Where do I start?
- Board instability and joint venture complications?
- Lack of long-term strategic continuity?
- Stadium issues?
- Lack of fan and community engagement?
- Marketing and social media?
I went to a Red V members forum in January where they opened up the change rooms at Kogarah for 50 members for a Q+A with the coach and CEO.
I found the new CEO really impressive and he basically identified a lot of those issues.
- Club was an old boys club (I had a mate working in sponsorships who said it was boozy lunches every day). He's come in and basically turned over the whole back of office staff.
- Identified social media and engagement as a huge area for improvement. Brought in people from social media companies. I'm not on it but friends have said the content on fb and ig has definitely improved.
- Identified they were working on long time stadium issues and expect announcements soon. Then we saw the WIN 17m feasibility study and the Kogarah 15 year master plan. I don't think Kogarah is getting two new stands but at least they are trying.
- Said the 5-5-2 split for this year is most likely an ongoing thing. The corporates at Allianz is too good to pass up. Said our sponsorships, gate takings, jersey sales etc are similar to the big Sydney clubs but we get killed on corporates.
- Said expect a lot more of these fan things. Opening up the new centre of excellence for a fan opening, members meet and greets etc.
- Said they are a lot more professional in their negotiations with players these days. Stuff won't be getting leaked through the media and we are constantly looking to improve the roster as they know it needs to be.
I'm a St George based fan who has been a member at Kogarah for over 20 years but I can see a world where we only play 1 or 2 games there a year. I know it will piss off the R2K brigade but the state government isn't putting in money when it isn't state owned and we only play 5 games a year there at most.