17er
Cancelled
- Oct 21, 2017
- 2,500
- 1,829
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
We need to team up with Southport and get in on some Pokies Action. Need to sure up our existence by getting onboard the great cash cow.
Those ships have long since sailed, gentlemen. You are hardly the first to come up with the idea and more will come after you, just as there will be people like me saying that you are out of your minds. But here's some proof. Yesterday, Collingwood announced that they have sold their two gaming licences, with Geelong and the Western Bulldogs to follow. Melbourne sold off its licences in April. Now why would they do that without some kind of assurances from the AFL that everything would be ok?No worries, mate. Obviously it boils down to a moral debate, but that's something we'll just differ on. But I can respect your view, of course.
There will still be clubs which promote gambling and you can argue all you like that there isn't anything wrong with it, but the AFL doesn't want its club involved with it and will be providing incentive to clubs to cease and desist or else miss out on development money. Besides, you are overlooking the elephant in the room. When Southport Sharks ends its 10 year Patron Sponsorship at the end of 2020, don't you think they'll renew? And when they do renew, where do you think the money is going to come from? Why on Earth would they want a rival club taking away their customers and be paying that club to help do so?
Let the local clubs decide what model is best for them to operate under, but forget about the Suns swimming against the tide to defy the AFL. There's a lot more money in the AFL Broadcast Rights pie than relying on destroying families with poker machines - and if you don't believe they are machines of misery then you've led a protected and privileged life and have been lucky not to have been impacted. For many of the rest of us, it is an issue close to home and I, for one, would cancel my membership if the club opened a pokies venue.