Richmond ressies/VFL side [merged]

[WilliamPowell]

  So do you think they would have allocated revenues from games being played @ PRO ?
Mate i am no accountant but our business has a budget & as soon as we win a big job the budget gets thrown out the window

I am an accountant, and folks wanting to turf budgets because they get excited when they have a business "windfall" is the reason why businesses have accountants 

They have to find at least $500k a year to field a VFL team that's based on what it costs Geelong. They are going to pour money into the footy dept in the area of development which is separate to the money needed to field the VFL side

TBBH I don't believe they will make much money on games at PRO, at best they would be hoping to break even. Why people think that games at PRO is somehow going to be some big money spinner has me doing this 

The cost in putting games on is going to be in most cases greater than revenues that the gate, food and beverage sales generate. I'd argue strongly to think otherwise is not good business planning

No worries, your opinion but as a FTF donator, i have no issue
Big difference in getting rid of what I would term the poo debt as opposed to building infrastructure that will help to generate sustainable revenue

As a FTF donor as well personally I would be extremely peeved if they went down the debt path again and it is mainly for the opposite reason to what you suggest. As I said above I don't see games at PRO being a big money spinner for the club so go into debt for something that is unlikely to pay for itself is not something I support

And BTW part of the debt that's just been paid off was for the first lost improvements of at PRO a few years back eg the pool and admin building

[tony_montana]

With a capacity of 5.5k then yeah youd think they don't have much hope to make $$. Get that up to 10-12k and schedule the games before our G games and you'll easily get capacity crowds. I know its probably a logistical nightmare but hopefully some time can be put into trying to get the corresponding fixture overlap at times during the year

[yellowandback]

Couple of thoughts:-
 - if we get to use the oval "rent free" and charge $10 per game entry fee :- $50k which adds up if we can get 8-10 games played there. The caveat here would be that the games are played prior to the senior game which might be tricky to organise
 - if we can arrange a catering contract there, it  ought to land us another $300-500k annually. The down side here is that the beers and food would be expensive.
 - again, if it is rent free to us why not rent the oval out to other clubs who are playing at the G? Again, I see this as the old triple win - good for punters who want to watch their AFL sides, reserves play, good for the clubs who most probably get 4000-5000 punters along to a game due to the convenience of location and timing and a win in generating some rent for the oval. We might do a revenue share or charge $20-30k for them to use the ground.

Key to the above is to get say a dozen decent ressie games which feature Tigers, Pies or Cats seconds teams playing before the seniors.

Even if you halve everything to make it affordable we should still generate $500k if we can get the games there.
Pays for a couple of development coaches.

[tony_montana]

well thought out yandb. The rent free point is something I overlooked. Not to mention having other vfl sides play their curtain raisers there and charge them, long term it would be a sound investment to get the capacity up

[WilliamPowell]

Although I understand your ideas yandb I am not sure they are workable

Firstly I cannot see any other teams wanting to play their VFL games their.

There are 4 other stand alone. AFL sides, Geelong, Essendon, C''wood and Footscray. Pies, Bulldogs and Essendon have promised their members VFL games at their traditional venues. Outside of that to play games at PRO they will want to receive some sort of payment for moving their games to another venue. So IMHO I can't see them being be prepared to pay us.

I can't see Geelong moving games simply because they want to give their members as many games down in Geelong seeing they only get 7 home games at Skilled Stadium

Re a catering contract, again IMHO we'd be lucky to generate a $100k from any arrangement. The caterer would have written into the deal a fixed amount they have to generate before the club got a cut. Catering company would supply all staff and that equates to their greatest cost. And BTW they are mongrels to deal with 

Finally, I doubt very much the RFC will want to charge members any type entrance fee considering they've promoted it as it being free to members.

[big tone]

Put our memberships up by $16 this year. $1 mil in the sky rocket.
Incentive is you get in free to all games at PRO for an extra $16
It's the price of a pie and a drink at the footy.
Job done.
Thank you. 

[Coach]

Did someone say we not wearing our traditional strip? Don't like that at all. We'll be wearing this (minus the Tassie logos )

[Coach]

GET ANDY COLLINS 

It's done
Coach told me

You better be talking about another Coach.

[bojangles17]

I disagree , debt for infrastructure is ok & will pay dividends
$1m debt @ what 7-8% is stuff all & could be repayed in 2 years easily

Firstly, they said they won't be going into debt again and would expect them to honour that pledge.

