North on the Brink of financial disaster - The Age

[Bulldog Banana]

Re: North on the Brink

I cant help but think that the Roos are going to end up on the Gold Coast and not by their own choice.

Im not against the Roos at all, but if they continue to struggle financially, I can see that the Gold Coast could be merged with North. I just think that the AFL will get tired of endless speculation about Norths future and will attempt to force them up there.

I keep looking at the Gold Coast "guernsey" if you can call it that, and it looks like it is just a "make do" type design until the AFL can engineer a relocation and then use the relocated teams guernsey.

Problem is that if the Roos are forced to go there or die, then they will lose a good deal of control, whereas if they had taken the cash & gone to the Gold Coast, then they would kept their history.

I know that everyone wants their team to remain true to their roots & history, but with TV coverage becoming more widespread, you can still follow your club that way.

 

[Slattery_20]

Re: North on the Brink

Given there's basically a stated aim of 20 team comp (eventually) I'd back North to stay as a Vic-based (altho possibly going half/half regional) side no matter how poorly they're run.

 

[Trav 20]

Re: North on the Brink

Just a short note to some of the genuinely mentally challenged posters pedalling the same falsehoods about Melbourne's recovery and Jim Stynes.

Debt Demolition began in August 2008. On the first night $2mil was raised. By the time that Stynes was diagnosed with cancer, almost a year later (july 2009) $3mil had been raised. The bulk of the debt had been eradicated prior to his diagnosis. Get it ?

In March 2009 we landed Kaspersky and Hankook as major sponsors. These sponsorships placed Melbourne at approx 5th in the AFL for sponsorship revenue. This was before Stynes was diagnosed with cancer. Get it ?

Melbourne only started getting better free to air tv and scheduling once the AFL was satisfied that we were making significant inroads on and off the field. Get it ?

Under the Gardner regime we spent our lives making excuses for ourselves, much like North now. Melbourne have recovered not because of Stynes illness, but inspite of it.

Carry on blaming others and making ill founded accusations towards other clubs. It's what you do best.

 

[DaVe86]

Re: North on the Brink

Just a short note to some of the genuinely mentally challenged posters pedalling the same falsehoods about Melbourne's recovery and Jim Stynes.

Debt Demolition began in August 2008. On the first night $2mil was raised. By the time that Stynes was diagnosed with cancer, almost a year later (july 2009) $3mil had been raised. The bulk of the debt had been eradicated prior to his diagnosis. Get it ?

In March 2009 we landed Kaspersky and Hankook as major sponsors. These sponsorships placed Melbourne at approx 5th in the AFL for sponsorship revenue. This was before Stynes was diagnosed with cancer. Get it ?

Melbourne only started getting better free to air tv and scheduling once the AFL was satisfied that we were making significant inroads on and off the field. Get it ?

Under the Gardner regime we spent our lives making excuses for ourselves, much like North now. Melbourne have recovered not because of Stynes illness, but inspite of it.

Carry on blaming others and making ill founded accusations towards other clubs. It's what you do best.

Melbourne are no doubt to be admired for the way they have recovered and got themselves back on their feet.

However, the Demons are facing the most defiining era in the clubs history. With such high draft picks, and a really good list coming together, the Demons need results.

If they can't pull a flag or come really close to it, then I don't know whether the passion is going to remain. You can't keep relying on debt demolitions to save the day. It has worked this time because the club genuinely seems to be on the brink of something special.

I don't know whether the loyalty will survive another failure onfield over the next 5-10 years. With Gold Coast and GWS also building incredibly strong lists, the Demons will have significant competition. Fortunately they are probably 2 years ahead of these sides in development.


The Demons seemingly have it right this time. However, if Melbourne are to survive, they have to go on with it from here and get some on-field success as well. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Re: North on the Brink

Not sure what you're trying to say, if you're having a go at me then you're way off the mark for several reasons. But I'll let you explain first what you meant

Just backing up what Tas and Porthos have said. Through no design of his own, Stynes' illness has contributed towards renewed support for the Melbourne Football Club.

