Wright up to the challenge
15 September, 2004
Tony Greenberg
richmondfc.com.au
Steven Wright followed his heart – and his head – to the CEO’s post at Punt Road . . .
The 39-year-old former chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation admits that having Yellow and Black blood coursing through his veins did influence his decision to join Richmond in the crucial off-field role, however, it was not the sole reason.
“I’ve been a Tiger my whole life. I grew up with the No. 4 of Royce Hart on my back and his picture on my wall as a kid, I went along to the games, and I wrote to the Club encouraging Royce during his career,” Wright said on Sport 927’s ‘Tigers’ Club Corner’.
“But while the passion is there as a Tiger supporter, this was a decision made with my head as well.
“Looking at the Club and where it is now, I felt that I could make a contribution. You know, I’m never going to play centre half-forward for the ‘Tiges’, but if I can bring some of the business skills I’ve learned and help get the Club back on a strong financial setting and well set up, then I think the future’s very bright for Richmond. That’s why I’m here . . .”
Wright has wasted no time in rolling up his sleeves and getting stuck into the big challenge that lies ahead at Tigerland.
“Unfortunately, at the moment, we haven’t got the luxury of time, to be able to sit back, just settle in nicely into the chair and look around and watch the grass grow on Punt Road Oval,” he said.
“I’ve been spending all my time on the business operations, getting my head around the budget, the financial position of the Club, and working out how we’re going to take it forward. So, it’s been a pretty busy time.
“We’ve really been looking at ways of getting us back on a solid financial footing . . . that includes setting a budget that’s achievable – no revenue projections that are out of this world.
“And, from a cost point of view as well, we need to go through and make sure that every dollar we earn is being wisely spent.
“So, that’s what I’ve been doing for the last few weeks – going through each department, line by line and working out where they’ve been spending the money and where they can make savings. I’m quite confident we can make a big turnaround with the finances next year . . . Once we get some financial stability, which hopefully will be in the near future, we’ll certainly then be able to grow the Club and look forward to prosperity.
“You can’t have continued football success without solid financial foundations, and that’s really what my focus is at the moment, leaving Terry (Wallace) and Greg (Miller) to develop the football side of the business in the short term, before I’ve got time to work with them on that.”
Although Wright didn’t officially start duties at Richmond until about a month ago, he was part of the process that resulted in Terry Wallace being lured to Punt Road as coach. He spoke at length over the phone with Wallace while still overseas.
“I had a number of discussions with Terry before he accepted the job . . . At that point in time we hadn’t had a chance to meet each other in person, but we felt it was important that if we’re going to be working together for the revival of the Richmond Football Club, we needed to understand that we’re coming from the same direction.” Wright said.
“He and I had the same view of where we saw Richmond going, and how we were going to work together to maximise the Club’s potential, which was fantastic news . . . I was very, very pleased with our discussion.”
And, Wright is convinced the triple Hawthorn premiership player and former Bulldogs coach is the right man to turn around the fortunes of the 2004 wooden-spooners.
“Terry will be a great coach of Richmond. He has all the enthusiasm in the world, he’s got a strategic brain, and he’s very excited and looking forward to the job,” Wright said.
“I think there are a lot of Richmond fans out there who are seeing the changes being made at the Club, particularly with Terry coming in, as well as us having the early draft picks, and realising there’s a really bright future for the Tigers.
“So, I encourage all the supporters to buy their membership tickets when they come on sale in the next few weeks for 2005 and get on board the Tiges.”
The one area of the Club Wright stresses he will not be involved with, is the political battle between the incumbent Board, led by Clinton Casey, and the alternative ticket headed up by Charles Macek.
“I just want to make it clear where I stand on the political issue. I’m an employee of the Richmond Football Club, my loyalty is to the Club and it’s my job to make sure the Club is successful in everything we do,” he said.
“I’m not taking sides or getting involved in the politics between the current Board and the alternative group – it would be totally inappropriate to do so. As far as I’m concerned, my main focus is on developing and rebuilding the Richmond Football Club.”
Wright finished with an interesting analogy between Richmond and the Formula One industry that had previously been such a major part of his life.
“If you look at Formula One, you realise that up to 1998 Ferrari hadn’t won a championship for a long time,” he said.
“So, while you can be on the bottom for a number of years, and at the back of the grid, you can still work your way back to the top. That’s what we’ll be doing at Tigerland . . .”
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