SANFL Cashing up Sturt and the Port Magpies

[Sojourner]

With the news today that the SANFL have found a spare couple of million to hand to the Port Adelaide Football Club, will the same be now done for Sturt and the Port Adelaide Magpies?

Any reason why the SANFL told North Adelaide to go away and die, yet have taken this decision to fund the Port Adelaide Football Club?

[heater31]

With the news today that the SANFL have found a spare couple of million to hand to the Port Adelaide Football Club, will the same be now done for Sturt and the Port Adelaide Magpies?

Any reason why the SANFL told North Adelaide to go away and die, yet have taken this decision to fund the Port Adelaide Football Club?

If the Powder Puffs die so does the SANFL, If North Dies or any other club heaven forbid for that matter the SANFL lives on.

You do the math.........

[Barto]

We'll just be spiritually poorer without any other club though.

[Jimmy]

its a shame the power cant get their shit together...

[Macca19]

Any reason why the SANFL told North Adelaide to go away and die, yet have taken this decision to fund the Port Adelaide Football Club?

Probably because the SANFL make over $4m a year from Port home games.

Might have something to do with it.

[am Bays]

Any reason why the SANFL told North Adelaide to go away and die, yet have taken this decision to fund the Port Adelaide Football Club?

Probably because the SANFL make over $4m a year from Port home games.

Might have something to do with it.

Which then goes in to supporting the 200 odd Australian football clubs around this state and into funding the futiue develpment programs of which you, Port Power will benefit in time: (potential Port Power list players). Yes the AFL part fund our development programs but the SANFL tips in a huge amount which comes out it major revenue generator Footy Park

You blokes started this sh!t 19 years ago you wear the consequences of your haste and ambitions.

[Wedgie]

Lets not get off track with more anti-Port vitriole.

As Macca said the reason the SANFL are willing to throw money at the Power and not North, the Magpies or Sturt is a simple one.
Because the Power organisation generate a lot more money for the SANFL than those 3 clubs do.
Its purely a business decision.
Of course its another argument if another SA entity in the AFL could contribute more money into the coffer s but we don't need to re-visit that.

[Booney]

What occured in 1989-90 surely must take a back seat now to ensure what takes place in the next 20 years is the best for football in SA? This IMO means for both the two AFL based and the SANFL clubs. The SANFL also knows where the higher revenue stream comes from and as such in the business sense must look after that first.

Call me a hypocrite, call me what you like but I had nothing to do with the events of that time and I am now more interested in the good of football in this state.
Dont get me wrong,as much as I am pro-Port Adelaide there are moments in time and measures put in place some 20 years ago that many of us would like to change or at least have the ability to.

Perhaps the 9 SANFL clubs needs to do more in ways of approaching the SANFL as it is clear ( IMO anyway ) that the heirachy at Footy Park have bigger ( $$$ ) interests at heart.

[Macca19]

Any reason why the SANFL told North Adelaide to go away and die, yet have taken this decision to fund the Port Adelaide Football Club?

Probably because the SANFL make over $4m a year from Port home games.

Might have something to do with it.

Which then goes in to supporting the 200 odd Australian football clubs around this state and into funding the futiue develpment programs of which you, Port Power will benefit in time: (potential Port Power list players). Yes the AFL part fund our development programs but the SANFL tips in a huge amount which comes out it major revenue generator Footy Park

You blokes started this sh!t 19 years ago you wear the consequences of your haste and ambitions.

And the SANFL keep an obscene amount for themselves - which is the part the AFL clubs want more of a share in. Not the development money. This has been stated about 14 times by the club. Pays to listen sometimes.

[am Bays]

[
And the SANFL keep an obscene amount for themselves - which is the part the AFL clubs want more of a share in. Not the development money. This has been stated about 14 times by the club. Pays to listen sometimes.

Yep and that money is going towards redevelopments of Footy Park - you have to show cash reserves to get loans and an ability to repay loans. The dividend to your SANFL club comes from that money too.

Yep I do listen.

[doggies4eva]

This is purely a business decision. The Power and Crows are both significant assets of the SANFL. I would be interested to know how this will be treated - will it be a loan or increased capital? What conditions are attached? Has Port had to provide a business plan showing how they will manage their finances so that the situation does not re-occur?

[am Bays]

My basic premise is this Port would not have need the injection if it did something to improve the Bums on seats at Footy park. It has been demonstrated as fact that per head Port Power makes more money out of Footy Park than the other AFL franchise in town (Hi Dutchy ). Therefore increase the Bums on seats and hey presto in comes the cash.

I wish the License holder (the SANFL) had shown the haggots to tell Port you look at your marketing and supporter base - become broad based -before they put teh cash in.

If that failed THEN put the money in.

No serious attempt has been made to improve the business model to improve its appeal to the wider SA Footy community.

I have been accused of clinging to the past (hand up and admits guilt) in this thread but so are Port in sticking to the creed, 1870 and its narrow traditional supporter base.

Yes there would pain amongst that traditional group and short term loss but long term the 2nd SA license needs to (as Haysman said change its business model) and to do that it needs to look at its long term appeal to the SA Footy community.

It wont do that clinging to its past.

That is my argument and macca19, Booney, MP, PAFC 1870 et al., I expect you to vehmently oppose what I have said given your passion for your club.

