Ok, I left early and am now home ready for a big day at work tomorrow. I didn't really get too involved in everything and didn't take any notes so I can't really recap any of the speeches, although KBs was similar to that of his presentation of Ben Griffiths' jumper before the Port Adelaide match.
On the positive side, the $6 million target is almost half way there in only 5 weeks since it's launch. Sure it would have been nice to get more tonight, but it's still an average of $4-5000 per head from the 200-250 there tonight (once you take away the $1.08m and $250k). I still firmly believe that number will go higher from private donations and those who were a bit confused about the whole bidding process. The fact that donations over $10k are 50% tax deductable may also have brought out a few more donations and a few more in the future also.
Given the Queensland & Vic floods, Christchurch earthquake & Japan earthquake all looking for donations, I think it makes this contribution even more impressive. These are things the club couldn't control.
On the negative side (and don't get me wrong the whole night was a great event I just have more to say about these points) there were a few awkward things and in discussions with those at my table I know I wasn't the only one thinking this.
Firstly they did a mock commentary of the 2014 Grand Final done by BT (and someone else I don't remember). Obviously it was meant to get the emotions stirring, but they did it with the players in the room and it felt a bit weird to me. If they were going to do it they should have done it without the players there. For the record they had Astbury taking a mark on the siren from Griffiths' kick and kicking the goal to win the flag. If it comes true, ask whoever wrote the script for the following week's tattslotto numbers.
Next was the donations process on the night. Having everyone stand up to show how much they were donating I thought wasn't great. Pretty much half the room sat down after the first round at $3k and almost everyone else after the $5k mark. This kinda reinforces my belief that they should have been offering more incentives for people to donate at certain increments. Those that donate $19k get the same as someone who donated $5k. The reason I didn't like this bidding process is two fold. Those bowing out early look bad and those still standing at the end are posing a bit. I have much more respect that donate large sums without needing to stand up in front of the crowd for acknowledgement. Perhaps this was done to try and pressure people into donating more, but I wonder if it had the opposite effect. There was also a bit of confusion on the bidding process in regards to whether it was on top of your existing donation (if you had one) or including it... I included it.
Also other than the existing incentives for donation levels, there was nothing on the night to try and get people to part with their money except for the old TAC jumper signed by 25 of the Richmond great and this went for $7000. I would have thought on a night which is trying to generate money that there would be a lot more things to try and generate donations than just this one big bidding process thorugh a keypad. Sure selling the future of the club is one thing, but I think more should have been done to try and give people more of a reason to part with their money. Something could have come up that people wanted more than the incentives that you already know you get for your donation.
I still think the club should be doing more to try and encourage more donations of the $500-3000 range. The handful of big donations are great, but it only would take 1500 donations of $2000 to wipe out the remaining $3 million. That's not that many at a club of 40k+ members, if we end up with 45000 members, 1500 is only 3%. Surely the club can find a few things that people are willing to part with that sort of money and I think would be easier than trying to look for the needle in the haystack of those who can donate $10k plus.
Oh and one last point, other than the players I felt like I was by far the youngest in the room. Very old crowd there, but I guess that is to be expected.
