North on the Brink of financial disaster - The Age

[Ernie Eclectus]

Re: North on the Brink

Really? Did you just build yourself a $15m house? You have 38 servants that you pay $5m a year?

This is a hit piece by C.Wilson she doesn't even have the guts to put her name against.

The longer North remain in denial the worse it gets. Thier debt is nearly $7million now. What will it be in 5 years time??

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

Re: North on the Brink

The longer North remain in denial the worse it gets. Thier debt is nearly $7million now. What will it be in 5 years time??

Maybe we could just rip off premiership heroes and only pay them 22.5 cents in the dollar?

 

[Tas]

Re: North on the Brink

You hate having to see a traditional vic club like North Melbourne suffer...but you have to wonder how it is going to survive.

We are not suffering, we just spent more on our facilities than what was required because we wanted to produce as good a facility as was humanly possible. It is not a lego set, once it is done adding things to it becomes a lot more expensive so we wanted to do as much as we could.

If you take any club during a rebuild phase, their revenue is at a low ebb, it doesn't matter who it is, you do not generate the kind of money that you do when you start to perform and there is expectation.

The AFL wants a national competition. It's hard to see that happening without Victorian teams folding.

We have a national competition.

The AFL offered North its lifeline by moving to GC and it was knocked back.

It wasn't a lifeline, they offered to buy the license so it would become the GC license. We would be as much North as Fitzroy is Brisbane, ie not in any way shape or form.

That decision was based on patriotism and loyalty...and for a few years its looked like the corner was turning. However, when all that patriotism wears off, the club has to survive as a going concern on its own 2 feet. It can't keep relying on passion from a supporter base that simply doesn't exist.

Football is all about patriotism and loyalty, without it you have nothing. Had we sold out, we would have had nothing left as a club.

Most supporters of a football club are just not die-hards, it doesnt matter which club you are talking about, only a small fraction of the supporter base stick around during leaner times or go to games when the expectation is you will lose.

But, when you start to perform you get compensated by having a significant rise in support. Our problem is our previous administration failed to generate a substantial benefit during our period in the 90s and in trying to avoid bottoming out extended the rebuild phase by a number of years.

We just didn't have much fat on the body to sustain us through a long rebuild phase.

Things are not entirely our fault. Collo has ripped our club off to the tune of $10m over the last 10 years and when the AFL represented the clubs against Etihad and the court found in favour that clubs did have the rights to pourage rights they kept from them, the AFL settled out of court without requiring us to be compensated for what was stolen from us for a new deal that hasn't generated any additional revenue for us.

AFL also reneged out of a contract to play games on the GC and refused to pay it out. They have given us the worst schedule of any club and we get on FTA here in Melbourne fewer times than an interstate club with some of our bigger games not on FTA.

They cocked blocked us on Ballarat for several years, they wouldn't let us play one game in WA that would have generated $1m.

While we have a lot of challenges ahead, if the AFL do not help us to make the most of things then our progress is going to be extremely slow in terms on the financial side of things.

They want an even competition but make no real attempt to help teams who are trying to improve themselves to do so, they actually hinder clubs from expanding and growing.

I hope the same thing doesn't happen to Melbourne. At the moment, Stynes has been able to rally a lot of support and get funding. Everyone is passionate and onboard. But once all that passion dies off and the fundraising stops...will those supporters stay?? Let's hope so.

The only real difference is that Stynes has been shaking the tins and has a lot of emotional support behind him because of his condition. They have lower overheads now that they are back on the MCC drip but that will invariably produce the same issues which caused them to split before, it will be hard for them to thrive as a derivative of the MCC but their future wont be under threat in the short-term.

As much of a traditionalist as I am...i am also a realist. I can't see 10 Victorian clubs surviving for much longer. I can't see the AFL wanting 10 Victorian clubs either. We want to fill the MCG...not half fill it. Merging teams may have some short term repurcusions...but eventually the fans will come back and teams will have more supporters as there are less options.

I don't see 10 Melbourne clubs surviving, I can see 10 Victorian clubs surviving.

What makes our clubs stronger is the fact we play eachother, start to take out more and more Vic clubs and add in more and more interstate games and you will generate a lot more games like the Port Adelaide and Fremantle games, these are boring largely because there is no atmosphere. We have a very different football culture to the other states.

In 20 years, I don't see 10 Vic teams in the competition.

It depends, i think it can happen if you have a club based in Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Casey, (somewhere else further north) and you have clubs like Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond and possibly Hawthorn as the Melbourne based clubs.

The problem is the Demons, they wont have the market share in Melbourne to survive against the other clubs and their dependency on the MCC wont make it easy to move their base somewhere else.

