News Lions Board Spill - update: Board Dispute Resolved

[Dylan12]

As Sharpless has said, they want an AFL presence there, and it's a big part of the overall planning of the area.

You sure that isn't meant to read Sharpless wants an AFL presence in a region he has a vested interest in and stands to make a killing, just like his mate Angus Johnson who clearly had no conflict of interest in relocating the team to a region that he too stands to gain a fortune from. Staggering how conflicted the former and current chairman are and they sit there trying to force feed us with blatant lies thinking we are a bunch of morons.

And what's worse, after blowing smoke up everyone's arses for the past year about lobbying the AFL for a minimum of six games in Melbourne, we end up with only four; way to go.

 

[Fatcat08]

About a 20 min drive, but traffic is horrible in the morning. But CBD to their facility is against the flow of traffic so it isn't too bad.

Is a 45 min drive from Greensslopes which is near coorparoo. Do it every day

 

[JasRulz63]

Is a 45 min drive from Greensslopes which is near coorparoo. Do it every day

I was referring to the Essendon training facility from the Melbourne CBD (re-read my post and realised it wasn't too clear).

45 minutes is a pretty long way to drive. Geelong is around 1 hour from the CBD in Victoria (a drive I make every day), and I could imagine players from a Melbourne club being quite discontent about a move that far out.

 

[Lionator]

Letter from the new Chairman

Good start chairman. Keep up the communication and you'll go along way to winning us over

 

[alscotoz2]

Adelaide? Brisbane? Two cheeks of the same arse IMO.

 

[James North]

If we were in the USA we'd be talking about a big arse. Brisbane would be its fourth biggest city (NY, LA, Chicago, Brisbane) and Adelaide its 9th (between San Diego and Dallas).

But we're Australian ... so keep your pants on, small cities.

 

[Sherrinator]

This is close to how I feel I think . From a purely financial POV the benefits are blindingly obvious. But I can't quite shake the feeling that culturally that it might come back to bite us on either/both buttock(s). It's all well and good saying that it's not a big commute and it's not in the grand scheme of things. But if you're trying to attract quality staff and players to the club, it could play it's part on people not willing to come to us.

Also, it kind of feels like we're running away from the fight (WRT the other codes). I think the Broncos could probably get away with this better than us- their support is traditionally in the outer suburbs. The Reds less so. Sure, we'll still play at The Gabba, but for us it feels like we become less relevant.

I too would like a detailed account of the potential sites considered and why they didn't measure up. Perhaps a willing questioner at the AGM could raise this?

I think you will find most fairweather supporters that we are trying to win over would neither know or care where we train.

 

[James North]

The Broncos wanted Darren Lockyer on the board ... and bam - he's there. If only it was that simple for the Lions!

 

[Scubaveg]

You sure that isn't meant to read Sharpless wants an AFL presence in a region he has a vested interest in and stands to make a killing, just like his mate Angus Johnson who clearly had no conflict of interest in relocating the team to a region that he too stands to gain a fortune from. Staggering how conflicted the former and current chairman are and they sit there trying to force feed us with blatant lies thinking we are a bunch of morons.

And what's worse, after blowing smoke up everyone's arses for the past year about lobbying the AFL for a minimum of six games in Melbourne, we end up with only four; way to go.

Wow Dylan you really do need a holiday. Either that or work out a way to go to a happy place in your head. Man you have been one very cranky negative person for the best for the beat part of three months.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[archiebutterfly]

