St Kilda announces financial result

[whiskers3614]

Nettlefold should've been sacked after the Lyon contract debacle.

Lyon should have been sacked after the BALL/LOVETT debacle!

[SaintPav]

All the success we had from 2004 and the respect gained, is now just a big fat nothing- it might as well never have happened. It is hard to fathom how presidents and boards, made up of people successful in various walks of life, could turn this club into a train wreck. I fell like I've been taken back to the bad old days of the '80s to a St Kilda club that was basically s*@t.

Get a grip <edited by mods>. You're a terrible negative supporter.

[cwrcyn]

Why are we in debt?

Etihad deal v MCG deal = about 3 million dollars less than the clubs playing at the G

Not having a dodgy character like Bruce Mathieson as a special 'friend' (see Hawks, Pies, Blues) ensuring numerous poker machines and over 18million dollars in revenue each year

So, we're already 21 million per annum behind the hawks and 26 million behind the pies.

And people on here slam us for running at a loss. I suppose they're like the 8,000 supporters who have bailed out in the past two years because we slipped out of the top 8.

It's a tough gig for the Saints and has been for a long time. You can't keep swimming against the tide every year without occasionally slipping backward.

Swap Etihad home games for MCG games, and we break even or make a small profit. Give us the pokies deals that the aforementioned clubs have and we're rolling in cash.

How can you say that our loss this year was due to mismanagement? It's a miracle that we haven't posted those kind of losses every year for the past decade.

[saintspremiers]

Pointless moving games to the G because our softcock fans refuse to go to games at the G.

We must have one of the softest AND fickle supporter bases

[saintspremiers]

Nettlefold should've been sacked after the Lyon contract debacle.

Fair point. Why wasn't he?

[Con Gorozidis]

Pointless moving games to the G because our softcock fans refuse to go to games at the G.

We must have one of the softest AND fickle supporter bases

not sure what our fans what. if the g aint good enough nothing will be.
strange that we can't pull big crowds to the g.

[satchmo]

Why are we in debt?

Etihad deal v MCG deal = about 3 million dollars less than the clubs playing at the G

Not having a dodgy character like Bruce Mathieson as a special 'friend' (see Hawks, Pies, Blues) ensuring numerous poker machines and over 18million dollars in revenue each year

So, we're already 21 million per annum behind the hawks and 26 million behind the pies.

And people on here slam us for running at a loss. I suppose they're like the 8,000 supporters who have bailed out in the past two years because we slipped out of the top 8.

It's a tough gig for the Saints and has been for a long time. You can't keep swimming against the tide every year without occasionally slipping backward.

Swap Etihad home games for MCG games, and we break even or make a small profit. Give us the pokies deals that the aforementioned clubs have and we're rolling in cash.

How can you say that our loss this year was due to mismanagement? It's a miracle that we haven't posted those kind of losses every year for the past decade.

Interesting reading..,

[Sainternist]

We must have one of the softest AND fickle supporter bases

No, I think Richmond supporters would have that particular accolade in the bag.

[saint66au]

For a Club like ours (medium support base and little sustained success in our history) 2009-2010 was an absolute Doomsday scenario

Two consecutive GF losses

You can talk about a decade of success all you like, but the fairweather fans who are the difference between 32000 and 40000 Mmebers for us don't give a toss about that

They want a flag..and they wont join unless were half a chance of winning one

Throw in the numerous off field issues (cos the fairweather fans are the ones who wont re-sign cos the Herald Sun says we have culture problem) and its little wonder our numbers are how they are

You can blame anyone you like for our low Membership numbers..but fact is...we wont get over 40,000 again til we win a flag..even the fans who jumped on last time will remember the hurt of 2009-2010 and reconsider

The big Clubs have 40,000+ glued on Members who see them through these times...we have 30,000 or possibly less..and sadly I very much doubt the most ambitious Membership campaign in history (which we cant afford anyway ) would bring them back. Two losing GF's hurt a lot of people and made them very cynical
v
One other thing..if youre complaining about our perilous finanicial state (and you have eery right to) don't on the other hand whinge that the scarf is crap quality, or we don't get as much free trinkets as you used to. Cant have both Im afraid.