As it is Geelong is obviously in Geelong, we are working on Ballarat, St Kilda is working on the South East. It would make sense for the Dogs to pry Bendigo off of the Bombers, while the Western Suburbs sustains them now I don't think that will be the case long-term.

 

[Skids]

Re: North on the Brink

This is a hit piece by C.Wilson she doesn't even have the guts to put her name against.

If so, why do you think she's become suddenly reticent? From what I gather in this thread, she's had no shame or never gilded the lily before regarding her distaste for North. She's not wall flower it would seem. Why become all sheepish and let someone else stick the boot in? A boot that she fashioned? Is it because in the deepest darkest recess of her black heart there is still a flicker of human emotion? Emotion to be loved by JB? Thus she can't bring herself to administer the coup-de-grace. Or is it something far more sinister? That she is using other reporters as sock-puppets to make it appear that the general consensus is that North is stuffed? Thus hiding her obsession whilst still trucking it at every opportunity? It's nefarious!

My questions of course rest on the assumption that she is against North. Something I cannot confirm or deny because I haven't taken much notice of her nor peered (metaphorically) into her mind.....

 

[skipper kelly]

Re: North on the Brink

The longer North remain in denial the worse it gets. Thier debt is nearly $7million now. What will it be in 5 years time??

Why does it matter?

The AFL will be getting close to 1 billion dollars for the next TV rights.

 

[Ernie Eclectus]

Re: North on the Brink

Maybe we could just rip off premiership heroes and only pay them 22.5 cents in the dollar?

As I've said before, St Kilda did that once and it was about 30 years ago. They recently said they want to repay those players anyway.

North have been on the drip feed for nearly 10 years. They receive an extra $1.5million every year from the AFL just to stay afloat. And even still have racked up an overall debt of $7million.

 

[shawthing09]

Re: North on the Brink

No it doesn't at all, I really admire North and their small but passionate supporter base but the GC and GWS are far more important for the AFLs future then NM could ever be.

This is sad but true. I am not confident that the AFL can make GWS and GC work but if they can the boost that it gives to the game as a whole is huge.

I don't think that a Victorian club needs to fold for the AFL to expand and hopefully this can be worked out. I think the really tough thing for clubs like NM and the Swans is the way that the draft rewards mediocracy. Success is the best way to bring excitement to your club and try and turn that into supporter base. The best way to get that is to get the best players, the best way to do that is to have the best draft picks, the only way to do that is to finish towards the bottom of the ladder. Unfortunately teams like Sydney and NM don't have the luxury of being able to bottom out that way.

 

[vjknight]

Re: North on the Brink

Really? Did you just build yourself a $15m house? You have 38 servants that you pay $5m a year?

this valuation needs far more scrutiny. it might be worth $15m to north, but whats it worth when the bank calls in the loan, if they did.

thats what its really worth - what someone else will pay for a few buildings, fully equipped gyms etc, but in the most undeveloped area of inner melbourne - an eyesore that no business would want to approach with the view of seeking clients. the streets surrounding it are dirty & depressing.

 

[LeFtBehinD]

Re: North on the Brink

We're not broke: Brayshaw
http://www.kangaroos.com.au/latestnews/newsarticle/tabid/4912/newsid/107956/default.aspx

NORTH Melbourne had more than a million dollars in its bank account just two weeks after its balance dropped below $3000, according to chairman James Brayshaw.

Speaking the morning after he was re-elected to the North Melbourne board, Brayshaw criticised a report in Thursday morning's The Age newspaper that said the club had just $2749 to its name when it filed its annual report on October 31 last year.

Brayshaw said that figure was released during a brief flow in expenditure.

"Every single business in the world, let alone football clubs and non for profit organisations draw down every month. Ten days after there was $2600 in that account, there was $1.05 million," Brayshaw told Triple M on Thursday morning.

"That happens every month at a footy club because money comes in and then you draw down. You've got to pay your players, you've got to pay your staff. There are a thousand things you've got to do every month. It's like the workings of a credit card."

Brayshaw took a thinly-veiled swipe at The Age after several recent reports and columns criticising his tenure at North Melbourne.

God this shit makes me angry. The Age are going all out to destroy our credibility.

 

[Skids]

Re: North on the Brink

We're not broke: Brayshaw
http://www.kangaroos.com.au/latestnews/newsarticle/tabid/4912/newsid/107956/default.aspx


God this shit makes me angry. The Age are going all out to destroy our credibility.

