- Jun 29, 2013
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- AFL Club
- Western Bulldogs
The AFL finalised renegotiated tenant clubs deals in November 2016. Soon after they took over ownership of Etihad and just prior to it be renamed Marvel. I dont think that details of the new deals have ever publicly been released beyond a vague assertion that the clubs will be better off. With one source having it that the Saints were projected to be as much as $2million better off than the previous year under the new arrangement. Having said this, I presume that although lower the agreement still had a crowd number floor, below which clubs are still liable for any cost incurred. I don't see a scenario where the AFL is ever going to underwrite all cost for teams playing out of Marvel. Giants or Metricon Stadiums on the other hand...
To me this suggests that we may have banked the difference, added it to the bottom line and that the local and state government guaranteed returns that we have for playing games out of Ballarat to smaller crowds still far outweighs the return that we would get for playing against lower drawing interstate teams in a stadium now owned by the administrators of the game.
Norm I believe we all understand that is most likely the outcome but what myself, and I think Lachy, are trying to say is do we need the $1million profit from these two games and what does the adverse cost to membership and crowd figures in fact mean the outright profit of this deal is now?
The club have shown a fiscal ability to make a profit now and I doubt very much that it all hinges on the Ballarat game.
I personally want all our games at Marvel so for the sake of argument why do we not “sell” two games to Marvel/Disney each year and wear special themed jumpers as we did in round one this year?
I would be fairly sure most kids would much prefer to see us in these themed jumpers than watch a game on TV in Ballarat? Wearing the jumpers is a sell out, as the Ballarat game is so what’s the difference?
I want OUR club to stay in Melbourne where we belong and I still cannot work out what the long term plan of this deal is, if it is to play even more games up there eventually then why the hell would we continue to support that idea as fans?
We have gone backwards in membership numbers since 2016 and anyone suggesting numbers in Ballarat have significantly grown is completely full of sh!t and anyone with a modicum of smarts know that is impossible. If membership is falling drastically everywhere else’s there is no way it’s grwoibg at a staggering rate in Ballarat due to two games against interstate teams that hardly any locals go to.
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