[cwrcyn]

Playing at Etihad rather than the MCG has cost us about 40 million dollars over the last 12 years.

Do you reckon we'd be a little bit better off with that money????

[plugger66]

Playing at Etihad rather than the MCG has cost us about 40 million dollars over the last 12 years.

Do you reckon we'd be a little bit better off with that money????

Im unsure how you come to that figure. There is no way its a 3.5 million dollar turn around every year.

[saintspremiers]

For a Club like ours (medium support base and little sustained success in our history) 2009-2010 was an absolute Doomsday scenario

Two consecutive GF losses

You can talk about a decade of success all you like, but the fairweather fans who are the difference between 32000 and 40000 Mmebers for us don't give a toss about that

They want a flag..and they wont join unless were half a chance of winning one

Throw in the numerous off field issues (cos the fairweather fans are the ones who wont re-sign cos the Herald Sun says we have culture problem) and its little wonder our numbers are how they are

You can blame anyone you like for our low Membership numbers..but fact is...we wont get over 40,000 again til we win a flag..even the fans who jumped on last time will remember the hurt of 2009-2010 and reconsider

The big Clubs have 40,000+ glued on Members who see them through these times...we have 30,000 or possibly less..and sadly I very much doubt the most ambitious Membership campaign in history (which we cant afford anyway ) would bring them back. Two losing GF's hurt a lot of people and made them very cynical
v
One other thing..if youre complaining about our perilous finanicial state (and you have eery right to) don't on the other hand whinge that the scarf is crap quality, or we don't get as much free trinkets as you used to. Cant have both Im afraid.

Whilst I agree in most part with your sentiment, re membership numbers we need to factor in continual population growth which, a bit like CPI, mean that you should consider an increase of a few percent as just keeping level if that makes any sense.

[Sainternist]

Playing at Etihad rather than the MCG has cost us about 40 million dollars over the last 12 years.

Do you reckon we'd be a little bit better off with that money????

Im unsure how you come to that figure. There is no way its a 3.5 million dollar turn around every year.

Yeah, I'm also skeptical about this sort of speculation. We have been invariably drawing pretty average crowds whenever we played at the MCG in last few years. Still remember Round 1, 2011 against Geelong. What did we pull 30 thousand that night. For a team who played in the GF the year before, that sort of attendance just boggles the mind.

[saintspremiers]

Playing at Etihad rather than the MCG has cost us about 40 million dollars over the last 12 years.

Do you reckon we'd be a little bit better off with that money????

Im unsure how you come to that figure. There is no way its a 3.5 million dollar turn around every year.

Yeah, I'm also skeptical about this sort of speculation. We have been invariably drawing pretty average crowds whenever we played at the MCG in last few years. Still remember Round 1, 2011 against Geelong. What did we pull 30 thousand that night. For a team who played in the GF the year before, that sort of attendance just boggles the mind.

42,869 (Cats home game at the G) followed by a pathetic 41,465 against the Tiggers in the famous Lenny ACL draw. (Our home game at the G).

Both games Fri night so yes that's f'ing hopeless after 2 years of grannies.

[Moods]

2 main reasons -

1. fall from premiership contender to cellar dweller with no hope of a flag until at least 2018-19.
2. RAPE charges.

I know its the elephant in the room. I know none wants to talk about it. I know all the mitigating circumstances (Milne was stitched up/Lovett was a Bombers player etc etc etc) but it doesn't change the perceptions out there. There would be a lot of people - especially those with kids out there who would not be buying memberships based on this. I also would hazard a guess that there are sponsors who will stay away until this is over with.

I think 2014 will be tough - be we seem to be on the right track. Summers seems to be pretty clued up. Good times will be back but we can't afford many more f*ck ups - or as some people have alluded to we will be ripe for the picking for a relocation or merger.

