Sturt in Financial Trouble?

[Wedgie]

Lucky you got an almost free rent deal with your Oval as well for 99 years - wish we all had the Premier to pull strings! And before you fly off in a hissy fit we had John Bannon when he was Premier as our No. 1 ticket holder and we got diddly squat!

Remind me again how much federal funding North Adelaide received to build the new gymnasium?

Whatever it was it was it was money well spent as the view up there is awesome. Just ask OTR, Ian, Dedja and Psuedo! I hope they also put some money towards the security that keeps the riff raff out to!

[on the rails]

Lucky you got an almost free rent deal with your Oval as well for 99 years - wish we all had the Premier to pull strings! And before you fly off in a hissy fit we had John Bannon when he was Premier as our No. 1 ticket holder and we got diddly squat!

Remind me again how much federal funding North Adelaide received to build the new gymnasium?

We don't own Prospect Oval so the federal funding goes to the Prospect Council not the NAFC but seeing as your a smart arse the NAFC has contributed $1.8 million to the overall project - we have extended our borrowings which we can afford to do and pay it over a 10 year period. I can tell you we wish we had a $1 per year lease on our Oval!

[SDK]

Financial trouble ? More like financial good sense not buying and continuing to lease.

[heater31]

Financial trouble ? More like financial good sense not buying and continuing to lease.

Exactly. The Club did some homework and discovered that the council wanted more $$$ than it was actually worth. So given their difficult financial position it makes good business not to purchase something at an inflated price

[gossipgirl]

It's going to be a constant battle to keep what we have as an SANFL competition.

Can you name a club that is not struggling in todays world..?

Can you name a Business that is not struggling.

Families are struggling.

Everyone seems to be surviving on credit today.

One day it will catch up on everyone and possibly the SANFL.

As the years pass it will get harder and harder.

the only people not struggling are politicians with their huge pay increases

[Dutchy]

Financial trouble ? More like financial good sense not buying and continuing to lease.

Exactly. The Club did some homework and discovered that the council wanted more $$$ than it was actually worth. So given their difficult financial position it makes good business not to purchase something at an inflated price

Interesting the article says the council wanted more than the valuation for it, however Benson said that wasnt the factor in not buying it, I would have thought that would be a huge factor if they are asking above market rates!

[KEYDEFENDER]

Westies are the only club I know that own their premises at their home ground (do Centrals?)

pretty certain Central do BUT could be wrong!

My understanding is that as of last year the club owns everything within Langford Drive - Goodman Road - back fence of homes on Ridley Road - the black fence east of railway line. With possible exception of the bowling club and grounds.

I'm pretty certain I read last year that the club had bought the Grand Central carpark and the block of land south and west of the bowling club off of the Playford Council and/or the Housing Trust.

Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if the club even owned the land inbetween the railway line and the black fence.

All that land would probably be worth the same as the clubrooms in question at Unley..

[Sojourner]

Couple of points,

First off I am not sure that Matt Benson failing to return calls to the Messenger is the right way to go, irrespective of the reason why, doiing so gives an impression of being unproffesional and implies that the club has something to hide, considering that prospective sponsors also likely read and advertise in the local paper it may well do damage to the club in terms of attracting sponsorship and support. Far better to consent to an interview even if they don't like the questioning IMO.

Secondly despite the history and location of the building, various people are suggesting that venues need to be located directly on Arterial roads. Various discussions have been held on the West Adelaide Venue being on Milner Street and what it could do if it were on South Rd, Sturt need to see a very strong return on their investment and have to make the best commercial decsion for the club. As the article points out, if the club is losing money, they need to replace that money first before they can entertain the prospect of new debt which will further increase their outgoings when there are no new income streams coming in to cover it.

Finally as much as people might want to dance around it, I am not sure that Unley Oval is going to be the future of the Sturt FC in the long term. Different community groups use it and the reason there are no fences there is because various residents have advocated for it to be so. Sturt are not able to control the use of the venue and have to deal with it being democratic in the community which leads to more problems than it is worth IMO, the facilities there are in desperate need of upgrading and the council seem to appear friendly to the idea, yet not ever actually do anything about it and leave it as it is. Clearly the two options are a partnership with the Royal Show Committee at Wayville for a redeveloped oval there, or to petition the State Government for the same deal as South Adelaide to relocate. Discussion is already about that there could be a land swap at Mt Barker for the local oval for development purposes and a new oval to be built in another hills location for the Mt Barker area, if Sturt could get into that and had the funds and the support from their members to make the move it would set the club up for the next 100 years.

[mickey]

The official reaction of sturt supporters on this site regarding the financial perils of the football club....

[heater31]

The official reaction of sturt supporters on this site regarding the financial perils of the football club....