It looks that way. I reckon you guys need to jettison JB. He isn't the kind of street fighter required to put the media back in its box. And they need to be put back in as part of the battle to improve North's image. If North's image keeps taking a beating, then everybody gets used to the idea that North are strugglers, battlers, etc. Then they expect North to fail, as they've always struggled. People will apathetically let North sink. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. You got EA, why not get Eddie (or someone equivalent)?

 

[Ernie Eclectus]

Re: North on the Brink

We're not broke: Brayshaw
http://www.kangaroos.com.au/latestnews/newsarticle/tabid/4912/newsid/107956/default.aspx


God this shit makes me angry. The Age are going all out to destroy our credibility.

Brayshaw is delusional.

 

[Memories]

Re: North on the Brink

God this shit makes me angry. The Age are going all out to destroy our credibility.

The $2600 in the bank account is merely sensationalism. However the other points in the article remain, and North supporters refuse to properly look at them because they know what it really means.

 

[clobba]

Re: North on the Brink

Maybe we could just rip off premiership heroes and only pay them 22.5 cents in the dollar?

LOL theres always a good sign your winning an argument, respond with pissy nothing comments. Dont like what EE is saying (and I dont agree with it) dont respond...you argue with idiots you only end up being dragged to their level.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Re: North on the Brink

If I was a North supporter I would start planning for a merger right now. I know everyone is going to go crazy at me and I'll probably get banned again but what other choice does North have?

The way I see it, if North does not merge, the AFL is going to force them to relocate to Tassie. North supporters need to ask themselves what they would prefer. The fight to stay in Melbourne is a fight they can never win unless they find someone who is mega rich and donates $50 million to the club.

I admire North as a club for their tenacity but the reallity is that 10 clubs can not survive in Victoria. Eight clubs might survive in Victoria, but really, the ideal number of clubs in Victoria is 6. If there were 6 clubs in Victoria I could honestly say that they would all thrive.

So we're all planning for mergers? All of us who don't join the six remaining Vic clubs - Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Richmond, Hawthorn and Geelong? Who would we merge with? What an arbitrary and pointless suggestion. The fun in footy is when we play each other. Playing against an interstate team is half as much fun as playing a Victorian rival, so everyone's crowds and ratings drop relatively. Who seriously wants fewer intrastate matches for their own club?

And I'm not so much worried, as bored. North has been fighting "on the brink" for its entire existence. Its sweet how much everyone cares, and how much admiration we get from people who are simultaneously wishing us dead and gone, but is this still an interesting conversation?

 

[Ernie Eclectus]

Re: North on the Brink

LOL theres always a good sign your winning an argument, respond with pissy nothing comments. Dont like what EE is saying (and I dont agree with it) dont respond...you argue with idiots you only end up being dragged to their level.

I'll take that as a compliment clobba. What part of my opinion do you not agree with?

 

[legend166]

Re: North on the Brink

So we're all planning for mergers? All of us who don't join the six remaining Vic clubs - Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Richmond, Hawthorn and Geelong? Who would we merge with? What an arbitrary and pointless suggestion. The fun in footy is when we play each other. Playing against an interstate team is half as much fun as playing a Victorian rival, so everyone's crowds and ratings drop relatively. Who seriously wants fewer intrastate matches for their own club?

And I'm not so much worried, as bored. North has been fighting "on the brink" for its entire existence. Its sweet how much everyone cares, and how much admiration we get from people who are simultaneously wishing us dead and gone, but is this still an interesting conversation?

This really is the worst attitude. The fun in footy is the footy. If you have to play local teams to get the fun, you're less of a footy fan and more of tribalistic rivalry fan or something. It's insular thinking that people always like to characterise Sydney with. It's not 1950 any more.

The old VFL is dead. Move on. If playing local teams is so important, go follow the existing VFL. It's nothing but local teams!

 

[Slattery_20]

Re: North on the Brink

The $2600 in the bank account is merely sensationalism. However the other points in the article remain, and North supporters refuse to properly look at them because they know what it really means.

Pretty much.
The journo/paper is always going to take the single most extreme point for the headline; but that doesn't make the other numbers any better.

 

[Memories]

Re: North on the Brink

Playing against an interstate team is half as much fun as playing a Victorian rival, so everyone's crowds and ratings drop relatively. Who seriously wants fewer intrastate matches for their own club?

And you wonder why 8/18 teams could care less about North when some Victorians talk like this? The more Victorians want to moan about the good old days in the VFL and how much better it was the more us "interstaters" will be against weak Victorian teams.

The rest of Australia (those outside Victoria) want a competition that's fairer, with teams that travel as fairly as possible. Not only this, the rest of Australia is sick of supporting struggling Victorian teams, not only due to the fact we lose money doing it, but also because it brings down the spectacle that is AFL.

