It is reported in today’s papers that we will post an operating loss of between $400 - 500 thousand dollars.
Clinton Casey is quoted as saying that the factors that caused the huge loss include:
My opinion is that at no stage should this be deemed acceptable. I feel as members, we should be given and explanation as to why this has occurred, why adequate steps weren't taken to prevent it from happening and most importantly, what will be done to prevent it from occurring again?
Some more specific questions should be asked of the administration:
This coming season is now crucial for the long term viability of the Richmond Football Club. We have had a series of profitable years which will give us the necessary buffer to survive this jolt but this level of loss cannot be sustainable for the long term. Steps must be taken to ensure that this coming season will put us back on the correct track.
What would Graeme Richmond do?
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This is a hallucination and these faces are in a dream. A computer generated environment; a fantasy island you can do anything and not have to face the consequences.
[This message has been edited by CJH (edited 17 November 2000).]
Clinton Casey is quoted as saying that the factors that caused the huge loss include:
- A shortfall in membership of 3000 which translates to a $300,000 decrease in revenue.
- Unfavourable match programming during the Ansett Cup and early regular season.
- Poor match returns from Colonial Stadium which lost us several thousand dollars.
- Cost of maintaining the injury list
- A $1.5 million investment in a new coaching structure
My opinion is that at no stage should this be deemed acceptable. I feel as members, we should be given and explanation as to why this has occurred, why adequate steps weren't taken to prevent it from happening and most importantly, what will be done to prevent it from occurring again?
Some more specific questions should be asked of the administration:
- It would have been no secret that membership sales were not proceeding with the same rate as in previous years. What was being done to reverse this? Surely we have the names and addresses of those who chose not to renew? Were these people contacted - preferably by phone - to ask why they have not renewed? Why wasn't there an aggressive campaign on home match days to target Richmond supporters who were paying cash through the General Admission gates? Ask them: Why aren't you a member?
- Assigning blame to the poor programming in the initial rounds is a bit of a furphy. Essendon had equally bad a programming run in the first few rounds, but this did not appear to harm their bottom line. I know that Essendon did have an exceptional year, but in relative terms, so did we.
- If us being forced to play games at Colonial against our will has resulted in losses of "several hundred thousand dollars" are we going to sue the AFL for retribution? If no, is this because this is another furphy or are we too scared to?
- What is the nature of this $1.5 million investment in the coaching structure? Does it involve the purchase of infrastructure? Or is it just an increase in expenditure in the way of coaching salaries?
- Has an analysis been done on the nature of the injuries to determine if more could be prevented? I do understand that the majority of injuries were more of an impact nature which are hard to prevent, but this still does not preclude the need for a review.
This coming season is now crucial for the long term viability of the Richmond Football Club. We have had a series of profitable years which will give us the necessary buffer to survive this jolt but this level of loss cannot be sustainable for the long term. Steps must be taken to ensure that this coming season will put us back on the correct track.
What would Graeme Richmond do?
------------------
This is a hallucination and these faces are in a dream. A computer generated environment; a fantasy island you can do anything and not have to face the consequences.
[This message has been edited by CJH (edited 17 November 2000).]
