I have questions.

[newman]

- Why was the budgeted figure for crowds (which seems to be the catalyst for this move) 13k? Our highest crowd average was 16k in 2004. This was an undefined anomoly. Even in the glory days of the mid 90s our best average was around the 12k mark. So the football club set down a budget which aside from 04 would have been a record, and did the least amount of game day promotion in recent memory to achieve it. Have we been set up?

- To those that support the move: This will be marketed in that we will only play low drawing, out of town teams up there at Tumbi Umbi. What happens if Us and the Warriors play out a match for the minor premiership in the late part of the season at Gosford? And we win. Imagine the draw that would have been down here? our biggest crowd last year was against the Raiders, who are considered a low draw. To me this doesnt make any sense and im angry.

- Where does Leagues club revenue fit into all this? Even when the crowd at the game is low, the club is PACKED before and after the game. This downturn in trade would surely hurt it. I dont believe any merch sales can offset the trade in booze, food and gaming.

- What if Zappia takes the job at Parra in six months? He is then the man that takes the club away from the shire and then pisses off with no accountability. He still lives in Fairfield, and his first love is Parramatta.

- The club OWNS the ground. How come this has become a millstone? Where are the plans to gain revenue out of renting it for other events? It will now be used 5 days out of 365. How do you then market signange, food contracting etc....

This is a nightmare for me.

 

[newman]

- This is a drastic move. Why was there no consultation with supporters and locals?

- The board just voted unanimously to do this but three weeks ago would even give ten minutes to discuss posibilities at a board meeting.

 

[cheese]

a'f*cking'men

not much of it adds up

it has to be the worst day in our history .....the ship is sailing, and the fat merkin let it happen

 

[King of the Hill]

- This is a drastic move. Why was there no consultation with supporters and locals?

- The board just voted unanimously to do this but three weeks ago would even give ten minutes to discuss posibilities at a board meeting.

Why spring this move so shortly after nominations for the board closed?

 

[newman]

very interesting point king.

 

[Fein]

- Why was the budgeted figure for crowds (which seems to be the catalyst for this move) 13k? Our highest crowd average was 16k in 2004. This was an undefined anomoly. Even in the glory days of the mid 90s our best average was around the 12k mark. So the football club set down a budget which aside from 04 would have been a record, and did the least amount of game day promotion in recent memory to achieve it. Have we been set up?

- To those that support the move: This will be marketed in that we will only play low drawing, out of town teams up there at Tumbi Umbi. What happens if Us and the Warriors play out a match for the minor premiership in the late part of the season at Gosford? And we win. Imagine the draw that would have been down here? our biggest crowd last year was against the Raiders, who are considered a low draw. To me this doesnt make any sense and im angry.

- Where does Leagues club revenue fit into all this? Even when the crowd at the game is low, the club is PACKED before and after the game. This downturn in trade would surely hurt it. I dont believe any merch sales can offset the trade in booze, food and gaming.

- What if Zappia takes the job at Parra in six months? He is then the man that takes the club away from the shire and then pisses off with no accountability. He still lives in Fairfield, and his first love is Parramatta.

- The club OWNS the ground. How come this has become a millstone? Where are the plans to gain revenue out of renting it for other events? It will now be used 5 days out of 365. How do you then market signange, food contracting etc....

This is a nightmare for me.

On a Souths forum I am a member of, we all lamented the apathy of the Sharks fans on the current situation across the forums we all frequent.

We also forum "high fived" on the fight we put up and where we are now.

Ask yourselves this Sharkies.

Why are YOU any different?

 

[SirShire]

- Why was the budgeted figure for crowds (which seems to be the catalyst for this move) 13k? Our highest crowd average was 16k in 2004. This was an undefined anomoly. Even in the glory days of the mid 90s our best average was around the 12k mark. So the football club set down a budget which aside from 04 would have been a record, and did the least amount of game day promotion in recent memory to achieve it. Have we been set up?

Who said it had to be realistic? It was probably a matter of necessity for them to budget at that average. Whether they would pull it off is another matter, as we found out.

My gripe is:
- where has the game day advertising/promotion been?
- why haven't they been targeting schools and community events with free tickets, anything to get punters in and spending $?
- why wasn't it disclosed that it was THIS bad well before round 1. We only heard whispers and had tidbits of information. Not the full blown picture of how bad it was.

- To those that support the move: This will be marketed in that we will only play low drawing, out of town teams up there at Tumbi Umbi. What happens if Us and the Warriors play out a match for the minor premiership in the late part of the season at Gosford? And we win. Imagine the draw that would have been down here? our biggest crowd last year was against the Raiders, who are considered a low draw. To me this doesnt make any sense and im angry.

