News St Kilda to play Port Adelaide in China next year

[Pakenhamsaint]

I know it seems kind of desperate, but a lot of the lower clubs sell home games. Look at the Dees who play in Alice and Darwin. Obviously it's a bit different, but if we are going to make 2 million dollars from these games then I can see why we'd play them. That is a lot of money for us.

In reality our club should be in a position in 2018 where we can say sod off.
Piss poor management leads to this money chasing.

 

[Brains Trust66]

Im planning on winning tattslotto this Saturday so my wife and i will go too . If i win all the money by myself i will be able to pay for others lol, as if im going to win , ive never won anything before lol.


Go Saints

No big surprise i didnt win a cent in tatts lol


Go Saints

 

[Ian Dunross]

In reality our club should be in a position in 2018 where we can say sod off.
Piss poor management leads to this money chasing.

Hawthorn should tell the Tassie govt to sod off as well. They're such a rabble for selling their games to Launceston.

 

[Saint Watto]

Hawthorn should tell the Tassie govt to sod off as well. They're such a rabble for selling their games to Launceston.

I'm pretty sure they'd make some very good bucks from the Tassie govt for the 4 home games that they play there.....add the approx $20 Mill they have in revenue from the Pokies and they have a couple of very handy/big revenue streams.

 

[Impatient Saint]

Things have regessed that badly that noone is going to our games. We will lose the Good Friday game and now we have to sell our home games and travel hours on the whim of the AFL. If the AFL were serious about making an impact in Asia they would send clubs who guaranteed decent supporter attendences. Our club cant!

If the club were to attract any sponsorship or new members from this exercise it would be plausible, but that wont happen. The best decision Finnis could have made to turn the club around he fcuked up. So now our members are stuck with this arrangement for 3 years. What a cluster Finnis is making of things.

 

[Sab22]

The only game that would go close to sell out is Maddies Vision for us

 

[sammm]

Things have regessed that badly that noone is going to our games. We will lose the Good Friday game and now we have to sell our home games and travel hours on the whim of the AFL. If the AFL were serious about making an impact in Asia they would send clubs who guaranteed decent supporter attendences. Our club cant!

If the club were to attract any sponsorship or new members from this exercise it would be plausible, but that wont happen. The best decision Finnis could have made to turn the club around he fcuked up. So now our members are stuck with this arrangement for 3 years. What a cluster Finnis is making of things.

Thats a joke. I mean dare has re-signed. Got great coaches. Our off field stuff is really good. Finnis has done a great job

 

[Saint Watto]

Thats a joke. I mean dare has re-signed. Got great coaches. Our off field stuff is really good. Finnis has done a great job

Agree there sammm…..Dare and Pepper have both resigned.

I was told last week that Holman are very happy with their sponsorship.

And on Impatient's post above.....I think it was 2 seasons ago that the club was making a big push to involve the Chinese Community with the club giving some tics out and aiming for memberships at Monash Uni and the surrounding area.

That may have been ramped up......which could explain the 46 K members we achieved despite a truly crap year.

George may know more about our targeting for membership.

I've mentioned several times before that IMO.......Matt F took his eyes off the football dept for some time thinking all pieces were in place....they were not.

But....commercially....he had done a mighty job.....credit where it's due.

 

[Sully111]

I know it's money for the club, but i'm not a fan of us playing over there.
I also think it's a monumental waste of time from an AFL perspective

 

[Ian Dunross]

I know it's money for the club, but i'm not a fan of us playing over there.
I also think it's a monumental waste of time from an AFL perspective

It's not about growing the game in China, it's about making money for clubs who don't believe in poker machines. Port could do what Hawthorn do and prey on the weak and vulnerable for profit, but they don't, nor can they charge them more for memberships because they're a working class club. So what do they do? Tap into the biggest market in the world that happens to be on our doorstep.

And the Saints are lucky enough to be given the opportunity to do the same.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

The commercial benefits of doing this are compelling. But it’s not ideal from a football perspective. Imagine if we miss the 8 and we narrowly lost in China, there’d be lots of arrows flung at the club then.
.

be no differant to if we lose a close one at Marvel stadium that cost us the finals ... or if like 2017 when we lost in Adl against Port in a close one that cost us finals .... from a football perspective it doenst matter where you play if you lose then its going to look bad... the good thing is the bye after the game so the team can get back and have a week off before getting back into the season ....
remember we did two Perth games in 3 weeks this season so the stress of that travel on the body would be on par with the china trip

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

In reality our club should be in a position in 2018 where we can say sod off.
Piss poor management leads to this money chasing.

why would we say sod off for something we asked to be part of ? people seem to think like the AFL pushed this on to us... they didnt we had to apply to the AFL to be considered for it ... We wanted this not we were forced into it

 

[GodSziller]

why would we say sod off for something we asked to be part of ? people seem to think like the AFL pushed this on to us... they didnt we had to apply to the AFL to be considered for it ... We wanted this not we were forced into it

The backing of the Vic Government is one of the keys for me. If we can tie ourselves to their Chinese plans, i think it will hold us in good stead.

