Reports that Dees' debt gone with $400K left over

[Bigeasy]

Really? Who's getting the big bikkies down there?

Not meaning to be a smart arse but what happens when those 15 top 20 picks you guys drafted are up for contract renewals in the coming years?

I believe a lot of their player contracts are front ended, especially the younger blokes.

 

[GarnerSmash]

I believe a lot of their player contracts are front ended, especially the younger blokes.

Ta mate.

 

[Bigeasy]

Apart from that clown that is reffering to us as Norf, I really don't understand what this arguement is about.

Good on the Dees for wiping their debt.

 

[Handsome.B.Wonderful]

You're believing what you want to believe. You're making excuses for your own club's plight. It's an understandable mentality, but it doesn't get your club anywhere.

Our club has been in debt since it split with the MCC in 1981, so while some talk about our wealthy supporter base clearly it hasn't meant jack s**t for 3 decades.

The crux of the matter and single biggest contributing factor has been the unification of the club. This club has had divisive factions for 30 years. They no longer exist. Collingwood were stuffed before Maguire came on board because they too had fractures within their group. The debt would still be there without Stynes ability to unify the club.

The debt hasn't been eradicated because of sympathy towards Stynes health. The first Debt Demolition dinner was held in August 2008 and raised $2mil. This was well before Stynes illness. The steps that were put in place then have continued. Thankfully, Stynes illness hasn't inhibited the clubs well laid out plans. Cam Schwab discusses his business model every Wednesday in a series of taped interviews. I've watched them all and all I can say is the club is in good hands.

As for footy dept spending ? We have a host of assistant and development coaches and are spending 100% of the salary cap, where in past years we spent the minimum required.

Record membership, record sponsorship, and substantially increased home ground attendances while coming off 2 wooden spoons. And it's all come down to one man unifying the club and putting the right people in place.

I don't understand why North wouldn't hold a Debt Demolition function too. I'd give a one-off donation.

I'm not making excuses for my club, I'm just saying that it has helped your cause. Journalists like Caro haven't been able to take swipes at you and the lack of bad press has helped you gain momentum... I'm not saying it is the sole reason, as said earlier you have a lot of old money in your ranks and you have a good young list which has been well publicised by everyone, especially Gary "I'm not biased but Melbourne have the best young boot studder stocks in the comp" Lyon.

We also have a good young list but the only time you'll ever hear it is when someone sees Caro take a breath and manages to squeeze in "Gee, if this was a Collingwood player you might hear about this guy more often......speaking of Collingwood players, Collingwood have just signed a $6 Billion deal with Chase Manhattan "

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Apart from that clown that is reffering to us as Norf, I really don't understand what this arguement is about.

Good on the Dees for wiping their debt.

I'm not having a good day, and being patronised by that clown has pushed me over the edge. Not sure why anyone else is arguing.

Among ourselves I'd just say good for them. I'm happy with what we've chosen to spend our money on so far, and I'm glad to be reminded of what we've gained from the largesse of of some of our monied supporters. It will be nice when we can have a headline like this too, as it would be nice to get more credit now for what NorTH achieves, but we need to get better at finding our PR opportunities on this front as well.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

And Melbourne's home ground is where? Their football department has had funding lifted by how much? Partly it's a matter of priorities.

Apart from that, they've always had plenty of cash in their supporter base. Carlton and Melbourne can raise millions over dinner, no-one else can. And I'd rather JB kept his health.

Gotta disagree here mate.

Melbourne raised loads, the vast majority, from their ordinary supporters.

They even rattled tins.

I just don't see why we can't set up a website - RooduceTheDebt.com.au - and start doing similar.

 

[Event Horizon]

Melbourne paying 100% of the cap (if true) would be a real worry for them IMO. Any club outside of the 8, or more particularly, from the bottom 4 should NOT be paying 100%. There simply has to be room to move, as the team improves. If Melbourne has a better season in 2011 (as they think they will), players will want pay rises out of that - it's a fact of life.

 

[dutchy12]

Melbourne paying 100% of the cap (if true) would be a real worry for them IMO. Any club outside of the 8, or more particularly, from the bottom 4 should NOT be paying 100%. There simply has to be room to move, as the team improves. If Melbourne has a better season in 2011 (as they think they will), players will want pay rises out of that - it's a fact of life.

Sorry to intrude.

The dees are front loading contracts. Say for instance Brent Moloney is on 1,000,000 for three years. In the first year of the contract he may receive $600,000 and for the remaining two may get $200,000 for each year. Hence by the time the likes of Scully and Trengove ask for a pay rise come 2012 etc we'll have room in the cap.

I reckon you guys would be doing something similar as well.

 

[Handsome.B.Wonderful]

Gotta disagree here mate.

Melbourne raised loads, the vast majority, from their ordinary supporters.

They even rattled tins.

I just don't see why we can't set up a website - RooduceTheDebt.com.au - and start doing similar.

I like the idea but I think the club (rightly or wrongly) is wary of the perception that it is taking donations out of peoples pockets. The reason we don't have pokies is so that we are not draining the community of funds. Although a donation style website is totally different to having pokies I think the club is trying to stay away from handouts, if we can do it on our own two feet it will give us more strength.

 

[Long Live the King]

There are 2 elements to this.

1. Good on Melb for clearing the debt. Massive effort and should be applauded.

2. History is littered with people / companies who have gone bankrupt due to not managing their debt. The slate is cleaned and they start again. The big test for Melb will be whether they have the business model to succeed or whether they are in the same position in 5 years time.