I reckon you're jumping at shadows. I know plenty of Saints supporters. I know NO-ONE who won't renew a membership based on a rape charge. Especially when the event occurred 10 years ago. Anyone who says that they aren't renewing their membership based on that was never going to renew anyway. ppl don't renew because they think we will be crap, pure and simple. All supporters are fickle - and sadly when you have a small supporter base to start off with, well it highlights just how much they have dropped off, because grounds where we are playing at look sparse.

[Johnny Member]

People, even our own supporters, could barely stand to watch us in 2010-2011. 2008 was even worse.

I'd hear neutral supporters at work groan on the Friday arvo when discussing which game was on Ch7 that night. We were awful to watch and even when winning in 09, many Saints fans would comment to me about how exhausted they felt after each game! Each game was like watching a 200 minute tog of war!


Add to that, the very introverted strategy of Ross Lyon, the 'bubble' that kept fans on the outer, his prickly attitude to the media, constant closed training sessions, and no one felt 'close' to the club or the team.

So whilst we played in two GFs, the Board had an incredibly difficult job to market the team and the club to fans.


Winning doesn't equal money. Excitement and positivity equals money.

Whilst we were winning, we weren't exciting and the feeling oozing from Lyon and the club was one of paranoia and anxiety. The whole joint seemed tense under Lyon. That's very hard to sell.


Most clubs, whilst winning, are exciting and the positive vibe and energy that usually comes with it is what sells tickets and memberships, but I don't think we had that.


In 2003-2005, there was positivity, confidence and excitement oozing out of the place. We didn't win as much as we did from 2009-2011, but I'd bet we had more members and bigger attendances.


I really don't buy that fans just wants flags. Fans want to be entertained, they want positivity and they want excitement. They want to spend 20-odd weeks of the footy season riding hope that their team 'could' win the flag.

[oh when the]

Strong clubs expect to play finals footy each year .

[Johnny Member]

Strong clubs expect to play finals footy each year .

I spoke with David Friend once around 2004, who was considered the 'membership Guru' in the AFL at one point in time. We'd just poached him from Hawthorn.

His strategy, and what he told me was the market strategy for selling sporting club memberships, is to distance the membership from the on-field situation. He said, that most clubs realise they will not be successful on-field every year, so it's a big mistake to attempt to sell that to fans as they will feel dudded when the team doesn't succeed - which happens to 17 clubs every year.


So two things, not all clubs don't expect to play finals each year - regardless of whether they're big or not. Clubs aim to make money from fans and sponsors. The more fans, the better the chance of exposure from the AFL. The more exposure from the AFL - the more sponsors.


So clubs don't sell success. They sell hope and entertainment.



How many flags have Richmond won in the past 30 years? How many GFs have they even been in? But the club is now selling hope, and positivity and entertainment and the fans are flocking.

Essendon have won 1 flag in 20 years and only played in 1 other GF in that same time, yet they're able to keep their members up. It's not because they're selling success - they haven't had that. They're selling entertainment. For them, it's the entertainment of playing 'blockbusters' every 2nd week and they're also selling hope and positivity to their fans. None of their fans would have expected success when Hird took over from Knights, but they signed up in their droves. They signed for the positive ride and the excitement of it all.



If we come out and play a style of footy that engages the fans, if the new coach embraces the club and the fans, and if some young guys give a glimmer of hope to the supporters, I'll bet that our membership improves on the 2009-2011 period - even though we're only winning half the games we won back then.

[70s sainter]

Playing at Etihad rather than the MCG has cost us about 40 million dollars over the last 12 years.

Do you reckon we'd be a little bit better off with that money????

Im unsure how you come to that figure. There is no way its a 3.5 million dollar turn around every year.

Yeah, I'm also skeptical about this sort of speculation. We have been invariably drawing pretty average crowds whenever we played at the MCG in last few years. Still remember Round 1, 2011 against Geelong. What did we pull 30 thousand that night. For a team who played in the GF the year before, that sort of attendance just boggles the mind.

One of the worst games I've ever seen ( and yes I was there) .
How much do the afl compensate us every year for the edihad deal ? And how many years have they been doing this?
Last year they gave us $6mill in total so does it really matter that much?