In regards to the move, why the hell will low-mid level local corporates bother to renew sponsorship. The fact of the matter is that they sponsor for a night out on the turps every second week that is a 10 min cab ride from home.

Moving the CC may attract new sponsors, but will it come at the cost of local ones - that will be the final nail in the coffin for the team being Cronulla. Local sponsors will not pay the same money for 12 games when only 6 are at home and 5 are in CC with one away in SA. No way in the world. They are alreading getting the raw end of the stick with Sharks canning tickets to the season launch for Peter Burns stand sponsors.

- Where does Leagues club revenue fit into all this? Even when the crowd at the game is low, the club is PACKED before and after the game. This downturn in trade would surely hurt it. I dont believe any merch sales can offset the trade in booze, food and gaming.

$100k per match (if accurate) would easily surpass the $25k loss on gate receipts. I'm sure leagues takings would be nowhere near $125k. Spide?

- What if Zappia takes the job at Parra in six months? He is then the man that takes the club away from the shire and then pisses off with no accountability. He still lives in Fairfield, and his first love is Parramatta.

Rewind 2 years. Fitzy is still firmly in power at Parra. Zappia desperate for a gig. Why wasn't a contract FORCED on him?

- The club OWNS the ground. How come this has become a millstone? Where are the plans to gain revenue out of renting it for other events? It will now be used 5 days out of 365. How do you then market signange, food contracting etc....

This is a nightmare for me.

If the CC start pulling huge crowds, why would they come back?

The NRL license we have presumably doesn't absorb any of the debt. It would be easier to wind up the club and give the license to the CC to start afresh.

From where I stand, $8m for permanent relocation does squat for Cronulla Sharks fans.

 

[SirShire]

On a Souths forum I am a member of, we all lamented the apathy of the Sharks fans on the current situation across the forums we all frequent.

We also forum "high fived" on the fight we put up and where we are now.

Ask yourselves this Sharkies.

Why are YOU any different?

Ohh fugg off. Nothing makes me sicker than Bunnies fans patting themselves on the back.

Where were you scumbags when you were getting raped every weekend for 5 years before 2007?

Bunnies live off Rusty and his connections. You only come out now because you've unearthed some half decent talent and topped up the super funds for hacks like Kidwell.

 

[Fein]

Ohh fugg off. Nothing makes me sicker than Bunnies fans patting themselves on the back.

Where were you scumbags when you were getting raped every weekend for 5 years before 2007?

Bunnies live off Rusty and his connections. You only come out now because you've unearthed some half decent talent and topped up the super funds for hacks like Kidwell.

Your malice is misguided as I offer my point of view in sincerity - check my post history.

Yes, you are right, we do live off "privatisation" - it is the way of the future, in my opinion.

You blokes should be in a far stronger position than us given your "assets".

You don't strike me as a fighter SirShire.

It's what real men and women are made of.

Move aside and let the real people through.

It's the Sharks only hope.

 

[millersnose]

- Why was the budgeted figure for crowds (which seems to be the catalyst for this move) 13k? Our highest crowd average was 16k in 2004. This was an undefined anomoly. Even in the glory days of the mid 90s our best average was around the 12k mark. So the football club set down a budget which aside from 04 would have been a record, and did the least amount of game day promotion in recent memory to achieve it. Have we been set up?

you must have heard of the enormous pulling power of barrett

and now thw handbreak is gone and we are playing this champagne footy the crowds will be flocking

 

[blacktip-reefy]

- This is a drastic move. Why was there no consultation with supporters and locals?

They have been consulted. The poll was taken 7 times in 7 weeks. 7 thousand people were against the move. 243,000 couldnt give a f**k.

- The board just voted unanimously to do this but three weeks ago would even give ten minutes to discuss posibilities at a board meeting.

I received a txt from a forum member the night against the Raiders, with other forum members present. The txt read that the board was ready to jump to the central coast for 2009. Now that flies in the face of what Ricky Surace is saying as it being their idea, doesnt it.

Why spring this move so shortly after nominations for the board closed?

If you were advising the board on when to do it, what would your rec be? Not that I believe its that sinister.
In the end we are 6 weeks into the season & the winning & improvement has not taken place & that has translated into slashed crowd numbers.
If its not happening until 2009, then wouldnt it have made sense to make this unpopular with locals(voters) after the election?

 

[SirShire]

All that is true. But on the flipside, I don't think they stressed in the pre-season how bad the situation was. We only heard whispers every now and then - no official line from the club from really about after our first round or two.

