Clubs Financials 2010

[Hazydog]

North Adelaide:
Net Profit of $233,871 down from $521,381 the previous year.

Serious question. Are North investing some of these funds back into infrastructure? Just thinking of the Dogs in recent years spending reasonable coin on lights, gym/rehab facilities, coaching box/corpotate box and apparently new toilets this year.

[JK]

North Adelaide:
Net Profit of $233,871 down from $521,381 the previous year.

Serious question. Are North investing some of these funds back into infrastructure? Just thinking of the Dogs in recent years spending reasonable coin on lights, gym/rehab facilities, coaching box/corpotate box and apparently new toilets this year.

I think the Roosters have a government or council funded upgrade of Prospect Oval on the way mate

[on the rails]

North Adelaide:
Net Profit of $233,871 down from $521,381 the previous year.

Serious question. Are North investing some of these funds back into infrastructure? Just thinking of the Dogs in recent years spending reasonable coin on lights, gym/rehab facilities, coaching box/corpotate box and apparently new toilets this year.

I think the Roosters have a government or council funded upgrade of Prospect Oval on the way mate

Total Oval / Facility revamp is $3.6 million. Of that amount the council got a Federal grant of $1.75 million, the Prospect Council are paying $250K (not much in the scheme of things seeing as they are the owners of the whole facility) and the NAFC funding the balance which will cost the NAFC $1.6 million. This cost is to be added to existing debt however according to the 2010 Financial Report it will be spread over a number of years - around the term of the Oval extension lease which stands at 21 yrs now.

[JK]

Thanks for that OTR .. I figured the Roosters would have to contribute, just wasn't aware of how much each parties $ commitment is.

[csbowes]

Is it true Sturt don't really have elections for Board members as such?

No.

As with other clubs, elections are held if positions are contested.

[Barto]

Is it true Sturt don't really have elections for Board members as such?

No.

As with other clubs, elections are held if positions are contested.

Facts aren't as much fun as a good conspiracy theory.

[topsywaldron]

Is it true Sturt don't really have elections for Board members as such?

No.

As with other clubs, elections are held if positions are contested.

Facts aren't as much fun as a good conspiracy theory.

Thanks cs - someone told me last week there was only one elected board spot and an election hadn't been held for a decade. I was just wondering if any other clubs were as bad as Norwood during these elections.

I think the only conspiracy theory is why certain posters have become incredibly pompous all of a sudden.

[Grahaml]

Wouldn't say it was sudden. Just now we have to put up with pomposity every time anyone mentions something to do with Sturt.

[topsywaldron]

Here's a pretty fair argument on this whole matter.

[csbowes]

Thanks cs - someone told me last week there was only one elected board spot and an election hadn't been held for a decade. I was just wondering if any other clubs were as bad as Norwood during these elections.

Tonight was a good example... 2 free posts on the board, only 2 people nominated, so on they go. I can't say I remember a recent election, but then I was living in England from 2000-2005.

Certainly before then, when I was working on the fund raising committee at the club, there were elections then, I remember some hotly contested one's where 6-7 people were vying for 2-3 spots.

[Dutchy]

So did they present the financials tonight?

[csbowes]

So did they present the financials tonight?

Yes, doing a write up now...

[Dutchy]

No worries, thanks

[csbowes]

STURT AGM REPORT

Firstly, my sincere congratulations to SFC for showing some real imagination with tonights presentation. In recent years, SFC has done the usual series of speeches from the General Manager, President, Finance Director and so on. There's been nothing wrong with this approach, you get to hear what these guys think, people get to ask questions as much as they like and generally you find out about some of the major victories or losses for the club from an administrative perspective.

The same series of speeches were done tonight, but General Manager, Matt Benson, included a power point presentation with his speech which divulged a lot of other interesting information about the club and where it's been and where it's going. For example, his presentation included information on where some of the clubs funds had been spent, improvements to gaming facilities, club room refurbishments, gymnasium expansions and a myriad of other items.

This certainly gave you a feel for where the club was focusing some of it's financial attention, areas of the club from both a football and commercial point of view, that needed some level of investment. Very informative to say the least...

Also interesting was the presentation of graphs showing the Net Gaming Revenue return for both Castle Tavern and Bazaar over the last 12-15 months and how that revenue for that month compared to the same month 1 year earlier. This was graphed against the state average, so you could see not only the wildly varying levels of return on a month to month basis, but also how our clubs returns were in comparison to the state average.

Oh and we were performing reasonably well...

Excellent to see...