Welcome to 2011 where AFL is a truly Australian game. Goodbye struggling Victorian teams.

 

[Trav 20]

Re: North on the Brink

Carlton and Melbourne get them too

Melbourne are debt free, so those statements no longer apply.

The NMFC Board reminds me of the Paul Gardner led Board before Stynes took over. They were forever making excuses in reply to auditor's comments when we had debt approaching $5mil and kept pointing to their achievements. In 2007 he congratulated the club on making a profit - $97K. Even up to the death they wanted a couple of Board members to continue when Stynes took over, but Stynes wouldn't have anyone other than his own ticket.

We now have a far more inclusive club and for the fisrt time in living memory there is no disunity or factions. Stynes unified Melbourne. He took over 6 months after Brayshaw, but has already eliminated our debt. Our spending on the footy dept has also increased, our membership is at record levels, our attendances are pointing north again, and our sponsorships have never been better.

The NMFC Board has apparently said "why should we do things for the members when they don't turn up to matches ?". A Stynes led Board has an attitude of 'what more can we do for our members to include them in our club and community ?'. There's a vastly different approach.

I dare say that North fans won't recognise a good Board until they get one. But they'll keep hearing about all their "achievements".

 

[Dr Awkward]

Re: North on the Brink

I think the AFL should continue to help them out.

I value their history and their future place in the league and reckon they are good contributors overall. I don't think clubs get enough of the 100's of millions of dollars in revenue that the AFL pulls in every year, it's time that some of our clubs started getting a bit richer from that. It is the clubs that ultimately provide the product.

 

[gaelictiogar]

Re: North on the Brink

All I can say is that I truly wish North and its supporters well. They are part of the game. I hope they are savable and believe they are.

North fans get off the chair and go to the bloody games!!!! Get behind your club. No one will save you but yourselves.

 

[Demon 16]

Re: North on the Brink

At the time the GC offer was refused I remember thinking that the club was being stubborn for the sake of it. Simply wanting to remain a Melbourne club and declaring that intent wasn't going to make it happen.

It would seem there are three potential conclusions:

1) The club attracts a new supporter base, large enough to sustain the club in its existing form.

2) The AFL offers another relocation option, this time accepted.

3) North Melbourne ceases to be.

I think Canberra or Tassie under option 2 is the most likely scenario - the AFL wont allow this to continue, and they will certainly be looking at a couple more Australian cities having teams in the coming years.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Re: North on the Brink

This really is the worst attitude. The fun in footy is the footy. If you have to play local teams to get the fun, you're less of a footy fan and more of tribalistic rivalry fan or something. It's insular thinking that people always like to characterise Sydney with. It's not 1950 any more.

The old VFL is dead. Move on. If playing local teams is so important, go follow the existing VFL. It's nothing but local teams!

Agree with this. Apart from Geelong's ongoing rivalry with Hawthorn and some short-lived rivalries which currently exist due to other circumstances (Essendon, Collingwood, St Kilda), playing against Carlton, Richmond or the Bulldogs does nothing more for me than playing against Brisbane, Adelaide or Fremantle.

Note: I'm taking the Skilled Stadium factor out of my example...imagining Geelong played all its home games in Melbourne.

 

[The Kipster]

Re: North on the Brink

The fun in footy is when we play each other. Playing against an interstate team is half as much fun .

quoted for truth...

 

[Ernie Eclectus]

Re: North on the Brink

Melbourne are debt free, so those statements no longer apply.

The NMFC Board reminds me of the Paul Gardner led Board before Stynes took over. They were forever making excuses in reply to auditor's comments when we had debt approaching $5mil and kept pointing to their achievements. In 2007 he congratulated the club on making a profit - $97K. Even up to the death they wanted a couple of Board members to continue when Stynes took over, but Stynes wouldn't have anyone other than his own ticket.

We now have a far more inclusive club and for the fisrt time in living memory there is no disunity or factions. Stynes unified Melbourne. He took over 6 months after Brayshaw, but has already eliminated our debt. Our spending on the footy dept has also increased, our membership is at record levels, our attendances are pointing north again, and our sponsorships have never been better.

The NMFC Board has apparently said "why should we do things for the members when they don't turn up to matches ?". A Stynes led Board has an attitude of 'what more can we do for our members to include them in our club and community ?'. There's a vastly different approach.

I dare say that North fans won't recognise a good Board until they get one. But they'll keep hearing about all their "achievements".

I agree with what you are saying Trav 100%. Having said that though, I guess now that Melbourne are debt free the assistance from the AFL should be turned off. The Dees no longer need $1.5 million in extra funding. After all, they have been receiving this from the AFL for nearly 10 years now!!!!???