North's 'non-football' plan

[Quivorir]

NORTH Melbourne will focus almost exclusively on boosting its commercial department as it seeks to close the gap on the competition's powerhouse clubs, coach Brad Scott says.

http://www.kangaroos.com.au/latestnews/newsarticle/tabid/4912/newsid/124306/default.aspx

Is this a good idea? Wouldnt spending it on football = with anyway? So why not just use on Football and kill two birds with one stone?

 

[DarkPhoenix]

I think the article is written based on Scotts comments on AFL Insider, and theyve pretty much cut out half he said.

He indicated: some clubs are always going to have small supporter bases, and thus smaller guaranteed funds. By expanding the commercial side of the club theyre looking to ensure the financial stability of the club so that they dont have to rely on a huge increase of members to increase the coffers.

Sure we could just invest it in the football dept, but thats a bit of a gamble, theres no guarantee that that will lead to onfield success and more members and thus more money. Theyre working at expanding a side of the business they control, which will in the long term bring in more money which then can be invested in the football department.

 

[Event Horizon]

I must admit, I don't like it. AFL will now be telling us how many people to hire into the football club, and what underpants they should be wearing on Mondays as opposed to Tuesdays. This model is likely to ensure that no "smaller" clubs win a flag in a foreseeable future.

I realise that off field stuff is extremely important to a club like ours, but in my view there is no better way in growing the supporter base than via on-field success. From my experience with my children, it's much easier to keep them interested in North after a good win, than after a footy clinic. Footy clinic is forgotten quickly, but winning most weeks gets people interested.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

I must admit, I don't like it. AFL will now be telling us how many people to hire into the football club, and what underpants they should be wearing on Mondays as opposed to Tuesdays. This model is likely to ensure that no "smaller" clubs win a flag in a foreseeable future.

I realise that off field stuff is extremely important to a club like ours, but in my view there is no better way in growing the supporter base than via on-field success. From my experience with my children, it's much easier to keep them interested in North after a good win, than after a footy clinic. Footy clinic is forgotten quickly, but winning most weeks gets people interested.

Yeah, but assume we sink 5million into the footy department over the next 3 years, and the success doesnt come? No guarantee we will have gained 10k odd members without that success.

End of the term the AFL comes to us and says "Show us how you've invested the money, how have you grown your business", we're unable to show anything of note and the shit really starts hitting the fan.

Remember we have money coming in from the Tasmania venture which can be used in the football department, I think theyre just playing it safe in regard to the AFL disequalisation funding, and investing in the commercial side will lead to increased funding in the footy dept.

 

[MaddAdam]

This is exactly what we need. We have focused on the footy dept in the last few years. We're caught up there.

We need this injection to help us generate revenue we can spend on the footy dept.

This doesn't mean out footy dept spend is capped. It just means this money in isolation can't be spent on it.

As this cash shows benefit, our footy debt rises.

It is EXACTLY what we need.

 

[Zondor]

I think that money would be best spent by hiring temporary fencing and erecting it around Hardon St. We then get a court injunction forcing the AFL to fixture all our home games back at Hardon St. Even with a crowd of 10,000 at that great venue we would clear $500,000 plus and would soon elevate to one of the powerhouse sides of the comp.

 

[Kimbo]

This is exactly what we need. We have focused on the footy dept in the last few years. We're caught up there.

Not quite. We're still a couple of million behind "par" in footy dept spend, but we're considerably more behind in 'non footy' dept spend. Other way around for the Dogs.

 

[Shinboner Schem]

I must admit, I don't like it. AFL will now be telling us how many people to hire into the football club, and what underpants they should be wearing on Mondays as opposed to Tuesdays. This model is likely to ensure that no "smaller" clubs win a flag in a foreseeable future.

I realise that off field stuff is extremely important to a club like ours, but in my view there is no better way in growing the supporter base than via on-field success. From my experience with my children, it's much easier to keep them interested in North after a good win, than after a footy clinic. Footy clinic is forgotten quickly, but winning most weeks gets people interested.

Whilst being a top 4 contender is a big driver to growing support, I do think there is one better way...
Exposure!
Even if we were to only win half our games, if we had more FTA TV coverage, it will do more to attract new residents to our club. IMO.

Yeah, but assume we sink 5million into the footy department over the next 3 years, and the success doesnt come? No guarantee we will have gained 10k odd members without that success.

End of the term the AFL comes to us and says "Show us how you've invested the money, how have you grown your business", we're unable to show anything of note and the shit really starts hitting the fan.

Remember we have money coming in from the Tasmania venture which can be used in the football department, I think theyre just playing it safe in regard to the AFL disequalisation funding, and investing in the commercial side will lead to increased funding in the footy dept.

This special funding will allow us to put more money into debt reduction, even with the 10 percent limit, we could funnel more Tassie game revenue that what was previously planned for.

 

[Shinboner Schem]

The thing I don't like about this is that the AFL want us to hire more FT staff.
How are these additional heads going to generate additional income?
IMO, the money would be better spent investing into non-footy revenue streams, assests of some sort!
We are well behind other clubs that have pubs and pokies! i'm not saying lets go and get pokies, but we need some sort of reliable revenue stream like it!

I think anything a FT head brings in will be small like coach sponsor for particular games etc. They're not going to increase what we get from our major sponsors, not without a change in the amount of exposure we get.

 

[Quivorir]

Yeah, but assume we sink 5million into the footy department over the next 3 years, and the success doesnt come? No guarantee we will have gained 10k odd members without that success.

End of the term the AFL comes to us and says "Show us how you've invested the money, how have you grown your business", we're unable to show anything of note and the shit really starts hitting the fan.

Remember we have money coming in from the Tasmania venture which can be used in the football department, I think theyre just playing it safe in regard to the AFL disequalisation funding, and investing in the commercial side will lead to increased funding in the footy dept.

Both good points, especially the bolded.

 

[RooHooDoo]

This is exactly what we need. We have focused on the footy dept in the last few years. We're caught up there.

We need this injection to help us generate revenue we can spend on the footy dept.

This doesn't mean out footy dept spend is capped. It just means this money in isolation can't be spent on it.

As this cash shows benefit, our footy debt rises.

It is EXACTLY what we need.

Agree.

We need to look LOOOOOONG term with this.

 

[gokangas]

I just get the feeling that the club and AFL would already have a plan on how it would be spent well before it was promised.

 

[ttamshadbolt]

Cafe at Arden St?

 

[LT Smash]

Cafe at Arden St?

Given that Collingwood has a cafe at the Lexpac Centre, surely that proves cafes build premierships and massive bank balances. Problem solved.

 

[gokangas]

Given that Collingwood has a cafe at the Lexpac Centre, surely that proves cafes build premierships and massive bank balances. Problem solved.

Can't argue with this logic. Why hasn't Euge woken up to this?

 

[Dutchy10]

Personally id love to see our debt eliminated first, any idea what levels it is currently at?

 

[Shinboner Schem]

Over 4 mil plus another 1 point something that we owe Colo for the social club debt which was supposed to be written off when we signed over our pokies

 

[Twinkletoes]

This plan would have been worked out between our club and the AFL as we pitched our request for greater funding. It makes plenty of sense to me. I presume Euge and co. sold the idea successfully as we'll be gaining alot more than many clubs. Good work admin. once more.