Matthew Guy is a Saints man as well so the next election could potentially be a real windfall for us if the Libs get up.

 

[Grav]

Things have regessed that badly that noone is going to our games. We will lose the Good Friday game and now we have to sell our home games and travel hours on the whim of the AFL. If the AFL were serious about making an impact in Asia they would send clubs who guaranteed decent supporter attendences. Our club cant!

If the club were to attract any sponsorship or new members from this exercise it would be plausible, but that wont happen. The best decision Finnis could have made to turn the club around he fcuked up. So now our members are stuck with this arrangement for 3 years. What a cluster Finnis is making of things.

Seeing that no one is going to our games, means stuff all money to spend on players, administration & improvements around the club.
Going to China will add money, so all those things can be done, after 3 years we may be strong enough to not have to travel far & wide to earn a buck.
Kudos to where kudos is deserved, give the guy a bit of credit for trying to improve things, well done Finnis.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

Things have regessed that badly that noone is going to our games. We will lose the Good Friday game and now we have to sell our home games and travel hours on the whim of the AFL. If the AFL were serious about making an impact in Asia they would send clubs who guaranteed decent supporter attendences. Our club cant!

If the club were to attract any sponsorship or new members from this exercise it would be plausible, but that wont happen. The best decision Finnis could have made to turn the club around he fcuked up. So now our members are stuck with this arrangement for 3 years. What a cluster Finnis is making of things.

i couldnt disagree more ....
we lost good friday because of two reasons
1. the game we played against North was such a snorefest and proved all the jungle drums from the media that the game would fail correct.
2. the profits made from the good friday game were no better than if we played North on a Sunday twilight game, the fixture of footy on good friday will need a few years to grow popular at the moment its not popular.

secondly the AFL didnt push us into doing this venture .. once Gold Coast pulled out we put our hand up to take on this game, the money made from this alone compaired to playing Port at Marvel is massive. no one is expecting it to be a 100K capacity game but making nearly $800k to play in front of 18k people in China or making $10k to get 22k in Melbourne its a fairly easy decision.

as for membership boost the club know that this isnt a drive for more members 3 games in three years is not going to create a following so that not a consideration but from a sponsorship point of view this is where it could be huge .. our President Andrew Bassat has very very good conections in China, he does a heck of a lot of business in China and in Asia as a whole compared to Kotchie, Bassat would be in his element to spruik the sponsorship oportunitys, also the fact we are a club from Melbourne not the glorified country town of Adelaide the exposure to the chinese companies wanting to make a drive into the Australian market is significant ...

lastly Finnis has been fan-bloody-tastic for our club !! since he has come in we have ditched the hell hole that was seaford , moved back to our home in Moorabbin , he has gained funding from state and federal government to extend on the already state of the art facilities... he has re-negotiated the terms of our stadium deal so we now get a fair go for our home games and has made the organisation 10 times more professional then it was .. he has made one stuff up in signing off on Richo for an extention when he prob shouldnt have but since then he has gone about bringing in the best people in the comp to the club to give Richo the support to succeed ....

you will prob dismiss every word of this because you like to focus only on the negative but this post isnt so much to change your perceptions but to show the neutral observers that read your ultra negative post that what you have actually said isnt quite right .

 

[dct66]

Shanghai is an awesome place to visit. As others have said it rivals NYC and London. It has a mix of new modern, rich, capitalist China with the old Communist communal living China. There's the European style buildings from the International settlements before WWII especially along the Bund and in the former French Concession. Then there is Pudong across the river, the ultra modern skyline that you see in all the Shanghai promotions. Find yourself one of the many rooftop bars along the Bund at sunset and enjoy the best free* light show in the world as the neon hits the Pudong skyscrapers.

The population of the city is about 25M and growing by 1M a year. Mindblowing! Taxis are relatively cheap, none of the drivers will speak English but if you have the address in Chinese they'll usually get you there with no problems. The Metro is clean, fast and extensive and very easy to use and buy tickets from the many machines.

