https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/ca...180907-p502bw.html?crpt=homepage&crpt=article
Canterbury have suffered a huge blow with one of their biggest and most enduring sponsors terminating its association with the Bulldogs in reaction to the club’s Mad Monday scandal.
Electronics company Jaycar has been a key backer of the Bulldogs since 2009 and for many of those years was the club’s major front-of-jersey sponsor.
The partnership, worth around $500,000 a season to Canterbury, is now over, however, after Jaycar’s owner and founder Gary Johnston decided his company could no longer be associated with the Bulldogs following the events of Monday night in The Rocks.
“Unfortunately, I just could not ignore this behaviour," Johnston told the
Herald on Friday.
Johnston intends to float the company on the stock exchange and has told Canterbury chief executive Andrew Hill and chair Lynne Anderson that it needs a spotless reputation to be accepted by the share-buying public.
He said he was disappointed that the club had "not bothered to contact us over this matter to explain their side of the story – if there is one."
“Even though the Canterbury members kicked out the old club administrators and voted a new mob
in I’m not sure that things have improved," he said.
“My wife Kerry, who is a welded-on Bulldogs fan, and I wish the Dogs all the best for the future. A
strong Canterbury NRL team makes for a strong competition and I’m sure they will bounce back.”
The Bulldogs have paid an enormous price for their post-season celebrations after photos of two players dancing naked in the Harbour View Hotel in The Rocks were taken from outside the pub and published by News Corp, along with other pictures of players vomiting on the street.
The NRL slapped a $250,000 fine on Canterbury, which in turn fined four players – Adam Elliott ($25,000), Asipeli Fine ($25,000), Marcelo Montoya ($10,000) and Zac Woolford ($10,000) – a combined $70,000. Elliott and Fine were also charged by police with wilful and obscene exposure and will face court next month.
The penalties and the split with their sponsor comes with Canterbury League Club under financial strain, with debt having increased due to a club development, raising the prospect of grants to the football club being decreased.
The loss of Jaycar, whose logo this season featured on the back of the Bulldogs jumper, is a significant setback and indicates how much of a battering the club’s image has received this week.
Ironically, Johnston’s company had begun sponsoring Canterbury nearly a decade ago when few others in the corporate sector wanted anything do with the Bulldogs after a series of controversies, including the Coffs Harbour and salary-cap scandals, not to mention the exit of Sonny Bill Williams and their collection of the 2008 wooden spoon.
In an effort to restore the brand, the club’s then chief executive, Todd Greenberg, went as far as to offer children’s cancer charity Camp Quality the front of their jersey in 2009 for free.
Johnston stood by the Bulldogs after another Mad Monday embarrassment following their grand final appearance in 2012 when it was claimed that a female Channel 9 reporter was subjected to sexist and vulgar comments.
The Jaycar managing director on that occasion took aim at the media outlet for having a camera crew stationed outside Belmore Oval during the festivities, saying the network had simply assumed that the remarks picked up by their microphone were directed at the female reporter.
“We overlooked the trouble the Dogs got into a few years ago now, because we thought it was a
Channel 9 beat-up," Johnston said. "But we are planning to float the company on the stock exchange in the near future and we really need to distance ourselves from any sort of grubby behaviour.”
GARY JOHNSTON'S RESIGNATION LETTER TO BULLDOGS
Dear Lynne & Andrew,
As you can imagine, it was difficult not to be made aware of the incident at the Harbour View Hotel
on Monday Sept 3 at the Rocks in Sydney. It was very embarrassing to see our company logo feature
so prominently in newspaper coverage.
What you may not be aware of, is Jaycar’s intention to float the company on the Australian Stock
Exchange in the near future. We have been advised by experts that we must have a spotless
reputation in every way to be accepted by the share buying public.
As a private company I have ignored Canterbury’s Mad Monday antics in the past.
Because of the upcoming changing status of our company in the near future, I simply cannot ignore
what happened last Monday and the inevitable association with our company’s reputation.
It is with deep regret, therefore, that I wish to advise you that my company, Jaycar Pty Ltd and all of
its associated entities withdraws its sponsorship support of all Canterbury teams effective
immediately.
My wife Kerry & I have developed considerable affection for the club over the years, and, frankly even though we probably would have preferred the status quo staff wise, we completely understand and respect the members decision to act the way they did and try a new broom.
We sincerely hope that your efforts will be rewarded with success in 2019.
R.I.P. Mad Monday.