[img]http://blog.vigillo.com/wp-content/uploads/head-in-sand.gif[/img]

Please post your intimate knowledge of the Sturt Football Clubs financials.....yes we know we run on the smell of an oily rag, have done for years and making irresponsible purchases does not make financial sense.

Still laugh at the Port supporter telling his mate that we would be gone the next morning after your mob played particularly bad on your own dung hill. That was over 4 years ago and I'm still waiting!

[Aerie]

Clearly the two options are a partnership with the Royal Show Committee at Wayville for a redeveloped oval there, or to petition the State Government for the same deal as South Adelaide to relocate. Discussion is already about that there could be a land swap at Mt Barker for the local oval for development purposes and a new oval to be built in another hills location for the Mt Barker area, if Sturt could get into that and had the funds and the support from their members to make the move it would set the club up for the next 100 years.

Would love to see an SANFL game there. It's a great venue. Would be awesome if the SANFL could somehow have a game there at the beginning of the Royal Show. Perhaps that first Friday night before the ground gets hacked up by horses - West vs Sturt?

[robranisgod]

Clearly the two options are a partnership with the Royal Show Committee at Wayville for a redeveloped oval there, or to petition the State Government for the same deal as South Adelaide to relocate. Discussion is already about that there could be a land swap at Mt Barker for the local oval for development purposes and a new oval to be built in another hills location for the Mt Barker area, if Sturt could get into that and had the funds and the support from their members to make the move it would set the club up for the next 100 years.

Would love to see an SANFL game there. It's a great venue. Would be awesome if the SANFL could somehow have a game there at the beginning of the Royal Show. Perhaps that first Friday night before the ground gets hacked up by horses - West vs Sturt?

West played there before the second world war, but it looks much too small to me to host a league footy match. Perhaps if they got rid of the old trotting track around the outside it might then be just big enough.

[heater31]

Clearly the two options are a partnership with the Royal Show Committee at Wayville for a redeveloped oval there, or to petition the State Government for the same deal as South Adelaide to relocate. Discussion is already about that there could be a land swap at Mt Barker for the local oval for development purposes and a new oval to be built in another hills location for the Mt Barker area, if Sturt could get into that and had the funds and the support from their members to make the move it would set the club up for the next 100 years.

Would love to see an SANFL game there. It's a great venue. Would be awesome if the SANFL could somehow have a game there at the beginning of the Royal Show. Perhaps that first Friday night before the ground gets hacked up by horses - West vs Sturt?

West played there before the second world war, but it looks much too small to me to host a league footy match. Perhaps if they got rid of the old trotting track around the outside it might then be just big enough.

According to near maps the grass surface is roughly 182m x 103m but with the gravel track its 205m x 124m

[Sojourner]

Hence the term "Redeveloped" Wayville Oval!

[RustyCage]

Perhaps if they got rid of the old trotting track around the outside it might then be just big enough.

nah, leave it there, encourage teams to play the corridor

[Bunton]

What about this quote " largely due to unforeseen and negative changes in our business environment". Wasn't he blaming there change from a small profit to a 350k loss in just 12months on a number of sponsors not paying?

I wonder exactly how much they need to loose to have say no to paying over 40k in transfers fees for 2aging bays recruits?

[csbowes]

My concern here is that no information about the clubs finances have been released...

... Matt took a swipe at supporters in his column in the annual report, but I have to say, I don't think the club is being particularly open with its financial situation at present.

The club requested members allow them to move the AGM from December to February to avoid the regular problem of the finances not being finalised by December, yet here we are in May and no numbers have been released.

... and more importantly, no report on how we lost all that money has been forthcoming either.

[Sojourner]

Is there any truth to the rumour that Sturt have had their dividend for 2012 brought forward already from the SANFL?

[mickey]

Is there any truth to the rumour that Sturt have had their dividend for 2012 brought forward already from the SANFL?

Not a rumour.

[csbowes]

I've just read the financial report (as opposed to the annual report which was released a while back)...

... the financial report seems to indicate that in 2011, Sturt took out around $2.5m in loans, which in the end puts the club in a position whereby liabilities are around $250K more than assets. The loss for the year was $412K.

There are notes there suggesting we've written off $170K in unpaid sponsorship... I remember this being spoken about months back, but I haven't heard any details on how it happened, what happened and who it was?

Does anyone know what this loan was for? (or am I reading it wrong)

Did anyone go to the AGM this year and ask about it? (this year was the first time I've missed one in ages)

Also, the final paragraph or so of the financial report indicated that the club might not be able to survive as an ongoing entity, which tells me there are concerns that the club is capable of surviving.

... considering the club was planning on asking the supporters to dip into their wallets and bail the club out by $250K this year, its all starting to point to the same thing, that somehow, we've managed to go belly up in one year?

Help from anyone would be appreciated here?