Definitely take the Maglev train from the airport. It is so fast and so smooth that it barely feels like it is moving except that the traffic on the parallel freeway looks like it is going backwards. It doesn't go the whole way to central Shanghai but it is worth it for the experience. At the end of the ride follow the signs to the taxi rank, don't fall for one of the touts who will be at the exit gate to 'help' you. I don't think they're slave traders, they'll just charge you more than a normal cab.

Head to the fabric market and get some bespoke suits or shirts made for a lot less than 'off the peg' clothes here and don't forget the dumplings and muslin noodles!

I haven't even mentioned the cultural sites, temples and numerous 'tourist' traps.

I can also highly recommend adding Beijing, the Forbidden City is worth it in its own right and Xi'an for the terracotta warriors.

* the drinks are not free, in fact they're quite expensive but worth it for the view.

 

[gringo2011]

It's not about growing the game in China, it's about making money for clubs who don't believe in poker machines. Port could do what Hawthorn do and prey on the weak and vulnerable for profit, but they don't, nor can they charge them more for memberships because they're a working class club. So what do they do? Tap into the biggest market in the world that happens to be on our doorstep.

And the Saints are lucky enough to be given the opportunity to do the same.

I don't think people realise the potential in China. The free to air games that are in a middle of the night time slot get viewing audiences bigger than the best ratings we get for Australian games because of the population size. They literally have so many people that getting a percentage of one percent of the population of the country interested could cash us up. It's a no brainer to try to grow the game in these markets. 150 years ago basketball, soccer and rugby were minnow sports, you got to start somewhere.

 

[gringo2011]

The backing of the Vic Government is one of the keys for me. If we can tie ourselves to their Chinese plans, i think it will hold us in good stead.

Matthew Guy is a Saints man as well so the next election could potentially be a real windfall for us if the Libs get up.

I hope that weasel never gets into power, he's a worm.

 

[gringo2011]

i couldnt disagree more ....
we lost good friday because of two reasons
1. the game we played against North was such a snorefest and proved all the jungle drums from the media that the game would fail correct.
2. the profits made from the good friday game were no better than if we played North on a Sunday twilight game, the fixture of footy on good friday will need a few years to grow popular at the moment its not popular.

secondly the AFL didnt push us into doing this venture .. once Gold Coast pulled out we put our hand up to take on this game, the money made from this alone compaired to playing Port at Marvel is massive. no one is expecting it to be a 100K capacity game but making nearly $800k to play in front of 18k people in China or making $10k to get 22k in Melbourne its a fairly easy decision.

as for membership boost the club know that this isnt a drive for more members 3 games in three years is not going to create a following so that not a consideration but from a sponsorship point of view this is where it could be huge .. our President Andrew Bassat has very very good conections in China, he does a heck of a lot of business in China and in Asia as a whole compared to Kotchie, Bassat would be in his element to spruik the sponsorship oportunitys, also the fact we are a club from Melbourne not the glorified country town of Adelaide the exposure to the chinese companies wanting to make a drive into the Australian market is significant ...

lastly Finnis has been fan-bloody-tastic for our club !! since he has come in we have ditched the hell hole that was seaford , moved back to our home in Moorabbin , he has gained funding from state and federal government to extend on the already state of the art facilities... he has re-negotiated the terms of our stadium deal so we now get a fair go for our home games and has made the organisation 10 times more professional then it was .. he has made one stuff up in signing off on Richo for an extention when he prob shouldnt have but since then he has gone about bringing in the best people in the comp to the club to give Richo the support to succeed ....

you will prob dismiss every word of this because you like to focus only on the negative but this post isnt so much to change your perceptions but to show the neutral observers that read your ultra negative post that what you have actually said isnt quite right .

I think Finnis has been great for getting things moving and is trying, his only area that could be criticised is he probably took his eyes off on field performance but he's now realised that the money needs to go there and can't be faulted on the off season recruiting in the staff to help that.

 

[Impatient Saint]

i couldnt disagree more ....
we lost good friday because of two reasons
1. the game we played against North was such a snorefest and proved all the jungle drums from the media that the game would fail correct.
2. the profits made from the good friday game were no better than if we played North on a Sunday twilight game, the fixture of footy on good friday will need a few years to grow popular at the moment its not popular.

secondly the AFL didnt push us into doing this venture .. once Gold Coast pulled out we put our hand up to take on this game, the money made from this alone compaired to playing Port at Marvel is massive. no one is expecting it to be a 100K capacity game but making nearly $800k to play in front of 18k people in China or making $10k to get 22k in Melbourne its a fairly easy decision.

