Saints Pledge to Quit Pokies

[shanegrambeau]

Austtralia are now the number one gambling country in the world. Highest gambling participation in the world. 20% of the worlds pokies are in Australia. BBC ran a story on our escalating gambling.

Source please

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42362194
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-20/ ... g/10396984
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... -australia

"Over 80% of Australian adults engage in gambling of some kind, which is the highest rate of gambling in the world."
from Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_in_Australia

[ausfatcat]

thankyou

[Dave McNamara]

Growth areas:

* Womens AFL
* Social media product promotion known as influencing
* Streaming internet TV channel specifically for St Kilda content (e.g St Kilda TV)
* Use of Moorabbin for social events and functions hire
* Plus more - I could keep on going for a while

Decline Areas:

* Pokies

Now, just imagine moving all the above away from down a hidden outer suburban side street... to the JO.

(I've heard from a couple of ex-AFL players, and they reckon the whispers are saying that the word is the good Doc is working hard to achieve this, even as you read this thread. We luv youse Doc! )

[saintspremiers]

Growth areas:

* Womens AFL
* Social media product promotion known as influencing
* Streaming internet TV channel specifically for St Kilda content (e.g St Kilda TV)
* Use of Moorabbin for social events and functions hire
* Plus more - I could keep on going for a while

Decline Areas:

* Pokies

Now, just imagine moving all the above away from down a hidden outer suburban side street... to the JO.

(I've heard from a couple of ex-AFL players, and they reckon the whispers are saying that the word is the good Doc is working hard to achieve this, even as you read this thread. We luv youse Doc! )

Dave - FYI we have our home base firmly established at Moorabbin. Maybe check it out, you will be impressed.

As for the JO, that has also been redeployed into a cricket venue. I’ve driven past the new setup but haven’t had. Sa look inside.

I encourage you to check out both venues, both designed for different sports.

[Dr Spaceman]

Growth areas:

* Womens AFL
* Social media product promotion known as influencing
* Streaming internet TV channel specifically for St Kilda content (e.g St Kilda TV)
* Use of Moorabbin for social events and functions hire
* Plus more - I could keep on going for a while

Decline Areas:

* Pokies

Now, just imagine moving all the above away from down a hidden outer suburban side street... to the JO.

(I've heard from a couple of ex-AFL players, and they reckon the whispers are saying that the word is the good Doc is working hard to achieve this, even as you read this thread. We luv youse Doc! )

Dave - FYI we have our home base firmly established at Moorabbin. Maybe check it out, you will be impressed.

As for the JO, that has also been redeployed into a cricket venue. I’ve driven past the new setup but haven’t had. Sa look inside.

I encourage you to check out both venues, both designed for different sports.

Dave's vision for the JO




The JO's vision for Dave

[Dave McNamara]

Pokie revenue:
We only ...gross) $2 mil.

...pokies have cost us (net) millions....not worth it!

Moral issues (yes, they do matter!):
I suspect that we are actually doing minimal damage (c/f + Kennett heading up 'Beyond Blue' = hypocrisy

But...,

One of the things that I'm most proud of re out wonderful maverick club, is its fantastic social outreach work.

And to those who say "If they don't blow their money with us, they'll just blow the same money at another pokie venue." This argument is (wrong, faulty etc.)




Summary:
For our club, getting rid of the pokies is the right thing to do... morally and also... economically.

I respectfully cant agree with you on almost all yoour points here. I don’t want pokies, I hate pokies and I think Crown is a monumental sh&t hole, an eyesore physically and culturally etc. it could be a mega shopping, dining, cinema etc. landmark icon and employ thousands more, just in case people argue that it keeps people employed.
Jeff kennet is one reason I left Victoria and escaped to Japan. The year I qualified as a high school teacher, Jeff and co pulled down the whole career apparatus leaving a veritable free-for-all for employers and employees.

But, I think we should recognize that,
1) just because our revenue stream from pokies was poor doesn’t mean it has to be always....
2) Our leaders made the move to Seaford partly because of pokies but that doesn’t discount that they had poor forsight or may have been reactionary instead of taking a slow and steady approach with the then council at Kingston
3) saying that if they don’t spend with us they’ll spend elsewhere is a pretty decent assumption to make IMo, and it counts if they drive over to Dingley and give their money to the Hawks.

Speaking of social outreach, and I am aware that using your expression here in a different context can be insulting and I do not want that, just look at the NSW RSL industry. These guys make billions from pokies and finance just about anything...they could build an aircraft carrier and fly it to the moon.

The scandal at Dee Why RSL last year from the Sydney morning herald and the NSW media in general throughout 2018 is full of stories about incredible earnings. Now we can add online Casinos Online pokies to the mix and Aussies are pouting their funds into that too.
My summary, pokies suck but they are lucaratuve. If the AFL clubs snub them, watch the soccer clubs clean up!

From Sydney morning story about 45 father suicide last year
Profits from pokies have gathered at such a pace that the clubs have expanded into property development, aged care, retirement villages and childcare. Dee Why, for its part, is embracing this “cradle-to-grave” strategy. It has retirement village assets, a childcare centre, a bowling alley, a service station. And it is building on. A proposal is with Council may ironically see it plonk more senior living units on top of its vast gaming room.

I do like the idea of diversifying. We need to aim to be investing, with the aim of eventually having enough passive income to be self sufficient. And this would work if we were home at the JO, and thus able to leverage the funky groovy vibe that is our suburb, the suburb so loved by the good Doctor... St Kilda.

(And we can do this without resorting to those immoral and financially ruinous poker machines. They must go... for moral and economic reasons!)



