RB wrote:Wedgie wrote:bennymacca wrote:mighty_tiger_79 wrote:I disagree the comp was on a downward spiral in the last few years.
Crowd numbers have been trending downwards for a long time now, correct?
No, relatively stable for a decade before the decline when the AFL teams became involved.Interest, memberships and sponsorships were relatively stable for that period too.
Having the Crows and Power in is a complete failure.
That's my reading of the figures. The GF crowd in 2013 being the biggest since (I think) 1999 shows that the interest from the general public (cf. the diehard supporter who goes every week) was at least the same as it was fifteen years ago.
The SANFL was affected by, yet survived, the introduction of the Crows and the Power. It has survived other difficulties such as financial pressures (e.g. North Adelaide - mainly thanks to the fans), substantially less media coverage etc.
IMO, the acceptance of $50k from the AFL cancers for admittance into the SANFL is less a concession that the SANFL is somehow inevitably going to fade away than a sign that the six bendover clubs, and in particular the league directors, just didn't have the stomach to work hard enough to maintain interest in the comp.
Take the Eagles for example (who BTW had made a profit in the year before the reserves decision was made despite big write-downs of assets). When asked how the club was going to get new fans from people born from 2013 onwards, given the saturation of the Crows and Power in the media who are now competing in the same competition as the Eagles, Kurt Slaven replied that it was up to us (the ~200 members who'd gathered to hear him) to introduce young fans from our families to the club. Apart from the fact that most of those members were well past the normal child-bearing age, this way is obviously never going to lead to the current supporters being able to even replace themselves.
The six league directors who voted in favour did so, in part, because it was far, far easier to bank a cheque for $50,000 every year than to actually get off their fat arses and do some work in the community, the sort of work that only Phil Herden does. The boards should be doing the same thing as Phil.
No-one can seriously maintain, looking at the crowd numbers, that the interest in the SANFL was on the wane. Additionally, the past has proven that when times are tough re the SANFL, it is possible to marshal support from the people who come out of the woodwork. I fear that the only people who will 'come out of the woodwork' now, are Taylor Walker fans.
Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 4:08 pm
