For quite a while I have been pondering how the Club can involve its fan base more on an ongoing basis. The idea is that rather than waiting for the Club to reach death's door as we were in 2009, (remember this, this, this and this?) Surely it would be better if we, as fans, adopted a proactive approach to our problems?
The Club admin is currently doing an admirable job with the development process and turning both the Leagues and Football Clubs around. However, I would like to see more opportunities for the fans to like us to help get the Club to a point where we are stable, growing financially and dominating the competition.
One of the most direct and potentially most beneficial ways fans could aid the Sharks would be to follow the lead of the Melbourne Demons and Western Bulldogs with their respective 'Demolish the Debt' and 'Bulldoze the Debt' campaigns.
Through a combination of fundraisers, raffles, special Membership offers and plain donations, last year Melbourne managed to complete a two year 'Demolition' of their $5 million debt which had had the Demons hamstrung and perennially lurking around the bottom of the ladder. The Bulldogs are in midst of trying to clear a similarly sized debt in the same way and have made it clear that the money saved in paying interest to the bank will be invested directly in to the Club's Football Department.
Is there any reason why the Sharks could not go down a similar path?
According to the 2010 Annual Report:
- The Club's total liabilities stand at around $15.7 million
- We currently owe $10.3 million to St George Bank
- The Consortium will pay St George Bank $10 million upon approval of the development proposal and as a result we will owe St George $3.7 million
For an easy to understand run down of the revised financial situation under the new development plans, check out Mark^Bastard's excellent post here.
Also, our current interest repayments are in the order of $800k a year- an enormous amount.
As I understand it, the revised terms with the Bank that would follow the Consortium's $10 million payment would mean that the Club's interest obligations would not be so steep.
So what more can be done?
I would love to see our very own 'Sharks Bites' (it would need a better moniker!) debt demolition campaign. The Club, the players and the fans getting together to achieve a specific goal- to ensure that the Club pays zero interest on its loans until such time as it can repay the debt in its entirety- probably when the first residential revenues are received, in about 5 years time. Essentially, the idea would be to allow the Club to allocate the money it would have spent on interest payments directly to the Football and Match Day departments, as the Western Bulldogs have done. I'm thinking things like reintroducing grants to the local league, gradually improve strength, conditioning, recovery and rehabilitation facilities, offer a better match day experience, etc.
For me, such a campaign seems to be the next logical step on from getting the development approved.
1) Secure our future in the Shire by getting the development approved
2) Make the Sharks a consistently competitive side across all grades and bring the Shire back to Sharks games by removing the interest repayment burden
Thoughts?
The Club admin is currently doing an admirable job with the development process and turning both the Leagues and Football Clubs around. However, I would like to see more opportunities for the fans to like us to help get the Club to a point where we are stable, growing financially and dominating the competition.
One of the most direct and potentially most beneficial ways fans could aid the Sharks would be to follow the lead of the Melbourne Demons and Western Bulldogs with their respective 'Demolish the Debt' and 'Bulldoze the Debt' campaigns.
Through a combination of fundraisers, raffles, special Membership offers and plain donations, last year Melbourne managed to complete a two year 'Demolition' of their $5 million debt which had had the Demons hamstrung and perennially lurking around the bottom of the ladder. The Bulldogs are in midst of trying to clear a similarly sized debt in the same way and have made it clear that the money saved in paying interest to the bank will be invested directly in to the Club's Football Department.
Is there any reason why the Sharks could not go down a similar path?
According to the 2010 Annual Report:
- The Club's total liabilities stand at around $15.7 million
- We currently owe $10.3 million to St George Bank
- The Consortium will pay St George Bank $10 million upon approval of the development proposal and as a result we will owe St George $3.7 million
For an easy to understand run down of the revised financial situation under the new development plans, check out Mark^Bastard's excellent post here.
Also, our current interest repayments are in the order of $800k a year- an enormous amount.
As I understand it, the revised terms with the Bank that would follow the Consortium's $10 million payment would mean that the Club's interest obligations would not be so steep.
So what more can be done?
I would love to see our very own 'Sharks Bites' (it would need a better moniker!) debt demolition campaign. The Club, the players and the fans getting together to achieve a specific goal- to ensure that the Club pays zero interest on its loans until such time as it can repay the debt in its entirety- probably when the first residential revenues are received, in about 5 years time. Essentially, the idea would be to allow the Club to allocate the money it would have spent on interest payments directly to the Football and Match Day departments, as the Western Bulldogs have done. I'm thinking things like reintroducing grants to the local league, gradually improve strength, conditioning, recovery and rehabilitation facilities, offer a better match day experience, etc.
For me, such a campaign seems to be the next logical step on from getting the development approved.
1) Secure our future in the Shire by getting the development approved
2) Make the Sharks a consistently competitive side across all grades and bring the Shire back to Sharks games by removing the interest repayment burden
Thoughts?