Even more interesting was the next few slides which were about "things we're happy about" and "things that concern us" as a club, so Matt had listed some good wins for the club, such as a new 3 year deal with Clarridge Holden, which hopefully will help us perform like the other Holden club in this competition! On the downside, well areas of concern, were not so much about what is going wrong for the club, but rather what concerns the club had in the world of football.

For example...

Bad media coverage of football as a brand these days... maybe in reference to scandals or the general displeasure the football public seems to have with the modern game, poor performance of the Power and Crows financially maybe...

Concerns about the AFL wanting to AFL-ise the whole competition, while no strong or extreme views were put forward by the club, total diplomacy there as you'd want (and expect) from a professional like Matt, it did at least acknowledge to those in attendance that it is not only us as SANFL followers, but also the club, that may raise concerns to the Commission that maybe we're jumping about for the AFL, the "jump" and we say "how high sir" sorta thing.

Excellent disclosure...

From a financial perspective the club reduced some expenditures administratively, increased football department spending, kept other costs in check and overall posted a profit of just under $70,000.. That represents a $130,000 turnaround on last year and something like a $320,000 turnaround on 2008. So I think the clubs view at last years AGM that they realised some errors in judgement, had put in place some actions, rang true, as they did what they said they'd do.

A point in case is the reorganisation of staffing at Bazaar, changing the way the place works, they've done that, now have dedicated staff and the place is bringing in ~$100,000 in profit to the club now.

So we're not talking millions, but they've turned it around and it's heading in the right direction for sure. They can now point to having runs on the board and coming through on their promises.

Again, pleasing to see...

Finally, Luke Norman and his view on the season gone and season ahead. I'll be brief here, but basically Luke did allude to there was a few attitude problems within the ranks last year, no names mentioned obviously, but what he said suggested that there may have been some real inconsistency in players attitudes and that, in the end, affected performance. Players have moved on, new guys are in, some huge guys too, 6'6" and 6'"5 for starters, new improved attitude and enthusiasm.

So certainly, he gave the people some commentary which would give us some hope...

That's it... good AGM... claps all round to Matt Benson and Richard Allen (out going prez) and Jason Kilic (new prez).

[fish]

Nice work csb!

[csbowes]

I also spoke briefly to Matt concerning two issues...

(a) Port Adelaide Merger Proposition

Basically the second proposition showed a significantly more stable and believable financial position for the clubs, so $millions in difference compared to the first, sounds like maybe the Magpies had really cleaned up some large debts by the time the second proposition came around and therefore it was a lot easier to support.

(b) Foxtel Cup Recuse

I've commented on here that I questioned whether the boards of some clubs, maybe my own, had the balls to enter the competition, however, speaking to Matt about some of the concerns, sponsorship was a deal breaker, which I do agree with, if you can't have Clarridge Holden on the guernsey large and prominent, then what the hell are we doing? It's a slap in the face to the sponsor to say, sorry mate, you're being ripped off the guernsey, in its place can only be some small patch of sponsorship.

On top of that, there appears to have been shifting sands with regards to the prize money on offer, $300K one minute, $180K the next, no OH&S procedure in place, so no coverage for players who got injured, who lost income due to work, not even any discussion on those peripheral areas of concern, it appeared rushed and more about the AFL wanting to give Foxtel some hours of football than wanting to actually bring out and promote another competition.

... and so on and so forth.

So it does sound like there were just way too many loose ends not being tidied up and despite efforts from the clubs to advise AFL and Foxtel of issues they need to resolve, it was falling on deaf ears in the rush to get the cup going.

Interesting.

Still disappointed we're not in it, but it gave me the picture that it was just a bit risky from a commercial / administrative perspective and that maybe West, North and Port are just braver (or foolhardy) than us to take the risk. Hmmmm... makes me think we made the right decision... but still a bit gutted we're not in it. That said, Matt supports the concept, so I believe, just needs to be tidied up, smoothed over etc...

[Jimmy]

Great posts bowes, good read!

[Dutchy]

Thanks CSB, great report, so is it right that you dont see the financials until the AGM? Not having a crack at Sturt just genuinely interested...

[csbowes]

Thanks CSB, great report, so is it right that you dont see the financials until the AGM? Not having a crack at Sturt just genuinely interested...

I believe so... I'm ready to be corrected, but in the near 20 years I've been a member, I don't remember receiving or being told about the financial result until the AGM... so no announcement beforehand etc...

In truth, we seem to have struggled a lot getting our financials out when we had our AGMs back in December of each year, so this is the first year I think where we moved it to February and this is how it will be from hereon.

[therisingblues]

Great information there CSBowes. A big thank you from all the Sturt supporters in Japan for keeping us in the loop!