[Macca19]

Going through your points one by one

1) If you think increasing Ports attendance is so simple, maybe offer your services to the club. Im sure theyll pay you handsomely for increasing their attendance at the click of the fingers

2) There is no point in giving us money in 5 years time after moving away from being Port Adelaide. We would have shut up shop by then and half the SANFL clubs would have followed.

3) I feel like im repeating myself here but over the past 3-4 seasons the club attempted to move away from being Port Adelaide. The club barely mentioned the words Port Adelaide in that time, always referred to itself as the Power, planet teal, kids, teal funk squad etc. As ive said previously, there seems to be this thought amongst some people that there are 30,000 people out there just waiting to sign up to the Power if it stopped being Port Adelaide. To that I say stop being so deluded. These people dont exist.

4) Yes Port have clung to its history this year in its marketing campaign. With the amount of died in the wool Port fans feeling jaded at the direction the club was going, it needed to to keep this people on board.

5) Short term loss isnt good enough. Short term loss = death. As you said, in your opinion, you wouldnt give the club any money until it tried to expand to outside its normal supporter base. The club has no room to lose more supporters than it can gain at this point otherwise its dead. Given the new management at the club has only been in charge for about 6-7 months and this was the number one thing on the agenda, then obviously its a dire issue that needed to be sorted out

6) The SANFL isnt stupid enough to put one of their liscences to the sword. They told the club to go to the AFL first. The AFL, looked at the situation, saw that the SANFL were taking too much for their pockets and told the club to get them to come to the party. The AFL would have helped us earlier otherwise. Im sure the AFL would be real impressed that the SANFL let one of their licence holders die because they werent prepared to give up the exhorbitant money they take from AFL games at AAMI (the stats show that West Coast make more out of Subi than Port and Adelaide make COMBINED out of AAMI). Im sure the AFL were impressed to see that the SANFL make upwards of $400k from every Port game whilst the club actually loses upwards of $200k from the same game. That wouldnt look good.

7) Broadening to the SA footy community in the long term wont happen if the club dies in the short term. In any case, im not sure you'd know to what extent the club has made to broaden its horizons, nor know the inner workings of the club and what it wants to achieve.

Whilst some of your points are valid, I dont think you understand the full situation.

The club has done everything the SANFL asked. It gave them complete open access to the situation, put everything out there for the SANFL to see. Its set in stone a new business plan to follow over the short and long term. Theres not much more the club can do at the moment than what it already has.

[Booney]

It is vital that Port Adelaide do not lose any of the people ( like me) who buy Season tickets, Membership and merchandise. That I feel is in a very simplistic view the beginning of a business plan, you would like to consolidate what you have now and then work towards building upon it,the same for any business I guess.

So, the way ( as Macca said ) that the PAFC moved away from our heritage/1870/Creed over the last few years did impact on many of the faithfuls thinking.However,to build upon this the club also needs to expand and find new members/ticket holders and people prepared to buyt apparel.

In the short term they had to think what is best for the short term and going back to our roots/heritage is what was decided. ( We can argue ad nauseum about the validity of this in the AFL but that is another argument ).

How do we go then about attracting those new fans? As mentioned in another thread ( Sheik, I think ) the PAFC do so much work in relation to schools/coaching clinics/planet teal ( dedicated kids membership ) and I feel the work at school/junior level will pay off. Now, when we joined it was expected ( from memory ) that it would take 10-15 years to develop the younger generations to fill the stadium. It clearly is going to take much longer and that plan put in place back in 97 needs to be adhered to, no point backing out now.

I just dont see a quick fix though am. Macca may have appeared a little sarcastic in his "snap of the fingers" comment and Im on his side,what do you suggest the PAFC do to fix this problem over night? It simply isnt possible to.

[am Bays]

I think you both make good counter points to my arguments and I do not want to add to this debate as I will only be reiterating my existing points. This is soemthing wwe will agree to disagree on.

macca19 I think your idea of me volunteering my time has merit, it will certainly help achieve my aim of "restructuring" the 2nd licenses demographic as it will hasten the demise of Port Power in its current form!!!

Be carefull what you wish for.

[Barto]

Nah let Port keep every dollar for themselves and let the grass roots clubs wither and die.

They'll see how long the house stands up if they keep chipping at the foundations.

[Psyber]

I think the problem has been that the Power have sat in the middle.
They didn't take the risk of moving far enough away from their Port Adelaide heritage to attract people who would not otherwise join the club, but just far enough to antagonise some of the faithful.
Now they have reverted to trying to win back those old Port supporters they have disenchanted, and run the risk of losing some newer supporters.
It was always going to be a problem if they got the second AFL licence...

[Magpiespower]

Not fussed what they do.

So long as we don't see the mighty ThundaW**k doing laps of Footy Park ever again.

Make a good Mardi Gras float but.

[whufc]

The problem with the Power's attendance issue is they keep chopping and changing their stance on whether they are the Port Magpies of old or the new Port Power.

One season they are the Power and everything is planet teal and there the team for all South Australians who want to be part of the revolution.

The next season they go back to the creed and 1870 and all the old history and we're the magpies of old and all that rubbish.

They need to make up their mind, stick with it and run with it for a decent period of time. Just when they started to get a really good following plus attendances and they were becoming more accepted as a team anyone could follow not just Port people, they went and wore the replica Magpie guernsey, which put off alot of people.

[doggies4eva]

I have just had a look at the 2008 financials on the PAFC website. It lists "SANFL sun-licence distribution" costs as $334,750.

Where does this $4M figure come from?