Prove it by the things you do

[imported_Clan McLean]

>'The Dragons have also actively supported unsuccessful development
>proposals for new stadiums in the St George district over the last
>twelve months and the option of returning to Kogarah Oval for some
>games in 2002 was also considered. However after detailed
>investigation it was found that the same obstacles were in place
>that saw the Dragons relocate to the SFS in 2000," said Doust.'
The above statement from our CEO was on the official website. How can
it be said that the Dragons actively supported the development
proposals for new stadiums in the St.George district over the last 12
months? Talking about playing out of a stadium when and if it gets
built is not active support. Not promoting the issue on your website,
until it is dead and buried, is not active support. Sitting back and
taking a 'wait and see' approach is not active support.
To me, active support would have entailed at least some of the
following:
* A page on the Dragons website to promote the issue and to keep
supporters updated on the progress of Barton Park.
* An official alliance with the St.George Soccer Association. The
St.George Soccer Association is hardly flushed with funds, so the
Leagues Club should have come on board as a major sponsor. At least
this would have helped pay for the concept plans and the day-to-day
running costs that Bill Bariamis has had to incur as a result of the
development applications. If we can make a six-figure investment in
the Wollongong Hawks, why can't we make the same investment to
St.George Soccer who are at least attempting to get the Dragons back
in the St.George area?
* Staging information nights at the Leagues Club to keep everyone
informed and to rally support. The speakers could have included
Doust, Peter Bryant from Rockdale Council, Cherie Burton, Robert
McClelland and Bill Bariamis.
* Making a financial commitment to a St.George homeground fund. Once
again, if we can invest in something trivial like a basketball side,
why can't we make an investment in something that is important like a
St.George homeground. In order for this to happen the
insular 'software not hardware' philosophy would need to be abandoned.
* Establishing a fund supporters could contribute to. This could have
been set up with a fallback plan. i.e. If the development fell over
the funds would be donated to a fund to improve the facilities at
Jubilee Oval.
* Encouraging all stakeholders to write to Rockdale Council and
support the St.George Soccer Association's development.
* Establishing a St.George homeground committee. This could have
included Soccer, Leagues & individuals who were involved in R2K.
These are just some ideas that would have constituted 'active
support'. If these had been put into practice by Peter Doust they
would have made Barton/Cahill Park more of high-profile public issue
and it would have increased its chance of success. To say that you
have actively supported something when there is no evidence to back
it up is extremely wrong. Prove it by the things you do!

 

[Willow]

Excellent post Clan.
It would have been more accurate for the club to say:
'We have been sitting on hands throughout this whole proposal. It has been in our interests to only release vague details because in reality, we want to see the Dragons eventually move completely away from the St George district.'
Now, if Peter Doust had said that, I would have believed him.

 

[Willow]

(I put this post up on another thread but I think it just as appropiate in this thread):

When the western grandstand at Kogarah was built in the late 80s, it was done with Council money and the agreement was that St George were responsible for the upkeep of the stand and the ground. Apart from some plumbing and grass maintenance, the club did very little and the stand fell into disrepair.
Now the club are asking the council and even the local soccer club to fund a Kogarah upgrade. The council is reluctant to go down that road again.
But all this raises even more questions...
We have a footy ground that was maintained for 40 years and served us better than any other home ground (St George were undefeated there for 13 years from 1954-66). The ground was modernised in 1987-89 but in less than 10 years it has rotted
away to such a degree that it is now considered a write off !
So what happened in the 1990s? It's not like we're talking about a club which is short of a quid here.

Quite frankly, this is the sort of thing that deserves more scrutiny and an investigation shouldn't be out of the question.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Willow, i may have been dreaming, but the St George club (or was it Illawarra, im a bit vague on details) posted an 8m profit last week. That is huge in any mans language, although i would be assuming that a fair whack of that money would be going towards the improvements down at WIN. If anyone has specific details, please add it because i only caught a snippet of the story....

Willow, was the grandstand modernised during 87-89?? If so, there must have been some terribly shonky building and construction going on during that period. It bloody well deserves an investigation, something went terribly wrong if the grandstand went out the backdoor within 10yrs....

MFC.

 

[Willow]

They're a rich club MFC. Making money has always been something they've done fairly well. I understand that the club owns or controls a fair bit of real estate.
I don't know about this $8 million profit. I do know that $8 million is being spent of putting new seating into WIN stadium by March 2002. This money is coming from a government grant. Perhaps this is what you mean in which case it's not club money.

 

[imported_TaxiDriver_]

It was in the papers last Sunday, the Saints leagues club made an 8 million profit and the Steelers are expecting a profit of just a bit less.