as for membership boost the club know that this isnt a drive for more members 3 games in three years is not going to create a following so that not a consideration but from a sponsorship point of view this is where it could be huge .. our President Andrew Bassat has very very good conections in China, he does a heck of a lot of business in China and in Asia as a whole compared to Kotchie, Bassat would be in his element to spruik the sponsorship oportunitys, also the fact we are a club from Melbourne not the glorified country town of Adelaide the exposure to the chinese companies wanting to make a drive into the Australian market is significant ...

lastly Finnis has been fan-bloody-tastic for our club !! since he has come in we have ditched the hell hole that was seaford , moved back to our home in Moorabbin , he has gained funding from state and federal government to extend on the already state of the art facilities... he has re-negotiated the terms of our stadium deal so we now get a fair go for our home games and has made the organisation 10 times more professional then it was .. he has made one stuff up in signing off on Richo for an extention when he prob shouldnt have but since then he has gone about bringing in the best people in the comp to the club to give Richo the support to succeed ....

you will prob dismiss every word of this because you like to focus only on the negative but this post isnt so much to change your perceptions but to show the neutral observers that read your ultra negative post that what you have actually said isnt quite right .

Another Finnis/Richo luv child?

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

Another Finnis/Richo luv child?

no just both eyes open to see what is actually happening ...
im fairly open that i dont think Richo is the man to lead us to our next flag he lacks the technical knowhow and game plan smarts to do that in my opinion - i also see the clubs reasoning behind not sacking him and i see the maturity of our club to instead of burning another coach and becoming the same old same old St Kilda that we have itentified Richo's main weaknesses and brought in guys to support him who are very strong in the areas he falls short ... so no not a Richo Luv child ....
as for Finnis im a big fan of any person who has created an enviroment where sponsors have not been jumping off the club after a season from hell like 2018 , im a huge fan of a person who has been able to cut our losses on the the pigheaded narrow minded decisions of Archie Fraser to send us to Seaford , im a huge fan of the person to take us back to Moorabbin.. im a huge fan of the person championing our AFLW teams inclusion, im a huge fan of the person turning our clubs external perception as the club with "issues with women" into the leader in equality in gender and sexuallity .. im a big fan of the guy to get us a fair deal with the stadium arrangment , im a big fan of the guy that has made our club have the best in the AFL medical team....
so yeah im a fan of Finnis .... has he got everything right ? of course not but our club is certainly better off today then it was before he joined us ...

 

[SaintsSeptember]

I hope that weasel never gets into power, he's a worm.

Chinese government is way worse than any of them, but people keep posting how good it is there.

 

[Mikka84]

no just both eyes open to see what is actually happening ...
im fairly open that i dont think Richo is the man to lead us to our next flag he lacks the technical knowhow and game plan smarts to do that in my opinion - i also see the clubs reasoning behind not sacking him and i see the maturity of our club to instead of burning another coach and becoming the same old same old St Kilda that we have itentified Richo's main weaknesses and brought in guys to support him who are very strong in the areas he falls short ... so no not a Richo Luv child ....
as for Finnis im a big fan of any person who has created an enviroment where sponsors have not been jumping off the club after a season from hell like 2018 , im a huge fan of a person who has been able to cut our losses on the the pigheaded narrow minded decisions of Archie Fraser to send us to Seaford , im a huge fan of the person to take us back to Moorabbin.. im a huge fan of the person championing our AFLW teams inclusion, im a huge fan of the person turning our clubs external perception as the club with "issues with women" into the leader in equality in gender and sexuallity .. im a big fan of the guy to get us a fair deal with the stadium arrangment , im a big fan of the guy that has made our club have the best in the AFL medical team....
so yeah im a fan of Finnis .... has he got everything right ? of course not but our club is certainly better off today then it was before he joined us ...

Sometimes your posts come across contridictive to this. But I think you’ve summed it up nicely here.

 

[Mikka84]

Chinese government is way worse than any of them, but people keep posting how good it is there.

Hong Kong is one of the great cities to visit in the world. If anyone, like I’m doing, gets up to the game, make sure to extend the stay and head down to Honkers. It’s a food & bev dream that is honestly as good for the family as it is for the party goer.

If anyone is over there - shoot me a message. I’ve got us covered.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

Sometimes your posts come across contridictive to this. But I think you’ve summed it up nicely here.

about mid-season i was ready to call for a public flogging of richo i was hearing all kinds of things that had me very concerned that he was leading us to the brink and we had to cut him straight away .. by the end of the season i heard a few more things from more relaible sources who "put me straight" with what was actually going on and where the improvment from 2018 was going to come from ..from that point ive been more on the stability over the knee jerk sacking ... so i do lean more towards the "lets see how it plays out" camp