Could 1 or 2 15k+ crowds made a difference? I don't think anything said would have gotten those numbers, but I think the club left its run a little late in stressing the seriousness of the issue. We all knew it wasn't good, but I think the majority thought they might get by to see the development approved, and then smooth sailing from there?

 

[blacktip-reefy]

you must have heard of the enormous pulling power of barrett

and now thw handbreak is gone and we are playing this champagne footy the crowds will be flocking

Well Millers it was a smart plan & a deliberate plan that hasn't paid off for a variety of reasons. Nothing to do with Baz though.
An awful lot has to do with uninspired fans that put up with the skill less limitations of a team playing with kimmorely for 6 years.
he choked the life out of our young players & our fans.
Yay. Nice inside ball. Yay nice 25 metre kick to space. Yay nice kick chase.

 

[blacktip-reefy]

Could 1 or 2 15k+ crowds made a difference?

Dramas off the field create dramas on the field. Tough call whether to publish the fact its players might not be getting paid.
Also, if you are creating confidence in creditors, its the last thing u want to do.
If a creditir is calling now, it would explain the apparent rush to gain guaranteed income & cash flow.

 

[samshark]

All that is true. But on the flipside, I don't think they stressed in the pre-season how bad the situation was. We only heard whispers every now and then - no official line from the club from really about after our first round or two.

Could 1 or 2 15k+ crowds made a difference? I don't think anything said would have gotten those numbers, but I think the club left its run a little late in stressing the seriousness of the issue. We all knew it wasn't good, but I think the majority thought they might get by to see the development approved, and then smooth sailing from there?

Not quite. Aside from media articles predicting our doom and other whispers Zappia did a fairly detailed interview in the Big League magazine prior to round 2 detaling the need for fans to turn up this year otherwise changes would have to be made. The article was fairly black and white.

As Reefy says, its hard to sound too desparate to the fans because you are trying to keep sponsors and creditors happy and win further corporate support. You aint gonna do this by sounding desperate. I think the message was put out there but the fans havent turned up.

 

[spider]

all good questions guys but the simple fact remains once the dust settles - if they stay put for all games - they fold

as for the conspiracy theories - meh

as for it being zappias fault - nah, zappia is the fall guy and link man to the NRL

if zappia called the shots then it doesnt go to the board room - simple

as for it only just coming to fruition - nah - known for years it was coming and poor administration IGNORED the telling signals - that is a real concern

BUT - as for when the light may have dawned - well...

CONCISE FINANCIAL REPORT FOR YEAR ENDED 31ST OCTOBER 2008​

many months ago​

now that is a long time ago imo - who is accountable?

WOW!​

 

[Inferno]

It seems to me, that the CC deal is contingent on the NRL also kicking in a little on top of the promised 100k on offer to play at Bluetongue.

If the NRL refuses (tonight I heard Gallop say the 8 million was for relocation and 5 games a season was not a relocation) could we instead look at playing at ANZ, at least it's bloody closer than the CC and also offers 100k.

The fact this has been agreed to before even getting a guarantee from the NRL makes me think this was a last minute thrown together proposal from the board.

 

[spider]

http://www.sharks.com.au/default.aspx?s=article-display&id=16243

The Cronulla Sharks have held talks with NRL boss David Gallop about the financial incentives to transfer five home fixtures to Gosford from 2010-2014. In addition to this, the Sharks are already committed to play one game in Adelaide until 2010.

However, the proposal is yet to be approved by the NRL in full.

 

[samshark]

It seems to me, that the CC deal is contingent on the NRL also kicking in a little on top of the promised 100k on offer to play at Bluetongue.

If the NRL refuses (tonight I heard Gallop say the 8 million was for relocation and 5 games a season was not a relocation) could we instead look at playing at ANZ, at least it's bloody closer than the CC and also offers 100k.

The fact this has been agreed to before even getting a guarantee from the NRL makes me think this was a last minute thrown together proposal from the board.

Whats to say we could even play out of ANZ at all. How many teams are there now? Souths, Bulldogs, Tigers. Cant see how it would be an open $100k cheque book for any team wanting to play there.

 

[Fuddy]

Our financial problems have been ongoing for years with highs and many lows - whatever options we look at we need an aim towards long-term viability.

The clubhouse in no Vegas of the south - it sits in the middle of nowhere for transport and rbt (although a wonderful introduction and much needed) reduced business considerably. Local residents complaining about everything to police and council didn't help much either. We do not have the Leagues Club generating the income of many others.

Get to the games all who can - we need to stand up to show that we will supprt the team at home!!