Secondly, I don't think people who have given the FTF under the premise that 50% of it would used to repay debt would be overly impressed if the Club went out and borrowed money again. Or alternatively saw funding  in the footy dept reduced to service a new debt. Not a great look

No worries, your opinion but as a FTF donator, i have no issue
Big difference in getting rid of what I would term the poo debt as opposed to building infrastructure that will help to generate sustainable revenue

Agreed, not sure there's any problem borrowing $$ in order to Improve our facilities to play fixtures there  hardly burning dollars

[Judge Roughneck]

Exactly take out a loan ffs

[Darth Tiger]

Exactly take out a loan ffs

Peanut comment

Richmond VFL @ PRO can only dream of having the facilities like TEAC Oval's Norm Goss Stand in 2014.

However, in saying that PRO would have significant appeal to broadcasters if Foxtel Cup and VFL finals were to be played at a centralised location near key data and transport hubs from 2015 .....

[yellowandback]

Although I understand your ideas yandb I am not sure they are workable

Firstly I cannot see any other teams wanting to play their VFL games their.

There are 4 other stand alone. AFL sides, Geelong, Essendon, C''wood and Footscray. Pies, Bulldogs and Essendon have promised their members VFL games at their traditional venues. Outside of that to play games at PRO they will want to receive some sort of payment for moving their games to another venue. So IMHO I can't see them being be prepared to pay us.

I can't see Geelong moving games simply because they want to give their members as many games down in Geelong seeing they only get 7 home games at Skilled Stadium

Re a catering contract, again IMHO we'd be lucky to generate a $100k from any arrangement. The caterer would have written into the deal a fixed amount they have to generate before the club got a cut. Catering company would supply all staff and that equates to their greatest cost. And BTW they are mongrels to deal with 

Finally, I doubt very much the RFC will want to charge members any type entrance fee considering they've promoted it as it being free to members.

Fair enough WP, just to respond because I do think it is very workable.....

1. Catering contracts might be difficult to work with but who isn't these days?  You don't throw in the towel for that reason
2. I haven't read anywhere that the club is promoting free entry, is this the case for all Coburg games? If so, okay but this seems extremely generous - no wonder VFL clubs are going out of business. Being an accountant you'd understand that a P&L doesn't work very effectively without a top line!
3. Getting 10-15 games at Punt Rd as a type of "double header" might be tricky to organise but surely the AFL could fund so,e research with footy fans to assess the appetite for the idea? It seems like a no brainier to me given how popular it was through the 80s and 90s so it seems like a great way to add something to fans who are going to the football anyway and a nice revenue top up for us.

[WilliamPowell]

Fair enough WP, just to respond because I do think it is very workable.....

1. Catering contracts might be difficult to work with but who isn't these days?  You don't throw in the towel for that reason
2. I haven't read anywhere that the club is promoting free entry, is this the case for all Coburg games? If so, okay but this seems extremely generous - no wonder VFL clubs are going out of business. Being an accountant you'd understand that a P&L doesn't work very effectively without a top line!
3. Getting 10-15 games at Punt Rd as a type of "double header" might be tricky to organise but surely the AFL could fund so,e research with footy fans to assess the appetite for the idea? It seems like a no brainier to me given how popular it was through the 80s and 90s so it seems like a great way to add something to fans who are going to the football anyway and a nice revenue top up for us.

Yep RFC members got free entry into all Coburg home games. VFL clubs make their money on match day from beer sales. The source all everything themselves and use volunteers to sale all the food and beverage, hence why they make money on it. With Caterers you don't make that money

Although I am sure fans would love the idea of going to a game before heading off to the MCG as I said other clubs are not IMHO going to move games to PRO and then pay us, the only way they would even consider it is if we paid them.

Finally, the logistics of games at PRO before big blockbusters games on Friday nights is darn near impossible I reckon. Can you imagine the traffic bottleneck of Punt Road with footys flying around 

[Judge Roughneck]

Exactly take out a loan ffs

Peanut comment

Richmond VFL @ PRO can only dream of having the facilities like TEAC Oval's Norm Goss Stand in 2014.

However, in saying that PRO would have significant appeal to broadcasters if Foxtel Cup and VFL finals were to be played at a centralised location near key data and transport hubs from 2015 .....

It doesn't have to be a world class facility.

 All I a arguing is the importance of the twos playing as many games as soon at PRO as soon as possible.

This is perhaps the most important element in the Richmond future.

For the kids yo be playing at home. In front of signing drinking fans. Would be an excellent experience. Light years ahead of playing along duds at Coburg.

Image the reserves winning the flag in front of 5000 rfc fans.

[tony_montana]

Put our memberships up by $16 this year. $1 mil in the sky rocket.
Incentive is you get in free to all games at PRO for an extra $16
It's the price of a pie and a drink at the footy.
Job done.
Thank you.

Yep, Im all for that. don't think many members would object to helping the club out this way.

Think the club should be preparing and tabling a vision of PRO as a decent VFL ground to take to the AFL and the gvt. I know clubs would like to play VFL at their own grounds, but if you work out a deal where they pay us a reasonable lease fee and then take the gate I don't think many would object especially if its before a big game.