Club Ownership

[FFC Mariner]

i love Gatty but he does enjoy being a doom merchant.
MC will ensure the club is safe.

Now his bestie is the mayor we can expect council to help - you know, like he did last time.................

 

[Ironbark]

i love Gatty but he does enjoy being a doom merchant.
MC will ensure the club is safe.

This is the first time I feel genuinely insecure about the future of the club. But you're probably right - MC has spent a lot of time and money so that we don't disappear, so seems unlikely he'd drop us in it at the 11th hour.

Going to be tough. Since we have Ukraine colours maybe the Russians really will come this time.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

i love Gatty but he does enjoy being a doom merchant.
MC will ensure the club is safe.

Thank you Pete. This is the most reassuring post I have seen in ages.

 

[Rising Sun]

MC will ensure the club is safe.

Statement based on inside knowledge or a glass-half-full prediction?

 

[FFC Mariner]

Statement based on inside knowledge or a glass-half-full prediction?

Maybe because it would cost him a lot of money.
He wouldn't "sell" the license he'd have to walk away

 

[Rising Sun]

We have had incredible success thanks to his cash injection

I think it is a myth that the success of the last couple of seasons was somehow bought by the "millions" injected by RP. He may have added to the mix but we were already on a steep uphill trajectory and the building blocks were already in place - we won those titles off the back of the strong academy, the Monty / Serg recruiting network, brilliant coaching, a really strong culture and smart people in all the right roles. Even the recruitment of Jacko you could argue pre-dates RP given he was a Monty recommendation. Not a criticism of RP - just that I believe he mainly just arrived at the right time and surfed the wave.

If he did lose $7m then I honestly don't know where it went. We didn't start signing marquees and the back office still seems to be run off the smell of an oily rag,

I remember Shaun saying that MC was putting in about $1m a year and based on a back of an envelope calculation, that sounds about right. So RP would need to find that as a starter, The distribution went down by $650k last year so he would have had to find that. Stadium fees have probably gone up a fair bit and he may be paying a commercial rent to MC for the CoE. He forked out for new gym gear and Alou's transfer fee. I believe that the players wage bill went up by about $300k but this was largely to secure players on longer contracts to ensure we got a fee when they moved rather than targeting better players.

Add all that up and we might get past half way to the $7m, but not much more. But what about the income? We must have got more than $6m in unbudgeted income in his time. $2.3m for the AFC cup and I reckon at least as much again from transfer fees for JC, MT, Nector, Silvera, Birraz. A seven figure sum from the WC, gates up massively, almost to the point of what RP had said was a break even figure. Increased merchandise sales and even the players we let go free, like Niz, Maxi, Faz, Miller, we would have got a very healthy 6 figure amount I believe in total for training fees.

I will take some convincing that RP has not walked away from this with a healthy profit.

 

[Meerkat]

I think it is a myth that the success of the last couple of seasons was somehow bought by the "millions" injected by RP. He may have added to the mix but we were already on a steep uphill trajectory and the building blocks were already in place - we won those titles off the back of the strong academy, the Monty / Serg recruiting network, brilliant coaching, a really strong culture and smart people in all the right roles. Even the recruitment of Jacko you could argue pre-dates RP given he was a Monty recommendation. Not a criticism of RP - just that I believe he mainly just arrived at the right time and surfed the wave.

If he did lose $7m then I honestly don't know where it went. We didn't start signing marquees and the back office still seems to be run off the smell of an oily rag,

I remember Shaun saying that MC was putting in about $1m a year and based on a back of an envelope calculation, that sounds about right. So RP would need to find that as a starter, The distribution went down by $650k last year so he would have had to find that. Stadium fees have probably gone up a fair bit and he may be paying a commercial rent to MC for the CoE. He forked out for new gym gear and Alou's transfer fee. I believe that the players wage bill went up by about $300k but this was largely to secure players on longer contracts to ensure we got a fee when they moved rather than targeting better players.

Add all that up and we might get past half way to the $7m, but not much more. But what about the income? We must have got more than $6m in unbudgeted income in his time. $2.3m for the AFC cup and I reckon at least as much again from transfer fees for JC, MT, Nector, Silvera, Birraz. A seven figure sum from the WC, gates up massively, almost to the point of what RP had said was a break even figure. Increased merchandise sales and even the players we let go free, like Niz, Maxi, Faz, Miller, we would have got a very healthy 6 figure amount I believe in total for training fees.

I will take some convincing that RP has not walked away from this with a healthy profit.

I don’t know that he made a profit. But I also don’t believe he has sunk 7 million with nothing recouped.

Birraz I believe went on a free, but there were decent sums on the others named and other that Alou, we paid nothing for new signings, that I know of. Except Sainsbury.

I do think we need some transparency on where it’s gone and I would like to know he hasn’t bled us dry to re-line his pockets on his exit, with money that should have been spent / invested elsewhere.

