Interesting idea. Initially, RT you mention an income donation (tax) - I don't think there is anyway the donations could be considered a Taxable donation - if that's what you are suggesting( ???
I am not sure on that - sorry if I've read that wrong).
my plan is a debt plan..aimed at knocking off the $4 million we owe.
I think we are getting blinded by this "$4 million" debt. That is our current "cash liabilities" (or current liablilities) predominantly a bank overdraft which is granted, a pain because it would attract a big interest bill.
However, most businesses operate with some sort of overdraft system and the RFC is not different. The amount of the overdraft would vary during different parts of the year. At this time of the year it would be higher than say - April when it is peek membership time. IMV it is not possible for a footy club or any business that is tunring over $20+ million a year not to require at sometime some form of overdraft. Could you imagine the outcry if all these people put in all this money and the financials at the end of the year said - Bank overdraft = $1 million or even $500K.
But as I have said on a number of times our total assets over total liablilities is deficient by about $600-700k. IF we make a profit this year of say $100k then our total overall debt will be about $500-600K. Compare this to the likes of the Bulldogs, North and Melbounre and things are not as gloomy as they the story in the paper the other day makes out.
I understand the point in the article that Steven Wright made and I agree we have to reduce that debt but I just don't think it is a easy a raising $4 million and saying we have no more debt. Ultimately the RFC is a business
Don't get me wrong I'd be happy to contribute - but I have reservations that people may think that once all this money is raised that the end of the hard work of making the "business" work is over
beyond that id contribute further but only if the money is used to buy property around Richmond and the CBD
The last club that I remeber buying losts of real estate was Collingwood when Allan McAllister was president. He convinced the Pies board to buy up all these properties around Victoria Park - it was a disaster - they made massive losses on the prpoerties and nearly sent the club broke - can be a very risky venture
A few years back they used to have people pledge money for every win the club had and you could put in $5, $10, $20 whatever. I did it for a couple of years, but that was when we were only winning one or two games a year lol. Maybe they shuold reintroduce something like that as well - wouldn't hurt and is an incentive for the club to keep on winning i guess.
I am pretty sure they tried to do that to raise funds for the JDF in the last few years but I don't think it's been very successful - IIRC they were looking for pleadges of $100 per win