If having that opinion makes me a revolting person in your eyes, so be it.

 

[Trav 20]

Re: North on the Brink

Through no design of his own, Stynes' illness has contributed towards renewed support for the Melbourne Football Club.

In what tangible way ?

 

[Slattery_20]

Re: North on the Brink

Diamond Joe's pubs help, too.

 

[Demon 16]

Re: North on the Brink

Just backing up what Tas and Porthos have said. Through no design of his own, Stynes' illness has contributed towards renewed support for the Melbourne Football Club.

If having that opinion makes me a revolting person in your eyes, so be it.

I understand your point RTB - and I dont think youve made it in a revolting manner at all.

I think Stynes illness has contributed towards support for him as a person, but not sure its been transferred into anything significant for Melbourne FC perhaps other than a little stronger bonding, support and comdradery at executive/board level.

The point I felt the other guys were trying to make was that the only reason Stynes hasnt got a hard time in the press like Brayshaw, is because he has cancer. I think thats of poor taste, and in any case I would argue that its because he's done such a cracking job - and Brayshaw hasnt delivered anything significant at all.

 

[Slattery_20]

Re: North on the Brink

In what tangible way ?

Media & exposure I guess, sadly is measurable in terms of sponsorship dollars

 

[Trav 20]

Re: North on the Brink

Media & exposure I guess, sadly is measurable in terms of sponsorship dollars

Our sponsorship streams were well and truly bedded down before Jim's illness.

What else ?

 

[Demon 16]

Re: North on the Brink

Out of interest - who would the North posters here support if North folded?

 

[Demonheart]

Re: North on the Brink

Just backing up what Tas and Porthos have said. Through no design of his own, Stynes' illness has contributed towards renewed support for the Melbourne Football Club.

If having that opinion makes me a revolting person in your eyes, so be it.

It has already been demonstrated that the mjority of the good work done by the club was prior to Stynes' illness becoming public, so that opinion has proven to be false.

 

[Demonheart]

Re: North on the Brink

Diamond Joe's pubs help, too.

Everything helps, however consider this.

Prior to Gutnick joining Melbourne Melbourne had no debt. After Gutnick, and those he personally introduced to the board left the club, we were in debt by other $3m and had no future viable business strategies.

Just something to consider, that era of management is what brought Melbourne to it's knees, not the AFL, not anyone else. We did it to ourselves.

Thanks Joe

 

[Groggyk]

Re: North on the Brink

Out of interest - who would the North posters here support if North folded?

+1 for nobody.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Re: North on the Brink

Out of interest - who would the North posters here support if North folded?

If North went to the VFL, I'd support North. If they stopped existing, I'd stop following AFL. My kids would probably go with my partner and follow Collingwood. PLEASE SAVE MY FAMILY FROM THIS DREADFUL FATE.

 

[Luc]

Re: North on the Brink

Prior to Gutnick joining Melbourne Melbourne had no debt. After Gutnick, and those he personally introduced to the board left the club, we were in debt by other $3m and had no future viable business strategies.

Just something to consider, that era of management is what brought Melbourne to it's knees, not the AFL, not anyone else. We did it to ourselves.

Thanks Joe

But the reason for the merger was that the management of the club knew things were going bad, and thought that the merger was the easiest way to avoid the situation before it happened.

 

[Demonheart]

Re: North on the Brink

But the reason for the merger was that the management of the club knew things were going bad, and thought that the merger was the easiest way to avoid the situation before it happened.

The merger was a seperate issue. Under Ridley's rule the club was financially strong (no debt) but it lacked resources in the footy department, their annual spend on these departments were massively behind the richer clubs. As an example the money spent on our recruiting team was around a tenth compared to other clubs.

Ridley believed that as the non-Vic and rich Vic clubs continued to grow financially the smaller clubs like Melbourne, North, Bulldogs etc would really struggle to compete and would fall even further back.

He believed that Melbourne's only chance to compete against clubs like Adelaide, West coast, Collingwood etc would be to merge with an 'asset rich' club like Hawthorn.

