Now let's check out an account of previous Richmond AGMs sent in by a Crikey reader recently.
1999
Held at the Crown Palladium in the week prior to Christmas, ensuring maximum clashes with city shopping, parties, functions etc on at the same time meaning that no parking was available at Crown and many people gave up or arrived late and angry to a packed auditorium. Meeting was largely a non-event because all the real action had taken place in the weeks leading up to it with the bloodless coup by the Clinton Casey team. The meeting was characterised by the eulogising of the outgoing Daphne/Malone management team by a seemingly endless stream of leading supporters and indeed I think the patron or No 1 member.
1998
The first of the meetings to be held outside home territory (ie Richmond and/or the MCG) at Crown. Highlight of this meeting was the presentation of the Best and Fairest to Wayne Campbell who only weeks before had attempted to leave the club. A muted round of applause greeted Campbell but an inspired passionate speech by the Tigers number 9 saw him exit the podium to a sustained ovation.
1997
This was the year that Mal Brown tried to grab a seat on the board, instigating the first actual election in some time. I have memories of Leon Daphne threatening to stand aside if Brown was elected and the RFC constitution coming under some scrutiny as it emerged that unlike other clubs where only registered adult members could vote or only certain categories (eg Social Club members at Collingwood) all RFC members were eligible to vote, no matter what their age (or species). I don't recall that this article was subsequently changed.
The actual meeting was held at the usual venue, the Richmond Town Hall, which for a number of years had shown itself capable of holding 500 or so people at best. For a club which had upwards of 25,000 members one day this was going to cause a problem. This day arrived at the '97 AGM. With all the agitation emanating from the Brown camp, the meeting was an eagerly anticipated event and as such a big crowd turned up, many of whom were left stranded on the Bridge Rd footpath. Things were getting ugly outside as Jim Malone (CEO) initially tried to placate the crowd by apologising and promising a review of the venue. When this obviously did nothing for the crowd's demeanour, a subsequent effort by Malone to appeal to the crowd's sensibilities by offering them free drinks down the road at the club's gaming venue the Royal Oak with the promise that someone would come down after the meeting and report on what happened succeeded in thinning the crowd to the extent that those who continued to hang around the Town Hall were eventually allowed in. Can't say what transpired inside as I just went home.
1991
Meeting held in the Long Room at the MCG. Allan Jeans introduced to the members as the new coach. He proceeded to knock the socks off the crowd with an oration at a volume which completely rendered the microphone and speaker redundant. If only the players of season 1992 had been as inspired as the members were that night..........
1986 or 1987
Back in the days when the AGM was able to be held upstairs in the Punt Rd Social Club. This was the night that started with so much promise - TV cameras and lights everywhere, reporters at all vantage points, all awaiting the arrival of the club's new saviour 'Bondy'. Alas, that night we should have all seen the writing on the wall that Tiny Rowland would see and expose only a couple of years later - the man was not all he was cracked up to be. Initially engaging the crowd with an anecdote about how he'd been a lifelong supporter of the red and black (sic), his one and only tangible (ie memorable) contribution to the RFC was soon to be made. He proudly presented the B&F to "the club captain, Dale Wineman". Whoever that was must have been absent, as Dale Weightman had to accept the award on his behalf.
Okay, now this is the piece we carried earlier about footy club democracy. We'll be turning up at the AGM on the 25th to get a first hand taste of it.
AFL democracy very different from corporates and politics
Footy club democracy is very different from corporate democracy if our experience with Richmond Football Club in early January is anything to go by.
We had planned to have a tilt at the Richmond board when members gathered for the AGM on January 25 at Kerry Packer's Crown casino.
The nomination requirements were that you needed two paid up members in 2000 to nominate you by 8pm on January 3.
Apart from being a life long Tigers supporter who is disillusioned with just one finals appearance since 1982, the rationale for standing was in part to get a feel for AFL democracy and compare it with political and corporate democracy. Crikey wants to encourage contested elections in all spheres of life spanning politics, business, local government, sporting clubs and even mutuals such as the RACV. Monopolies are bad and no-one should ever have a monopoly over a position in an election.
The Richmond board took on five new directors including President Clinton Casey 13 months ago after threats were made of a big campaign ahead of the last AGM. However, the new guard posted another big loss which when combined with another finals miss does not constitute good performance.
Believe it or not but Crikey actually played a small part in bailing Richmond's finances out back in 1993.
Laurie Connell's former financial go-between, Malcolm Brown, was marketing director of the Tigers at the time and had abused the acting chief executive of its major sponsor, the Transport Accident Commission, which is the monopoly compulsory third party insurance provider in Victoria. The public servant involved, one John Stanway, was called a f--- wit by Brown and wanted to drop the sponsorship altogether.