I get the impression from Eug that he is about building a strategy to deliver a viable business long term. Once that is in place the rest should take care of itself. We just need to live with the short term pain.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

Sorry to intrude.

The dees are front loading contracts. Say for instance Brent Moloney is on 1,000,000 for three years. In the first year of the contract he may receive $600,000 and for the remaining two may get $200,000 for each year. Hence by the time the likes of Scully and Trengove ask for a pay rise come 2012 etc we'll have room in the cap.

I reckon you guys would be doing something similar as well.

I would imagine so, and we're only paying 95 per cent.

Given guys like Ziebell and Cunnington have both signed long term deals recently, I'd be interested to see how their contracts are structued

 

[Wild Kangaroo]

Personally I like opposition supporters calling us Norf, it shows that they hate us.....or fear us.

It's like the old adage:

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference."

That's why Fitzroy died, they were everyones second team. Now everyones second team is the Bulldogs.

Fitzroy, were never given a chance by the AFL.
Bulldogs are certainly not my favorite team...

But it is great to hear about Melbourne wiping out their debt, hopefully we can do something along the same lines.

 

[Watts Up]

And Melbourne's home ground is where? Their football department has had funding lifted by how much? Partly it's a matter of priorities.

Apart from that, they've always had plenty of cash in their supporter base. Carlton and Melbourne can raise millions over dinner, no-one else can. And I'd rather JB kept his health.

Where else but the MCG. We can identify a good stadium deal when we see one. Our players also pull up well from it after games.

Now our players can just walk accross the street to AAMI Park from the G after a game for recovery .

The footy department is doing just fine 'now', thankyou.

It's up to Jimmy & CS now to lay the foundations down and build an asset base - now that the $5m in debt has been Dee-molished - for the club to prosper. A Second-to-none state of the art facility is complete at AAMI Park which holds all the 1%'s you could hope for. We've gone from the worst facilities to the best by an absolute street !

With our SUMMER campus down at Casey for pre-season training it enables our club to make inroads into the greatest growth corridor in terms of Population and encouraging young kids to attach themselves to a great club to build our supporter base.

Recognising our heritage by researching and producing a logo that helps represent all aspects of the club in it's 151 years of history is important for our brand and shows that we stand for something. Gone are the days where a cartoon character identify's their club.

 

[Watts Up]

Melbourne paying 100% of the cap (if true) would be a real worry for them IMO. Any club outside of the 8, or more particularly, from the bottom 4 should NOT be paying 100%. There simply has to be room to move, as the team improves. If Melbourne has a better season in 2011 (as they think they will), players will want pay rises out of that - it's a fact of life.

You do have a point, and I think dutchy12 covered why.

My concern though, would be their next contracts. Do they front load them as well ? I an envisage seeing some problems, particularly if there is a big improvement in the likes of Scully, Watts, Trengove, Grimes, Frawley very early on.

Tim Harrington is our list management guru. I have confidence in him, but it is a bit of a juggling act. For the next 2 years though he would have a fair bit of room to move.

 

[Bigeasy]

You do have a point, and I think dutchy12 covered why.

My concern though, would be their next contracts. Do they front load them as well ? I an envisage seeing some problems, particularly if there is a big improvement in the likes of Scully, Watts, Trengove, Grimes, Frawley very early on.

Tim Harrington is our list management guru. I have confidence in him, but it is a bit of a juggling act. For the next 2 years though he would have a fair bit of room to move.

Brian Waldron is looking for a job and he does amazing things with salary caps

 

[Brad Roo]

Well done to Melbourne FC. Now why can't we do that?

Lead by example.

How many million are you good for?

 

[Twinkletoes]

Congrats to The Dees for knocking the debt over, well led by Jimmy.

 

[MYOB]

Now everyones second team is the Bulldogs.

I wouldn't think so going by what's been written on here in the past week.

 

[MYOB]

Excellent points Joey- the question also needs to be raised as to what programs etc are being put in place to generate future funds/revenue- members can not continue to pay club debts.

What happened to the white knights

 

[Cool Kangas]

Lead by example.

How many million are you good for?

I'd love to be one of those white knights let me tell you...it would be awesome to be in that position...but how's starting with anywhere from $10-$100 per every North family? At least we'd reduce the debt a bit. It's better than nothing. Come off it...do you really disagree? You seem so cynical.

 

[Twinkletoes]

What happened to the white knights

The GFC.

 

[windsock]

Dunno why we can't just be happy for the Demons. If it was us we'd be doing cartwheels.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Dunno why we can't just be happy for the Demons. if was us we'd be doing cartwheels.

I was happy enough until one of them came calling uninvited to diss us. I dunno why we are talking about them at all, really.

 

[Hoser]

Dunno why we can't just be happy for the Demons. if was us we'd be doing cartwheels.

I'm thrilled for them, and coming from a family largely made up of Dees supporters I can see the pride they take in their contributions.

I find this talk of our club being wary of tin rattling as complete crap. We're worried about a tin rattling perception but we don't care about the perception of selling games interstate again? I call bull dust.

And why all this talk that you have to contribute millions or thousands, once again I call bull dust. If you can get 10 bucks out of someone, take it, put it away, put it to good use. But FFS don't turn your nose up at it like it's not worth the effort. The one sure way to guarantee that you won't succeed is to not try at all.

 

[grimface_87]

I think someone suggested in another thread that we should put an option on membership applications to tick a "debt demolition" box or something similar if you choose to contribute.

Not a bad idea