 

[priorpeter]

Statement based on inside knowledge or a glass-half-full prediction?

From the horse’s mouth.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Arguably, MC saw a sucker, milked him and will go back to business as usual.
In his defense, the footballing staff that have survived are better than he has had before.
Off the pitch less so

 

[Corsair]

I think it is a myth that the success of the last couple of seasons was somehow bought by the "millions" injected by RP. He may have added to the mix but we were already on a steep uphill trajectory and the building blocks were already in place - we won those titles off the back of the strong academy, the Monty / Serg recruiting network, brilliant coaching, a really strong culture and smart people in all the right roles. Even the recruitment of Jacko you could argue pre-dates RP given he was a Monty recommendation. Not a criticism of RP - just that I believe he mainly just arrived at the right time and surfed the wave.

If he did lose $7m then I honestly don't know where it went. We didn't start signing marquees and the back office still seems to be run off the smell of an oily rag,

I remember Shaun saying that MC was putting in about $1m a year and based on a back of an envelope calculation, that sounds about right. So RP would need to find that as a starter, The distribution went down by $650k last year so he would have had to find that. Stadium fees have probably gone up a fair bit and he may be paying a commercial rent to MC for the CoE. He forked out for new gym gear and Alou's transfer fee. I believe that the players wage bill went up by about $300k but this was largely to secure players on longer contracts to ensure we got a fee when they moved rather than targeting better players.

Add all that up and we might get past half way to the $7m, but not much more. But what about the income? We must have got more than $6m in unbudgeted income in his time. $2.3m for the AFC cup and I reckon at least as much again from transfer fees for JC, MT, Nector, Silvera, Birraz. A seven figure sum from the WC, gates up massively, almost to the point of what RP had said was a break even figure. Increased merchandise sales and even the players we let go free, like Niz, Maxi, Faz, Miller, we would have got a very healthy 6 figure amount I believe in total for training fees.

I will take some convincing that RP has not walked away from this with a healthy profit.

The Women's team would have cost a lot to setup and would be an ongoing cost.

 

[Ads]

It may just be a cleverly worded phrase.
Anybody can say they lost something, but then not add a statement about what they gained.

But as mentioned the greatest tragedy from this is the first home games and especially first 3 home games should be buzzing with excitement!

Off the back off our success we should be plastering social media with bold game day advertisement.

T-shirt slingshot/canon, promotions, kids games all being advertised heavily.
Fire/cold spark machine for first 3 games, etc.
Even live music.

Best chance to engage and stick casuals for the seasons and also boost the average crowd number for the year if you could somehow get 15,000 to the opening games.

 

[Hello Sailor]

I think it is a myth that the success of the last couple of seasons was somehow bought by the "millions" injected by RP. He may have added to the mix but we were already on a steep uphill trajectory and the building blocks were already in place - we won those titles off the back of the strong academy, the Monty / Serg recruiting network, brilliant coaching, a really strong culture and smart people in all the right roles. Even the recruitment of Jacko you could argue pre-dates RP given he was a Monty recommendation.

This is probably correct, but his investment in the club surely contributed to our success. If not, why so much angst now that he is leaving?

 

[FFC Mariner]

If it helps, I work with someone who goes to most games and considers himself a fan.
He had no idea.
I don't think we realize just how little cut through the AL has in mainstream media

 

[Stuartmcateer]

I don't think we realize just how little cut through the AL has in mainstream media

When was the last time they actually tried an advertising campaign? For me it's 90 minutes - 90 emotions? That was about season 3 or 4 from memory.

It's hard to cut through when you don't really try.

 

[Ben10]

This thread needs a little optimism, maybe MC already has another person/entity lined up to take the club at the end of this year?

 

[turbo]

This is probably correct, but his investment in the club surely contributed to our success. If not, why so much angst now that he is leaving?

I think it definitely contributed and likely gave confidence to make certain moves when transfer fees weren't guaranteed. The angst though that's just fear and uncertainty over our future.

 

[pjennings]

Just as a general comment. I would be a lot more circumspect than some in my comments considering anyone can read them.

 

[thetormentor]

There seems to be an increased marketing push for the A-League this year. TV ads were in the NRL GF, plus I’ve heard a whole heap of radio ads.

 

[Huddo]

Will say Dick could have left mid last year, the chances of finding a new suitor would have been a lot higher.

But hey, thanks alot Dick for tearing up the backroom over the last 2 year, and then leaving at the start of a new season, mid contract (even though he's known about the funding issues for 6 months...).

I shook his hand after the Sydney home game, feels like I need to wash it again.

 

[Meerkat]

I think it definitely contributed and likely gave confidence to make certain moves when transfer fees weren't guaranteed. The angst though that's just fear and uncertainty over our future.

Exactly.

Just as a general comment. I would be a lot more circumspect than some in my comments considering anyone can read them.

is Anyone a new member?