There are many more questions than there are answers when it comes to the Brisbane Lions proposed relocation to Springfield, particularly given that the new chairman owns the joint and the majority of the board members are potentially on an earn if the move goes ahead. We appreciate that the Lions are a member-based club and can do as they see fit, but when a major decision to relocate the club is made without consulting the Lion's members and the club directors are asking for tens of millions of the taxpayers dollars to fund the move, then stringent rules of probity and disclosure have to apply.
The first and most glaringly obvious question is why exactly the club have decided to spend $60 million (and that's only stage 1) on a purpose-built sporting facility when the Nathan Sports Centre, formerly known as ANZ stadium when home to the Brisbane Broncos, is available literally 5 minutes down the road and features a 48 500 seat stadium, expansive lighting, and state of the art training and rehabilitation facilities? A logical and persuasive explanation is desperately required.
The second question that needs to be answered before a single cent of public money is handed over is what exactly are the Director's personal financial interests in the Springfield and surrounding regions? To avoid any suggestion of the board members personally profiting from the club's relocation, each of the club directors should be forced to place their cards on the table and fully detail their personal, family and company holdings in any real estate or venture located within a 10km radius of the proposed new headquarters.
It is not good enough for the Sharp Shooter, new Lion's chairman Bob Sharpless, to simply tell us that he has no conflict of interest, particularly given that his Springfield Land Corporation donated more than $190 000 to the Queensland ALP between 2008-2010 and has donated more than $160 000 to the LNP over the past 5 years. We need proof Bob (and Mick and Lethal and Cameron and Peter) so if you want the public to throw our money into your hat then ante up and tell us the full story about your financial interests in Springfield.
And the third question, the one that has the authors of this site vexed, is what the hell is the link between the Fremantle Dockers and the Lions? Because since he was appointed chairman the Sharp Shooter has been spruiking the Dockers move from Freo Stadium to a new facility at Cockburn (yes that's really what it's called) to anyone who'll listen as a justification for the Lions relocating operations to Springfield.
So we thought we'd have a little look at the Freo situation, and were amazed at what we found, because it appears that, despite being published nine months apart. the spruik to the punters from the clubs is almost identical; neither club consulted with their members about moving; their proposed stadiums could be fraternal twins; and both clubs are putting a large bite on the public purse to move much-loved city clubs to privately owned suburban residential development areas on peppercorn council leases. On the face of it the whole situation looks as hot as the Cairns Casino development.
Have a look at the next few articles which compare the two clubs explanations about the moves - in the posts the Lions are playing in grey and the Dockers in black. We believe that the Sharp Shooter and his mates have a lot of explaining to do.

 

[archiebutterfly]

articles are on www.archiebutterfly.com

 

[Crimso]

Shees, we just got a relatively new board, lets let them do something before we start kicking them. If they are involved with any other development out that way I reckon they are on the way to making a packet anyway, I don't think a Lions training facility would be a major reason to make a family buy & live there.

 

[maroon and blue]

Not an ideal situation. But in life what is. When the VFL bought Waverley it was owned by the incumbent CEO. He made a nice bit of coin and so did footy when it was sold. Look on the bright side, there is someone out there willing to back us.

 

[adey115]

Nothing wrong with asking the board members to lay their interests out on the table. I think archie's conspiracies are at the far end of far, but he does raise some interesting points. And transparency is something that we're after, given what we've been thorugh over the past number of years.

 

[spotthedog1]

And now for something completely different.

I wonder what's become of spotthedog1 ??

I can't recall seeing him around since around the time HP showed up.

Hey....wait a minute!

Lol... I'm still here... Busy period at work... with the hours I've been doing, BF has taken a backseat.

Plus, board issue resolved itself now... no loss.

For the 15 people who replied to my dig about lethal's "intelligence (and grammar)" - no, i didn't care too much about the grammar, but it was truly terrible, even for twitter. My bigger concern was the complete lack of strategy in the comment. I have great respect for Leigh's football knowledge and coaching abilities, but his dumb twitter tirades reduced my impression of his non-football abilities - a concern for a board member... I certainly don't think he's thick - i just don't think he displayed outstanding judgement on that occasion... That said, in my experience, most footballers weren't the smartest kids in class...

And whoever said "fans and potential fans don't care about boardroom battles" - these things are subconscious - and usually if someone's a laughing stock, your subconscious disregards them completely... and also - if this stoush were behind closed doors, we may have still been able to get a corporate sponsor or two. Not so likely now.

 

[Skoob]

Lol... I'm still here... Busy period at work... with the hours I've been doing, BF has taken a backseat.

Plus, board issue resolved itself now... no loss.

For the 15 people who replied to my dig about lethal's "intelligence (and grammar)" - no, i didn't care too much about the grammar, but it was truly terrible, even for twitter. My bigger concern was the complete lack of strategy in the comment. I have great respect for Leigh's football knowledge and coaching abilities, but his dumb twitter tirades reduced my impression of his non-football abilities - a concern for a board member... I certainly don't think he's thick - i just don't think he displayed outstanding judgement on that occasion... That said, in my experience, most footballers weren't the smartest kids in class...