PS: Now I'm intrigued SG. 'Social outreach'? What is the different context that this term has? And where?

[Dave McNamara]

Growth areas:

* Womens AFL
* Social media product promotion known as influencing
* Streaming internet TV channel specifically for St Kilda content (e.g St Kilda TV)
* Use of Moorabbin for social events and functions hire
* Plus more - I could keep on going for a while

Decline Areas:

* Pokies

Now, just imagine moving all the above away from down a hidden outer suburban side street... to the JO.

(I've heard from a couple of ex-AFL players, and they reckon the whispers are saying that the word is the good Doc is working hard to achieve this, even as you read this thread. We luv youse Doc! )

Dave - FYI we have our home base firmly established at Moorabbin. Maybe check it out, you will be impressed.

As for the JO, that has also been redeployed into a cricket venue. I’ve driven past the new setup but haven’t had. Sa look inside.

I encourage you to check out both venues, both designed for different sports.

Hi SP, I have actually checked out both.

JO, made me shed a tear for where we could be right now.

Moorabbin. I'm not a fan of nouvo-Housing Commission style soulless architecture.

That said, taste can be an individual thing. So my (other) biggest complaint is that the new setup is not geared towards holding future boutique games at Moorabbin. This is inexplicable. And IMHO, inexcusable! <shakes head in utter disbelief emoticon>

Back to the JO... and cricket.

There is simply no reason why it can't be a cricket and footy venue. The wicket and outfield are arguably as good as any in Victoria, if not the country. So playing footy on the ground over winter is not a problem. Never was.

However, Cricket Victoria's stooooopidity has already cost them $15 million in ground redevelopment funding. And that's before one starts to look at the lost mutual synergies of sharing with footy. So big time lose/lose there.

(The good Doctor, firey, sunsaint, myself and many many many other passionate Saints' supporters are shedding rivers of tears... and people wonder where the Queensland floods came from. )

[saynta]

When we played at the Junction oval, we were merely tennants being screwed over on a weekly basis by our cricketing landlord.
It was a s*** venue then and still is.
Our fortunes didn't change until thankfully we shifted to Linton Street, where we have now returned.
The only real difference between 1963 and 2019 is that in 1963 African gangs weren't terrorising the good citizens of St Kilda.

[shanegrambeau]

Wow..lot's of hoohah when St Kilda left. The Supreme Court let them go to Moorabbin based on members' votes. Members hated the cricket Club? Cricket Club were being arses, like at Fitzroy in Brunswick st?

I wondered how we were doing back then so i checked our last five years there. St Kilda were doing fine at the Junction Oval look at seasons 60,61,62,63, and 64. We never finished lower than sixth and finished 3rd once and 4th twice! Pretty damn good. And poor old Fitzroy did really well there too. Their last five years were their most successful in their entire post-war history.

Their story at Brunswick St, and being cocked around by the Cricket Club there, but i suppose Cricket Clubs are establishment, going back to the 1850s, including St Kilda cricket club.
maybe we could have merged with eth cricket club but the Cricket club were possibly toxic, as Fitzroy CC certainly were by all accounts to Fitzroy FC.

But interesting to see us so successful in our last five years at JO! Way to go, JO!

[Dave McNamara]

Wow..lot's of hoohah when St Kilda left. The Supreme Court let them go to Moorabbin based on members' votes. Members hated the cricket Club? Cricket Club were being arses, like at Fitzroy in Brunswick st?

I wondered how we were doing back then so i checked our last five years there. St Kilda were doing fine at the Junction Oval look at seasons 60,61,62,63, and 64. We never finished lower than sixth and finished 3rd once and 4th twice! Pretty damn good. And poor old Fitzroy did really well there too. Their last five years were their most successful in their entire post-war history.

Their story at Brunswick St, and being cocked around by the Cricket Club there, but i suppose Cricket Clubs are establishment, going back to the 1850s, including St Kilda cricket club.
maybe we could have merged with eth cricket club but the Cricket club were possibly toxic, as Fitzroy CC certainly were by all accounts to Fitzroy FC.

But interesting to see us so successful in our last five years at JO! Way to go, JO!

Your post raises some very salient points SG.

Our beloved club finally achieved the powerhouse status that we should always have held... for a wonderful and heady (though not in a jack-and-the-weed-stalk way ) period from the early '60s to the mid '70s. Sadly, we all know what happened then.

We were getting great crowds at the JO, but the gate was going to the stooopid cricket club. Our BOM correctly identified that this was about to become more of an issue, as $$$ was going to be needed with the imminent increase in clubs luring big name players from interstate. So they took up the offer from the then Moorabbin Council.

All was going great... till interest rates suddenly rocketed in the mid 70's. We could no longer afford the repayments from the building of Moorabbin. That's why we suddenly crashed from power club. To almost 20 year cellar dweller. To almost extinct.

Yes. Moorabbin is the reason we crashed and almost burned!




And now, Moorabbin is not the answer!

All those wonderful fundraising (and profile raising) ideas suggested by the likes of Mordi' would be hamstrung if run from the obscurity of being hidden down a side street in a far flung non-descript suburb.

But run promotional stuff outta' funkytown...



When we were cellar dweller irrelevant nobodies exiled to outer Seafolly, we couldn't get a major sponsor. The mooted move to JO suddenly saw the club fielding unsolicited sponsorship offers.

Yet somehow, some people, refuse to see what a correctly managed return home to Melbourne's funkiest and most marketable suburb would open up our beloved club... turbocharging!!!