Chairman’s Letter Nov 2023

[midfielder]

Flawed business plan then. What concerns me is Peil wants transfers every season and I think the minimum amount is $800k. To get that this season means more of our performing players leaving such as Faz, Niz, Balard and Tulio. More than half the current team based on form wouldn't get interest from NPL teams let alone OS. Pretty hard to see a bright future when there isn't much coming through at the moment and it seems inevitable some of our well performing main stays are probably not far from leaving. We talk about gaining players in Jan, we could lose some as well. Interesting times in deed.

There is a second part to the 800K..... get 3M for a single player every two to three years...

Part of our issue with players is we let them go to cheaply....

Further we should be a little more hard line with players.... not have 200K at whatever get out clauses...

I am sure RP is already on top of this..... given we all accept we are a development club then a big part of that is getting paid what players are worth and with terms that suit us as well as the player.

 

[Meerkat]

It's easy to worry when the chairman starts talking about not finding someone to help keep the club on the coast. Feels like deja vu. 20000 to a home final followed by a Championship win and this talk resurfaces. It's very sad.

Isn’t this the saw guy who, following a 20 000k crowd home final and a championship win, told everybody in the office a week later that none of their jobs were safe?

Genuine question, could be wrong and it was someone else… but that talk was also sad and half the staff are gone.

 

[gemkayem]

Isn’t this the saw guy who, following a 20 000k crowd home final and a championship win, told everybody in the office a week later that none of their jobs were safe?

Genuine question, could be wrong and it was someone else… but that talk was also sad and half the staff are gone.

Yeah this part “we proactively made significant changes to the business side of the club” basically means that there is almost no one left in the office - sometimes 1 person for a whole department (such as merchandise AFAIK).

 

[FFC Mariner]

Isn’t this the saw guy who, following a 20 000k crowd home final and a championship win, told everybody in the office a week later that none of their jobs were safe?

Genuine question, could be wrong and it was someone else… but that talk was also sad and half the staff are gone.

Probably why nothing works?

 

[Insertnamehere]

Isn’t this the saw guy who, following a 20 000k crowd home final and a championship win, told everybody in the office a week later that none of their jobs were safe?

Genuine question, could be wrong and it was someone else… but that talk was also sad and half the staff are gone.

Going the Qantas method ay. Bold strategy Cotton lets see how it plays out.

 

[Hello Sailor]

I'm surprised that there wasn't a reference to funding a women's team in the letter and how it has an effect on the bottom line this year. That's got to be a huge chunk of cash diverted from the men's squad. [Unless it is elsewhere?]

 

[shipwreck]

There is no way to spin that having a Women's team is a cash drain without sounding like a patriarchal mysogynist I suspect.

But I agree, and I absolutely love having a Women's team.

 

[Rising Sun]

I think there is a grant from the APL equivalent to the ALW salary cap so the player wage bill is effectively zero. I don't know whether the travel costs are centrally funded or not and whether or not we are paying CC sports college to use their facilities as a training base or whether it is just a reciprocal arrangement (e.g. they get access to all the new gym gear we have put up there that the Lionesses donated).

But even without any of the above you probably have a substantial 6 figure annual cost for coaching and support staff, stadium hire, gear etc., and limited commercial and gate revenue opportunities (and zero transfer revenue). Unlikely that they are running at anything other than a decent loss.

 

[Ironbark]

It's a reciprocal arrangement is my understanding and includes an office building etc. It's a win-win whichever way you look at it

 

[gemkayem]

That’s why I’m glad the process for the team was already started because I’m sure if there was a choice we wouldn’t have one