And whoever said "fans and potential fans don't care about boardroom battles" - these things are subconscious - and usually if someone's a laughing stock, your subconscious disregards them completely... and also - if this stoush were behind closed doors, we may have still been able to get a corporate sponsor or two. Not so likely now.

Hey Spot, for once I don't disagree with 90% of your post.
The bolded part though, I would think that with things sorted to a large degree, and it can be seen that the perceived biggest problem at board level (Angus) now gone, we are in good stead for attracting new (and old) sponsors.
There has never been so much publicity about various board members' credentials plus the inclusion of the player of the century. I think the immediate future can be seen and sold as exciting times for the club. Some or all sponsors will wait for the AGM to see the final board make up before committing, but I think it's looking good (compared to 6-12 months ago at least).

 

[Henry Pinskier]

The Brisbane Lions conducted an official internal investigation into false claims that Restore the Lions' Pride had access to the Club's official membership list. The claims were made by a rival supporters' group that aligned itself with one side of the now-resolved boardroom brawl. Restore the Lions' Pride remained fiercely independent. Now we have been vindicated.
Restore the Lions Pride had little idea what it was getting into when it first embarked into standing up for Brisbane Lions club members and supporters when a boardroom brawl threatened to shut us all out and even excluded life members like Leigh Matthews from having a say.
We wanted to reach as many supporters and club members as possible and worked with our IT partners to make that happen. We explained that to those who thought that just because we were asking for support at a Club meeting – and that some of those we were asking had a vote at that meeting – that we therefore must have either hacked or in some other way obtained the Club membership list. That was never the case.
Initially we laughed off the bizarre and false claims as coming from a rival supporters' group that had embarrassed itself by picking sides in the boardroom brawl that was driving all us members into despair.
But a couple of sports reporters – so used to slagging off the Club and swallowing lines from one side of the boardroom brawl – repeated the claim in their newspaper so more than a few assumed it was true.
The Club was apparently prompted by those reports to conduct a full investigation into the matter. We were very comfortable with them doing that, knowing exactly how we’d built and legitimately used our email list.
When asked about it by the Club, we patiently explained the truth, just as we had to anyone else who asked.
http://www.restorethelionspride.com/email
We understand from the Club’s statement that they exhaustively examined their own records and interviewed those with access to the Club’s membership list. They did not find any evidence at all that we had been given the list. For good reason, we weren’t given anything.
Naturally, journalism being what it is, there won’t be any apology from the two individuals who made such serious and untoward claims against what was and remains a volunteer-driven Lions supporters’ group that was standing up against some powerful forces in the Club.
We’re delighted that we’ve been given a clean bill of health after the Club’s internal investigation and look forward next year to playing an active, positive role of helping the Club convert supporters into members and encouraging members to keep the faith, renew their membership and get loudly behind the boys in 2014.
http://www.restorethelionspride.com/cleared

 

[Elixuh]

 

[Mazza44]

And just when my faith in the club was beginning to be restored they come up with this horse shit.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Since when has lack of evidence ever been the same as being fully cleared?

The fact that we had posters here who set up second email addresses purely for the sake of registering their second Lions memberships and they received emails to those addresses from Pinskier is a massive, massive concern. Not to mention the fact that the email list was filtered by whether people were Victorian or from Queensland. Let's not give any oxygen to the ridiculous suggestion that these details were gained from Twitter or a Facebook. Anyone with even a basic understanding of those sites know that that is not possible.

If the club's investigation simply comprised going around to every member of staff (and Pinskier) and saying...

"Did you do it?"

"Nup"

Then that is very concerning. An investigation isn't just asking the suspects if they are guilty... if that is all the club has been doing the last few weeks then I think Malcolm Holmes has seriously, seriously let members down and insulted our intelligence.

I'd urge those people who have received unsolicited emails to those unique email accounts to demand a better investigation from the club and potentially an official regulator such as ASIC.

Also interesting that the club released the statement in the classic "take out the trash" Friday afternoon window. Trying to minimise media attention?

 

[Back2Back2Back]

Yeh, not buying it for a second. Already emailed them with my reasons why.

 

[Haso]

Good grief.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Kobe Bryant is rapt with the outcome of this investigation.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Interesting that the announcement seems to be restricted to a snippet on the website on a Friday afternoon when everyone is busy.

No email "member alert"... not even cross posted on the facebook page...

 

[Betty Noir]

Fortunately the 7pt type and my hyperopia rendered it

TLDR