Brown is a millionaire former ruckman from Perth who knows how to get what he wants. With the TAC threatening to walk from its $400,000 a year deal he called up any Richmond supporter he could find in the Kennett government.
As press secretary to the Treasurer, Alan Stockdale, I took the call and proceeded to tell Stockers that there were no votes whatsoever in sending a footy club to the wall, especially one as popular as Richmond.
The transport minister Alan Brown had rung up with a similar message after a call from Mal Brown and I was there when Stockers put the call through to John Stanway.
It went something like this:
Stockers: "Look, I don't want to tell you how to run your business but people are telling me there is a chance you could cut Richmond off at the knees and that could cause me some grief."
Given that Stockers was the responsible minister and still deciding whether to sell the TAC at the time, the sponsorship was reinstated in full by Stanway who was afraid of losing his job. Now that is an interesting insight into government decision making! Scary, eh. Brown subsequently sent me a letter saying if I ever needed any favours he'd be happy to help out. Thankfully, I haven't called that one in yet.
Given their woeful onfield performance, the Tigers were forced into some rather entrepreneurial sponsorship deals to survive the past 15 years. First they took Alan Bond's money and made him President. It saved the club but former captain Dale Weightman wasn't too impressed when Bondy announced that Dale Wineman had won the best and fairest one year.
Then there was the $500,000 that Amcor's Containers Packaging division chipped in which was somehow tied in with the packaging contract they had with CUB. Surprise, surprise, CUB CEO at the time was Richmond President Pat Stone. Crikey has always been confused as to whether it was Amcor or CUB which actually paid the money to Stone's footy team but you can rest assured that shareholders did not anywhere full value from this sponsorship. Former Richmond CEO Jim Malone described this deal as "the best sponshorship deal in the world" one day when we were playing cricket together for the Richmond Club X1. This was because Containers didn't want anything in return.
Then you've got the $250,000 four-year signage deal for the Punt Rd stadium roof that Mal Browne struck with Crown casino boss Lloyd Williams in 1994. It certainly helped that then Richmond director Jamie Bartels was also marketing manager of Crown at the time. Lloyd's company Hudson Conway made a clear, risk-free $252 million profit from its pubco joint venture with Elders IXL in the 1980s and the bloke who did the deal with him was Jamie's dad Peter Bartels, then the CEO of CUB. From that day on it is fair to say that Lloyd owed the Bartels a big debt of gratitude.
The Tigers directors should be facing some contested elections because they missed the finals yet again last year and reported a loss of $639,667. And the board needs some people with experience in government, media and the internet, something chief executive Mark Brayshaw acknowledged Crikey could bring.
However, the candidacy went nowhere fast because Brayshaw put the big guilt trip on by explaining that they were a non-profit organisation that would incur additional costs of $60,000 if I nominated.
How is this so? Well, at that point no outsiders had nominated for the board so the incumbents Tony Jewell, a Premiership coach, Peter Welsh, a Premiership player, and Terry Grigg, the longest serving director, were proposed to be given another term unopposed.
Richmond had therefore decided not to send out proxy forms and director profiles to its 20,000-odd members, but under their constitution they'd have to do it if an outsider nominated.
By the time President Clinton Casey rang after his round of golf in Queensland, I'd decided not to run. The beauty of contesting corporate and political elections is that there is no additional cost on the company or the taxpayer because they have to conduct the poll anyway.
For some odd reason, Richmond wrote to its members advising the financials and the board elections, but they did this before nominations for directors had closed. Several people expressed interest in standing but President Casey promised them all "lunch" and a chat to see what they could offer as the consolation prize for not imposing all these democracy costs on the club.
You are hardly a try Tiger fan if you impose an extra $60,000 cost on a club that suffered a crunching $639,667 loss for the year. The directors blamed the loss on falling membership, below budget sponsorshop, unprecedented injuries last year and additional coaching costs after recruiting Danny Frawley.
So what happens if the members decide to reject one of the candidates. Presumably those there on the night can vote but to appoint a proxy you have to ring the club and ask for the form. Surely it would have been easier to close nominations earlier and send out the proxy forms with the financial statements. Interestingly, as another cost saving measure members don't get the full annual report, only a four black and white summary.
So while the board tilt went nowhere this year, we'll probably have a crack next year by giving the board plenty of notice. If you know anyone interested in running for other club boards then please get in touch. Also, we'd love to get some feedback on the financials of other footy clubs out there if anyone wants to write in.
If you're interested, come along to the Richmond AGM on 8pm on January 25 at the Palladium Room at Crown. We'll probably be the only member asking financial questions as footy AGMs are usually dominated by things like drafting, player performance and the coaching staff.
Go Tiges! East 'em alive!
http://www.crikey.com.au/politics/2001/01/21-richmondagms.html