Conservatively 15 million between the two and we can't get a Sydney home ground or a freakin' half back.

 

[imported_youngie]

Well said Clan,
The club obviously has no commitment to a home ground in Saint George. I am confident that if the club really wanted to play out of Kogarah we would be now.
The club is just feeding all it's supporters bullshit in the hope that we will be quite and weakly allow our team to be moved away from our heartland into Wollongong.

I don't know what we can do to stop them but we can not allow the club to wrench us from Sydney without putting up a fight. To say I am unhappy with the club at the moment is an extreme understatement.

Taxi Driver, The club obviously has a lot of money, they just do not want to spend it on a half or a home ground. I'm glad we didn't sign Kimmorley, but we do need some new blood (especially in the backrow). It just seems the club would rather upgrade WIN stadium and pump large amounts of money into a Wollongong based basketball team. Absolutely ridiculous!

 

[Willow]

Taxi Driver:
I didn't read it in the papers but I'm not surprised. I've always assumed that the club has loads of money and was very disappointed when I read a council document which outlined the lack of consideration the club gave Kogarah during the 1990s.
I can tell you now thatit would have only taken a skerrit of committment from the club and we wouldn't even be having this discussion.
Who was the CEO throughout this time? Geoff Carr, right? Wasn't he also instrumental in trying to see Saints being absorbed by Easts?
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'd sayCarr's office was the spot where the buck stopped way back then.
Brian Johnston inherited it all and appears to have done nothing to reverse the pattern. Although in all fairness he had more than his fair share of player issues before he had to resign due to health reasons.
Unfortunately, the current regime of Peter Doust seems hell bent of on putting the final nails into the Kogarah coffin.

 

[imported_Saint_Benny1]

i'd rather play all the games in the gong and be called the StGeorge Illawarra dragons than all in sydney and have our name in jeopardy!

 

[thekellygang]

This is the first time I have posted here, so if I do something wrong please forgive me. Benny there is no risk to our name if we stay in Sydney, only if we drift from here. We have been in Sydney for 80 years and that is where most of our support is when it comes to merchandise and ticket sales. We can't let go of Sydney, even while we build up the Gong. Why? Because there used to be a team fulltime in Wollongong and they went bust. And the same people responsible are now still calling some shots. As Paul Keating once said about Australia "If you're not in Sydney you are camping out". No offence meant to anyone living elsewhere, it's just that Sydney has a population of 4-5 million and it is the heartland of Rugby League. We will be leaving Sydney at our own peril.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Hey there KellyGang,
No need to worry, in that first post alone you made more sense then most of us ever will! I totally agree with that saying about Sydney, it is the heartland of the country, its the big end of town and St George would be more likely to survive long-term if they stuck in Sydney in some shape or form.....
MFC.

 

[ozbash]

greetings kellygang. good to see you here....

"If you're not in Sydney you are camping out". No offence meant to anyone living elsewhere, it's just that Sydney has a population of 4-5 million and it is the heartland of Rugby League. We will be leaving Sydney at our own peril.

sydney has gone out of its way to kill an international game. it has tried to take control of something which they are hopelessly inept at managing.

if sydney gets its way ,there will be no more internationals,SOO, or world club challenges .all that will be left is the self glorified nswrl comp.
we cant let that happen.

the heartland of rugby league is north, (qld, png,great britian) or east (nz and the pacific islands)

sydney has already shown what it can do.......

 

This message has been deleted by the author.

 

[thekellygang]

Rats! Try again.
Wow, things move pretty quick around here. Thanks for your comments MFC. Ozbash, I take your points about the past. Things were poorly handled and hopefully there will be more concern about the big picture ...oooops nearly said "Vision".
But you have to agree the idea of keeping the bulk of fans in the greater Sydney area, which includes Central Coast, Newcastle and Illawarra makes more sense than just trying to get new ones.
But that shouldn't stop trying to get new ones though.
Maybe the rationalisation Moffat was working on will happen and
1) Set up some goals that can be achieved in regional areas
2) Shore up Sydney support to fund those goals
3) get rid of a raft of administration that if, lets face it, was private enterprise, would have been pensioned off, restructure, reinvigorated, refocused and reengineered years ago. By this I mean "Sack the Geoff Carr's and Ross Livermore's and David Barnhil's of this world".
Long Live League

 

[imported_youngie]

My stance on the uneven split of home games between the 'Gong and Sydney has softened somewhat when I realised that our away games against the Roosters and Souths will still be played at our "home" ground the SFS. So it does end up being an even split for fans, and is probably the fairest thing for Wollongong fans.

However we do miss out on valuable revenue from the larger Sydney crowds, and we should be playing at Kogarah anyway.