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We all understand the issues ... however to me you are coming across as an anti MC zealot ... almost if he is the anti Christ almost everything he has done you have argued against [the unkind would say rant, the kind would say debate] ..
Even to the point of still saying we may be paying only $ 7, 500.00 per game and we need it cleared up ... as you have posted this figure has to be wrong...
Lets look at our position, lets look at his marketing, and lets look at what he trying to achieve...
I am the first to shout lets have more consultation, however my reading of the Tea Leafs ..
The Good Bits
The band, the cannon at the match, the cannon handout on match days ... brilliant ...
Memberships are a reasonable price ...
Not sure how much credit he can take for the band. Cannon and the Loose Cannon are good, nobody was claiming that they’re not.
Open for Discussion
Moving two games away and keeping 11 on the CC.... Provides a high degree of certainty pertaining to most games... the two away games are an attempt to spread the Mariner Gospel and get more folk to travel from NS on match days to the CC ... is this clever is it smart ... time will tell however it is also understandable and out in the open and leaves most games on the Coast..
There *isn’t* certainty about how many games he plans to take away from the Coast, only that there will be some.
The lack of certainty mixed with talk about spreading the gospel gets people reading between the lines and wondering if he simply means that the Coast isn’t big enough, and whether a permanent relocation is inevitable.
We remember the Bears and the Northern Eagles.
Unknown
What is unknown is what our financial position is what % of our crowd are Sydney based ... the 20% membership base if that carries tho to the crowd then more engagement with NS regions makes sense...
The stadium rental ... some huge issues as a rate payer I want the council to get the most rent it can for the stadium.. as a Mariner fan I want the cheapest rent ... IMO this is at the core of the argument and the Council want 10 million per game and MC wants the Council to pay the Mariners to play there ... well over the top however it is the driver behind this...
We have no idea whether the supposed 20% of Sydney members (and for what it’s worth, I’m probably one of them) *want* games in Sydney rather than Gosford.
There’s an open question – why did they become members in the first place, and what does that tell us about their future behaviour?
For me, it’s because despite where I live *at the moment*, I’m a Coastie. My loyalty is to the Central Coast. My loyalty to our club stems from the club being a Coastie club. f**k with that and you’re f**king with my loyalty to the club over nearly a decade.
On rent, if it’s $75k per game, it amounts to $975k per season. Going on numbers bandied around the place that suggest the average A-League club spends ~$8 million a year, it’s around 12% of total outlays.
For our incomes, we know we get a grant of about $2.5m per annum from the FFA through the TV deal, and if we were running a $1m loss (total guess) that still means we were making some $4.5m from sponsorships, matchday revenue, memberships and merchandise.
Even if we played at another stadium for free, and broke even that way, we’re then f**king around with the $4.5m of our income that is generated from our local market and the attachment we’ve made in the community.
Realistically, even if we got to the best case scenario (Adelaide United’s deal, rumoured to be about half of the $75k figure) we’re still only halving the deficit – saving 6% of outlays, but f**king around with 56% of our revenue.
We’re talking about f**king over 80% of our customers and mucking about with 56% of our revenue for the sake of a 6% saving!
Memo to CCMFC – get a better idea, that one stinks.
Our Position
As mentioned we don't know our position and I doubt we ever will ... however we have always struggled for money well before MC arrived ... the issue is not new it appears MC wants to get the club on a firm footing [which in and of itself is not a bad idea] ... His methods are open for question ... his debate vis Fairfax HHMMMMmmmm ...
What is known he has poured a lot of money into the club ... and without him at the time we were gone ...
Future
We have 11 out of 13 games on the Coast ... and that is good ... he could do a lot better on the marketing and consultation with fans...
If you feel so upset about the lost of two games and the management process as to withdraw your membership then so be it ... however that reaction reminds me of my mothers old say... Cutting off your nose to spite your face..
Good luck with your decision making and I hope you stay as a member as you post a lot of meaningful and well through out posts... and we all know your heart is in the right place and you bled yellow ... however if MC has you that upset then so be it...
I get that we struggled for money before he arrived. I get that he has committed a lot of cash to the club.
But seriously, you’re an accountant, if I'm getting any of this wrong then let me know.
Let’s say he bought the club for $6 million (as in, that’s what left his wallet, combining the cost of taking on the equity *and* the debt) and he’s stumped up another $2 million in operating losses. He only had a licence guaranteed for another year or two.
If he’s a businessman’s little toe, he would only have bought the club if he’d done his due diligence and seen that he’s getting some value there – there’s a sale price he can get down the track.
With a repaired balance sheet, he’s now looking at the profit/loss and trying to repair that. Fine. That means he’s got an ongoing drain.
But we’ve got a cash vs asset issue here.
Future prospects have brightened considerably since he came in. For a start, the TV deal put $600k a year into the bottom line that wasn’t there before. That’s a big structural improvement.
I understand we’ve also made some changes to what we do with the stadium that have cut some costs too – perhaps bringing our break-even crowd under 10k.
Lastly the licences are all extended by 20 years to 2034 (largely in response to his urging!).
We’re now in a situation where very likely the next TV deal will include financing expansion of the league again, and we’re guaranteed a spot for 20 years.
The intrinsic value of the club (and therefore a potential sale price) has just gone up considerably. His asset is appreciating due to basic changes to how we operate and how the league operates.
If he wants to sell, in all likelihood he’ll make back his money and more, but if he wants to stay but needs some help on the cash supply, it’s also far more likely he could find another investor to come in and share the load.
Why would he go screwing with the most fundamental thing about the business – where the club plays – in the context of a rapidly improving business situation?
