against president Clinton Casey and his board.
Casey went before the Richmond membership at last night's annual meeting to explain how the board intended pulling the club out of the $3 million hole.
In front of about 1000 of the Tigers' faithful, Casey explained that $1.35 million in savings had already been identified.
The football department will be streamlined to the tune of $800,000. This will be achieved through already-implemented cuts to the playing list and by paring back additional services agreements which allow clubs to pay players outside the salary cap to perform extra promotional duties.
But the bad news for fans is that $550,000 will be saved on "membership expenditure". In other words, the free stuff you get for signing up.
"Last year, with our new rewards and recognition program we were making an average net profit per member of $62. Previously our average net profit was $85, so that's $23 x 27,000 lost," Casey said.
"The reason for that was, we gave away caps and $14.95 sunglasses. The fulfilment package cost an extra $23 last year. The new reward and recognition program we put out, to try and bump the membership up, over time it would, but we haven't got the dough to invest $600,000, so we had to pare it back."
Casey said the club had been rebuilt root and branch.
"A couple of years ago we looked at what made successful clubs, premiership teams, what have been the common themes that those clubs have possessed," Casey said.
"Generally it's been stability and experience in the four key roles within the club.
"When you compare Richmond five years ago and Richmond today, we've now got a footy director with 30 years' experience, a senior coach who has 12 years' experience . . . a chief executive with eight years' experience in the Melbourne sports industry . . . and a president with five years' experience."
By Dan Oakes
December 23, 2004
It will be belt-tightening all round at Punt Road next year as the Tigers begin to chip away at the debt pile that sparked the recent campaign against president Clinton Casey and his board.
Casey went before the Richmond membership at last night's annual meeting to explain how the board intended pulling the club out of the $3 million hole.
In front of about 1000 of the Tigers' faithful, Casey explained that $1.35 million in savings had already been identified.
The football department will be streamlined to the tune of $800,000. This will be achieved through already-implemented cuts to the playing list and by paring back additional services agreements which allow clubs to pay players outside the salary cap to perform extra promotional duties.
But the bad news for fans is that $550,000 will be saved on "membership expenditure". In other words, the free stuff you get for signing up.
"Last year, with our new rewards and recognition program we were making an average net profit per member of $62. Previously our average net profit was $85, so that's $23 x 27,000 lost," Casey said.
"The reason for that was, we gave away caps and $14.95 sunglasses. The fulfilment package cost an extra $23 last year. The new reward and recognition program we put out, to try and bump the membership up, over time it would, but we haven't got the dough to invest $600,000, so we had to pare it back."
Casey said the club had been rebuilt root and branch.
"A couple of years ago we looked at what made successful clubs, premiership teams, what have been the common themes that those clubs have possessed," Casey said.
"Generally it's been stability and experience in the four key roles within the club.
"When you compare Richmond five years ago and Richmond today, we've now got a footy director with 30 years' experience, a senior coach who has 12 years' experience . . . a chief executive with eight years' experience in the Melbourne sports industry . . . and a president with five years' experience."