Ridley got a alot of things right, however he didn't predict that the AFL would begin to contribute extra dollars to the smaller clubs, in his days the VFL/AFL were aggresively looking at culling clubs.

Anyway, that's a story for a different thread, sorry for boring people with a bit of history.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Re: North on the Brink

It has already been demonstrated that the mjority of the good work done by the club was prior to Stynes' illness becoming public, so that opinion has proven to be false.

So it hasn't contributed in any way? Hasn't helped to sustain the momentum generated prior to Stynes' illness? Not even in the form of memberships or attendances?

I don't know that anyone's denying that much good work was undertaken before the announcement of his illness.

 

[PDJohnson]

Re: North on the Brink

Im not against the Roos at all, but if they continue to struggle financially, I can see that the Gold Coast could be merged with North. I just think that the AFL will get tired of endless speculation about Norths future and will attempt to force them up there.
I keep looking at the Gold Coast "guernsey" if you can call it that, and it looks like it is just a "make do" type design until the AFL can engineer a relocation and then use the relocated teams guernsey.

Makes sense. With their crappy guernsey, nickname and colours, the Gold Coast look like they're BEGGING to be taken over by someone else. However, as with Sydney and Canberra, the Coast has a sour feeling about North now.

 

[Demonheart]

Re: North on the Brink

So it hasn't contributed in any way? Hasn't helped to sustain the momentum generated prior to Stynes' illness? Not even in the form of memberships or attendances?

I don't know that anyone's denying that much good work was undertaken before the announcement of his illness.

Why would it?

 

[Ron The Bear]

Re: North on the Brink

Why would it?

Human nature. The man has been dead set heroic. I'm not referring to committed supporters, more those on the fringe who might otherwise decide to support from the couch (or dare I say it, snowfields ).

Moot point really since there's no way to quantify the level of additional support generated.

 

[Demonheart]

Re: North on the Brink

Human nature. The man has been dead set heroic. I'm not referring to committed supporters, more those on the fringe who might otherwise decide to support from the couch (or dare I say it, snowfields ).

Moot point really since there's no way to quantify the level of additional support generated.

That's a good point, no way to prove either way, except that previous to the announcment the campaign was running strong with no sign of slowing. Just a small detail I guess.

Sadly, I don't know how to ski

 

[hassa man]

First one to fold will be given the Tasmania option,they are a passionate lot over here and Hawthorn is cleaning up playing 5 Miserable games over here every year and have boosted there Membership by 9,000 from Tassie fans.

It amazes me the Mentality of Demetriou and Co,they have been pouring money into Sydney and QLD over the last 10 years or more and even with Sydney and Brisbanes success they struggle to get crowds,and take into account the population of Sydney being around 4 Million,and struggle to get 10,000 crowd for some games.

The argument from Demetriou is the population in Tassie can not sustain and AFL side (500,000) but I can assure you with the response that Hawthorn have got playing 4 or 5 ordinary games here in Tassie we will get great Crowds at York Park if we wever get an AFL side.

There are quite a few very unhappy over here because of former Premier David Bartlett sighning up Hawthorn for another contract,and turning His back on the North Melbourne bid,it was a way for North to get there foot in the door and prepare themselves for the eventual fold and move to Tassie,Think about it it's 45 minute flight for North Fans to come to Launceston so very convenient a sensational training and playing surface and you would have your own home ground advantage,North supporters may not like it but it's better than no side at all.!!!

Hassa

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

Re: North on the Brink

Out of interest - who would the North posters here support if North folded?

Nobody. Who would you have supported had Melbourne folded a few years ago when you were far closer than we've ever been?

 

[hassa man]

Dont forget with Demetrious absolute obsession with competing against the Rugby states and 2 new Sides coming into the Competition,I have no doubt that when the Struggling sides like North Melbourne and Melbourne go to him with cap in hand there will be very little there,He will pour money into the 2 new sides with very little compassion for the struggling Vic sides,He wants less Victorian sides in His competition and He knows some will eventually not survive and that is all part of his Big Plan.!!!

Hassa