Macca19 wrote:sjt wrote:beenreal wrote:Hopefully the reunification means the Magpies can sell off the Ethelton facilities and recoup a portion of the MASSIVE outlay they had to fork over when they were forced by the SANFL to set it up in the first place.
I thought at the time they were given $1 million to fund the move? Anyway, that's in the past.
It may sound like whinging but I dont really care. Pretty much all the $1 million went on trying to make facilities at Ethelton somewhere near SANFL standard. $1 million doesnt go far when you have to start from scratch. Given the club then had no clubrooms and could only pull 15% from the Port club, is it really any wonder that the club has struggled to make a buck, whilst clubs like Centrals print their own money out of their pokie fortress, when this revenue stream has become so important to SANFL clubs.
Whilst there have definitely been mistakes along the way, its not like the club havent been proactive in trying to turn things around. There was the $2 campaign in what...01/02? which everyone mocked but hey...at least the club recognised the future issue and tried to do somtehing about it. They bought a pub, which unfortunately turned into a disaster whilst most other clubs were making loads of cash.
So its not like the club has been sitting on its hands going woe is me. Theyve been trying for years to turn it around.
I actually reckon that's a pretty fair post Macca, my biggest concern for the Magpies was player spending that in a few instances appears to have been irresponsible over the last decade given the fine line on the clubs financial position ... Obviously the club has addressed that now though.
But other than that, I think you've made some fair points there (and acknowledged some mistakes, kudos for that) .. $1 mil certainly doesn't go far, and I don't think you guys had a lot of options in terms of gaming venues.
I know what it's like when your club is under the pump for $, in our case we still held good $$ in assets that were eventually re-invested into $ generating assets, but I don't think the Magpies have even had that to fall back on (given the debt associated with the POW).
I hope Port can get through this and it's something the footy community can look back on in 10 or 20 years time and view it as not much more than a blip on the radar.